travel knitting – Yards of Happiness

Knitting While Traveling

I own three sizes of addi Flexiflip needles, they’re like a hybrid between a circular needle and double pointed needles. I bought them in sizes 6, 7 and 8. The sizes I seem to use the most for hats and sweaters anticipating using them for sleeves. I ordered them online since my local yarn shop sold out of them very quickly and waited patiently for them to arrive due to backorder. I packed them with me on my flight to Vegas so I could finish that one sleeve I had left for my test knit…

Only one needle made it to Las Vegas. I’m pretty sure they probably came out of my bag as I was looking for a crochet hook to fix a dropped stitch. And to make it even worse…that one needle didn’t even make it back from Vegas! I lost it somewhere in our hotel suite (we stayed at the Venetian and it was absolutely beautiful). I found one pair left on Amazon and ordered them and they sent me size 3’s by mistake! Clearly I’m not meant to have these.
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On the bright side it gave me an excuse to go to Sin City Knit Shop to buy double points and of course some yarn. I grabbed some of the Katia cotton and merino blend yarn I’ve wanted to try and some of their local yarn in a fun colorway. Perhaps these will become a fun brioche project? The shop was nice and had tons of people knitting in there! I love visiting warm and welcoming spots. I’d definitely say give them a visit if you’re in Vegas.

FO: Louisville Knits

I’ve been working on so many little projects and have taken a bunch of random photos so I thought I’d collect a few similar things into one post to share my finished objects. Sound like a plan?

Typically whenever I see my girlfriend Salina I like to take her a crafty gift because we gift handmade things to each other all the time. You might remember the hat I made for her when we went to New Orleans a while ago. Well, I had the same colorway of the Madlinetosh yarn, Spectrum, in the bulky weight that I had waited forever to do something with for her. So I decided to knit her a cowl.
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I picked up the Beginners Brioche Cowl when it was free on Ravelry and used it as a guide to knit Salina a two color brioche cowl in the car on the way to Louisville. It only took me a few hours. I cast on more stitches that required to make it a bit bigger and looser and liked the finished look. I used the blue and purple yarn mixed with a skein of Mighty Stitch Bulky in silver. It was a great contrast and insanely soft. And I also decided her daughter Alexandra needed a cowl too but I wanted to do a bolder color palette and a little something different.
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So I made her the fun Worsted Brioche Bandana Cowl and used the leftover yarn I had from my Happy Little Sweater. I love this Indian Corn colorway from the Lemonade Shop and wanted to put what I had left in a fun project. I contrasted it with some Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash in Columbine Heather, a reddish purple, I had in my stash.
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I think Alexandra will enjoy this little cowl since she’s always cold. It’s cute to wear with her purple coat or just on its own. And while we were in Louisville, Salina took me to Fiber and Friends a cute little yarn shop in La Grange, Kentucky. The ladies in this shop were so warm and inviting. They were taking my coat off for show and tell so they could see my knits! I definitely suggest if you’re in the area to pop on in. And while we were there Salina fell in love with a pom pom so I suggested she pick out some yarn and I would make her a hat to go with it. She picked up this really beautiful Berroco Millefiori BIG yarn in a purple and blue colorway. I knew immediately that one skein would be perfect for the Purl Soho pattern Super Soft Merino Hats for Everyone. It doesn’t take much yarn and I was able to whip it up in about 3 hours.
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I’m so addicted to brioche knitting…you’re going to see these two patterns again very soon. I’ve got some wilder color combos coming that I made for myself!

February 26, 2018February 26, 2018 by IamDWJ Categories: Berroco, blue, Brioche, Color, Cowls & Scarves, FO: Finished Object, Hats, Knit Picks, Knitting, Madelinetosh, multi, purple, Techniques/Stitches, The Lemonade Shop, YarnTags: #yardsofhappiness, brioche knitting, knit cowl, travel knitting, Yarn 9 Comments

Stitching Status: Travel Brioche

I’m traveling this week for an annual trade show for work that is always hectic, slightly stressful and full of long days. But I always take knitting with me to try to soothe my nerves and wind down after a long work day. I decided to take two projects with me, my Comfort Fade Cardigan so I could make progress on the body and a new project, a Stephen West Brio-Garter Hat.

I’ve been itching to do something else with 2 color brioche since I finished my sister’s vest but I wanted to take it to the next level. I watched some YouTube videos before I got on the plane about brioche stitch increases and decreases…yeah I didn’t have it down. LOL But this hat starts with an i-cord and then you pick up stitches so it was easy to keep frogging it and starting over once I had already created the i-cord.
Brio-garter hat
I think I started this over 5 times before I realized that in brioche knitting, the stitch with the yarnover that you knit together is consider ONE STITCH. Oops! After that it was easy but that doesn’t mean I didn’t make mistakes. I’d start with the wrong color or start purling instead of knitting or do a left decrease instead of a right decrease. Despite my mistakes, I finished a lovely hat the other night that taught me a lot in the process. Even with my mistakes it looks really good! I’ll have to take proper pics once I get back home. And speaking of back home…of course I miss my husband but I’m definitely missing these fuzzy butts.
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But I’ll be home soon! Now during down time I’m trying to figure out what my next brioche project should be!