orange – Page 2 – Yards of Happiness

FO: A Trio of Rainbow Tecumsehs

This might be the happiest trio of knits I’ve made to date. I love a good rainbow and I love my dogs so when I combined dogs, rainbows and hand knits I knew it would be a great combo. I’m happy to say I completed my trio of Tecumseh sweaters and couldn’t be happier. And let me say that taking pictures of dogs is sooooo hard. LOL
Rainbow Tecumsehs
First up, let’s talk about my Rainbow Tecumseh sweater. After knitting my cotton version I knew I wanted the body of my next Tecumseh sweater to be longer. I also thought it would be fun to make the pattern into a rainbow. I ended up settling with the body in a lovely navy blue Miss Babs Yowza in McHales. If you haven’t used Yowza you really should give it a try, I love how soft it is and that you can machine wash it. I was able to knit all the way to the end of the dark purple colorwork before my skein of Yowza ended. I love gigantic skeins of yarn. And for the rainbow I used the following colors:

Red: Berroco Vintage DK Sour Cherry
Orange: Berroco Vintage DK Orange
Yellow: Berroco Vintage DK Banane
Green: Berroco Vintage DK Holly
Blue: Berroco Vintage DK Blue Note
Indigo/Purple: Simplicity by Hikoo in Red Hat Purple
Violet: Berroco Vintage DK Aster
White: Berroco Vintage DK Snow Day

Rainbow Tecumsehs I was unsure how I was going to keep the rainbow going to extend it but I swapped out the lavender I was originally going to use for a deeper purple in my stash and then went with lavender and white for the final colors. I couldn’t be happier. I also knit this sweater in a medium this time around, which is closer to my natural bust size so I wouldn’t have a sweater with a ton of ease. And for the dog versions I broke the rainbows in half. You saw the details on Jellybean’s Tecumseh last week.
Rainbow Tecumsehs
For Cher’s I decided to go with red for the main color of her sweater, I was going to do the pale yellow but wanted a bolder pop for her sweater. She wasn’t super interested in taking photos even after giving her treats so that’s why you see her resting her head on my arms. My sweet girl is 14 years old and likes things her way and I don’t like to fuss with her too much. With age, she’s earned that right.
Rainbow Tecumsehs
But to my surprise I turned around and she was sitting nicely with Jellybean posing in her sweater so I got to snap a few pics. I love these little dogs so much.

And Jellybean, well she’s always down for photos and snuggles. I sent my husband these pics and he said this should just be our Christmas card without him! LOL But I’m working on something for him for winter that will probably be what he wears for our holiday pics. I couldn’t be more tickled by these sweaters and I love seeing what color combos everyone else is coming up with in our Raverly group too! Come and join in on the Tecumseh fun!

Test Knit: La Briohème cardigan

I know, I know. I start a knitalong and then take on a test knit in between but that’s also the reason why I don’t have a deadline on the knitalong – we all get distracted! And this time I was distracted by a really good project, the La Briohème cardigan by Knit Graffiti (my Ravelry project page).
La Brioheme
Let’s consider this my virtual Rhinebeck sweater because if I was going this weekend (I am not) I would totally be wearing this. I jumped on the chance to test knit this one for a couple of reasons – I love brioche and have wanted a brioche cardigan that wasn’t completely brioche and overwhelmingly hot, I like Knit Graffiti’s patterns so I was happy to test knit AND I had the yarn I needed in my stash. It was a perfect storm. Since brioche knitting is double sided it creates a super warm fabric. To have a full brioche sweater would be a bit suffocatingly warm, I think, but this is a perfect balance.
La Brioheme
The closest I could get to you seeing the true vividness of this color was to try and photograph this in the shade. I used Knit Picks Mighty Stitch worsted in the color Conch (a really vivid coral – and all Mighty Stitch is on sale for the month of October) and Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in Clue Board from 1985, a wonderful mix of blues, greens, corals and pinks. I pulled this color combo together by chance. I was putting yarn combos together with the quantities I needed and seeing what worked. I loved the brightness and I love blues and peaches together so I went with it. It’s got orange, blue, green, pink…all the colors I like to wear. And the Mighty Stitch yarn is so soft and cozy ya’ll. Added bonus, I blocked this by putting it in the washing machine on gentle cycle with cold water and it held up beautifully. I know some people absolutely hate yarns with acrylic in them like Mighty Stitch but it’s affordable and perfect for my climate. In short, knit with what you love and forget what anyone else says. Okay, back to the sweater.
La Brioheme
I will admit, it isn’t a perfectly executed knit on my part. I made a couple of mistakes with my brioche but honestly that was my fault for working when I was getting sleepy, or drinking a little wine, or because a dog stepped on my stitches and that created a bit of a mess. But with brioche I feel like it hides those tiny mistakes and still looks pretty awesome. Also, how else would you know it was hand knit if it didn’t have a mistake or two? It’s still good enough for me to wear and wear it I will!
La Brioheme
And if you’re curious here is the entire look, pretty typical layers for this time of year. And of course I pair a bright sweater with bright pants and metallic shoes (they’re Bryr clogs, Sophie with the kilt in rose gold). But I can also throw this on with jeans or a skirt too. It’ll be a fun pop in my wardrobe. So anyone else interested in giving this knit a try? I can already see myself making a darker version in grey with neon brioche!

October 19, 2018October 18, 2018 by IamDWJ Categories: blue, Color, FO: Finished Object, green, Knit Picks, Knitting, Madelinetosh, orange, Sweaters, Yarn 16 Comments

FO: A Teeny Tiny Tecumseh

I’ve been super busy and finished up my Mom’s birthday knit and a really awesome test knit I’ll get to share this week. So I’m back on my Tecumseh knitting mojo. And so this weekend I decided since I had so little left to go I needed to finish Jellybean’s Teeny Tiny Tecumseh sweater.
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Beanie was NOT interested in letting me take real pictures this weekend so these are as good as they will get. LOL Since knitting a sweater for a 6lb chihuahua doesn’t leave me a ton of surface area you may notice I had to alter the leaf pattern a bit from the standard Tecumseh chart. You still get the general idea of what it looks like.
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I was also proud of myself because I used short rows this time to shape the shorter front and make the back a bit longer and curve around her body!

I think that’s probably what I’m most proud of with this one. I used the same colors of the rainbow that are in my sweater and decided to make her body in the lavender color I was originally going to use for my purple but swapped out for a darker shade. And since I can only fit four colors on a dog sweater, Cher’s version will start with blue and go into red and the main body will be light blue.
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For the most part my knitting bores her. Clearly. But it was so chilly this weekend that I felt extra motivated to get her in this. We even went for a little car ride and she was nice and cozy in her sweater (Cher is fine with just a t-shirt layer on right now, but once it gets in the 30s we put sweaters on her too).
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And even though my husband calls her a tiny grandma in her hand knits I think she’s cozy and cute as pie. Totally worth the time and effort. And I’m knocking out the sleeves on my version so I can finish up my trio of Tecumsehs!