Lion Brand – Yards of Happiness

FO: Rainbow Askews Me Shawl

I love knitting rainbows. It’s fun to do the color changes and to see how the rainbow will really evolve in the pattern you’ve chosen. They make me smile and I swear I get asked more about what I’m knitting when it’s something super colorful. So after enjoying knitting the last Askews Me Shawl I decided to knit one for myself and with a rainbow yarn.

I saw this fun Lion Brand Mandala yarn in a great rainbow and picked up two skeins. One skein alone has 590 yards so it’s perfect for this shawl, I used almost the entire skein so I got a full rainbow (and a rainbow on the floor as I was photographing it!). I decided to balance my rainbow with a neutral so I finally frogged my Flax cardigan of it’s Cascade 220 Superwash in Doeskin Heather and I think it’s a perfect balance.

This is a great fall scarf and travel wrap. It’s big and cuddly and warm and can really be wrapped around you (or you dog). Below is the right side, although with brioche knitting it’s reversible but by definition this is the right side. The light camel color is the main color but the rainbow still really pops out behind it.

But of course I love the side where the color is more dominant. I always love the wrong side of brioche. I don’t know why.

Fall starts this week and I’m ready for chilly mornings so I can wear scarves and hats. I’ve even got a lovely yellow hat I’m excited to pair with this scarf, it’ll be such a happy combination. When everyone is on the train wearing black and grey coats I’m always standing out with bright and happy color.

And I think Jellybean thinks this is probably the perfect wrap to go with her banana button down shirt. I just won’t tell her it’s for me.

FO: Karite Hat in Black

I rarely knit in black. It’s hard to see your stitches and it’s even harder to photograph. But whenever I knit a thank you gift for someone I typically ask what color they want so when I asked one of my class guest speakers if she’d like a hat she said yes and in black.

So I decided if it’s going to be black, it should have some texture and interest to it and I settled on the Karite hat and I used Lion Brand Heartland yarn in Black Canyon so it would be washer and dryer friendly. I actually made the Karite hat once before in a fun rainbow acrylic yarn but was shamed for making it in acrylic by a knitting instructor/pattern designer so I hadn’t made it again. Her comments left a bad taste in my mouth.

But the thing is it’s one of my favorite and most worn (and warm) hats! I decided to let go of the yarn shaming vibes and make someone else a really good hat for the cold weather. And after whipping it up I realized I needed to make a new one for myself in a solid color. I recently ordered myself a new winter coat (Land’s End has some of the best sales and the best cold weather coats) and I will definitely need a new hat and set of flip top mitts to coordinate. And I’m sure my gift recipient will be super happy to get something that’s hand made.

December 22, 2017December 21, 2017 by IamDWJ Categories: Color, FO: Finished Object, Hats, Knitting, Lion Brand, neutral (black/grey/white), YarnTags: #yardsofhappiness, black yarn, Karite hat, knitting, Knitting FO, knitting with black, Yarn 9 Comments

FO: The Road Trip Hat

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen in my Instagram stories that I shared our road trip for Thanksgiving. My husband and I packed up Cher and Jellybean and drove from Maryland to Memphis, Tennessee. Are we crazy? Perhaps.

On the way there we broke it up a bit stopping after 12 hours in Nashville for the night. The next morning we hit the road to Memphis.

Cher loves car rides and her cushy seat in the car. Jellybean does not. So on the way home I ended up holding her for about 4 hours since we did a straight drive home. It ended up taking up a little over 16 hours to get back because of traffic but we survived.

While I was on the road I decided I’d make a hat for my cousin Amelia that she asked for last year. It’s a pattern I’ve made a million times before,Dreiecke by Shannon Cook. I started it that morning…

And before I crashed for the night at the hotel I had reached the point of making decreases. In the morning we weren’t in a rush and my husband had a little work to do so after we walked the dogs and had breakfast I finished it off before we headed to Memphis.

The yarn is Lion Brand Heartland in Joshua Tree, a pretty olive green and it also has a Lion Brand pom pom I picked up from Amazon last year – note if you search for them on their site they have some fun colors and on clearance too! As for the trip with the dogs…

I already know Jellybean is slow to adapt to new environments and change so there was a lot of Bean holding. I also brought my little sling sack I carry her in and she would happily slide in and take a nap or just quietly observe hanging from my back. She’d be so quiet you’d almost forget she was in there until she started to wiggle around or readjust.

And Cher, as long as she has a blanket and someone to rub her belly when she rolls over she’ll go wherever we go. She’s such a trooper. And since I finished the hat so quickly I was able to start my next project!

My husband’s sweater is now almost to the point of separating for sleeves! But more on that later. Did you have a good Thanksgiving?