Cozy Memories

Sock yarn is my all-time favorite weight of yarn to work with. Be that as it may, I have a lot of remnants from socks and other fingering weight projects, mostly shawls. I first started with a Beekeepers quilt and quickly realized that it would be too hot for California AND I had to seam all the pieces together....That was a no-go for me.

I started my sock yarn scrap blanket (cozy memory) is April of 2015. I'm using a US 3 nameless metal double points and casting on/picking up 16 stitches per each side. My squares are pretty tiny but they don't take much time to make.

I'm not really following any specific pattern, I K2TOG in the middle and K2TOG through the back loop after the stitch marker. I really like the way they come together down the middle. The size that I'm shooting for is a little bit larger than a twin size bed. I want to be able to tuck it under my feet and up over my shoulders without having to stretch it. Going for that size, I'm about half way done.

I haven't been specific about the yarn that is going into the blanket other than it needs to be fingering weight. I also haven't been specific about the placement of the colors for my squares. They are a jumble of colors and I absolutely love it! I work on this when I feel like it but I will be knitting more when I get back to the States. The sock yarn swappers group is doing #summerofsquares2016 KAL so I'll be slowly updating my blanket as I participate.

Try and stay cool! - Sierra

Adios America!

Well I'm off! I'm traveling for a month in Europe! I'll be gone mid-June to mid-July visiting country's on both the European continent as well as in Great Britain. This has been in the planning for about six months and I can't believe it's finally here!

I have spent the last four days prepping for the trip, finding my projects, picking the yarn, and packing my suitcase. Everyone knows that packing the knitting is the most important part about travel. I've brought my knitting on airplanes before and haven't had any issues, hopefully this time will be the same.

I'll be traveling with a knitting friend, Rachael, and we are so excited to travel together! There will be lots of knitting while we wander around Europe so I have packed easy but interesting knitting.

I have two planned pairs of socks, but have enough for three pairs (I'm bringing yarn for contrast cuffs and toes). These will be plain vanilla socks and basic ribbed. I'll post a photo of my yarn choice on Instagram soon!

I also have the yarn for three different shawls. I'm going to work on Simple Lines by Simone A., Ley Lines by Joji Locatelli and Aureola by Janina Kallio. These are all pretty simple but interesting enough to keep me knitting.

If I don't respond right away to comments and questions it's because I'm in a different time zone! I have planned a few automatic updates and plan to write a few while I'm abroad. I will have plenty to write about when I get back! -Sierra

Two Color Brioche FTW!

I must claim that I'm kind of a fad knitter, I can resist for a bit but I eventually like to knit the same techniques that people are talking about. Two-color brioche has been all over Rav and Insta and I have a love/hate relationship with it. For me, the colors that are used really make it a hit or miss project.

I saw Peachy by Susanne Sommer and finally saw the appeal of two-color brioche. This shawl is gorgeous! The construction is fun and different than anything I've attempted before, I had a blast knitting it. I obviously went a little bold with my color choices even though what drew me to the pattern were the subtle colors that she used. 

This shawl called for four different colors in fingering weight, ranging from 90 yards to 400 yards. I used a bit of scraps and two full skeins. My only advice on the pattern is read the abbreviations thoroughly before you start the pattern... I had to cast on three times before I had everything correct. 

When you are working with two colors in brioche you actually knit RS with color A then the RS again with Color B. This took a bit of time to wrap my brain around but once I got it down it was smooth sailing. I wouldn't say that this is an easy knit, I definitely had to pay attention so I wasn't skipping increases.

I don't think two-color brioche is going to become my normal knitting but I loved the challenge of this new skill. This is the shawl that I will be wearing on the greyest days of winter to cheer myself up! You just feel warm and happy when you see these colors together! 

WIP's Wednesday

Thought I would do an update on the projects that I'm currently working on. I've finished a lot of projects recently but still have a few languishing WIP's and a couple new ones.

I'm working on another baby gift set for a co-worker, it's a boy! She works at the quilting storefront of my job and this is her second grandson, Skylar. Went with my usual bib, baby size garter squish, and I'm about halfway through the hat.

I also have a semi-new sock WIP. I started these as social knitting for a women's conference I was attending at my church. These are luxury socks for me because the content of the yarn is superwash merino, alpaca, silk, and nylon. I can't wait to get these on my feet!

Along with this sock wip I'm still working on the socks mentioned in this post...second sock syndrome strikes. Thankfully Tracie and Jodi from Grocery Girls Podcast are doing a second sock KAL this summer that I plan to join #singlesocksummerkal

I haven't started another shawl, but I did start a scarf wrap hybrid. I've knit about 5 inches of it but I've decided to knit on it while I'm in Germany so it's going to sit for a bit.

One of my good friends that I work with just moved into a new apartment! So excited for her! Claire is amazing and makes me laugh multiple times a day so I decided she did a little hand made for her new place. She is a wonderful quilter and a fledgling knitter, but her best talent is her cooking and baking. She's a genius, so I knit her some wash/dish cloths in her favorite color. I only need to weave in the ends and sew a button on. (I have a third washcloth but I can't find it...)

Fun knitting times in the life of Sierra. I'm trying to clear some projects out because I leave in 6 days!

Scrappy Fringe

I've have been busy busy busy knitting! I don't want to leave a bunch of unfinished projects when I leave for my trip. I feel like I'll get out of the groove with them and never finish. As we all know I have an obsession with Stephen West patterns and...I've knit another!

Ta Da! The shawl that I've been working on is Fringed, which is a DK weight crescent shape shawl with ridiculous amounts of fringe.

I used a few full skeins and a few scraps to knit this one up. The pink (Duren Dyeworks Serenity DK) and copper (Cephalopod Yarns Traveler) yarns were leftover from other projects while the blue (Fonty BB Merinos) and cream (SweetGeorgia Superwash DK) were full skeins. The blue is actually a fingering weight yarn I bought on my trip to Paris, which I held double.

This was definitely a TV watching knit. Garter stitch with basic increase with a few rows of YO, K2TOG to break things up. What really makes this shawl is the color choices. I loved that these were all sunset colors.

This knit up long and fairly shallow but blocked huge because it was knit on US 8. I set this aside to work on my Lillian Cardi but it was really easy to get back to.

I found this especially fun because I played with all the colors in the fringe. The lengths are all uniform but the sections of colors are all different. Only took me about 2 hours at work to cut and attach the fringe, much faster than I thought it would be. I'm going to be overrun with shawl by the time fall comes around in November for Cali.  -- Sierra

Travel Knitting?

What is everyone's favorite travel knitting? I'll be traveling in Europe for 4 weeks from mid-June to mid-July and I need a bit of help picking a few projects to bring with me. Sock yarn is my favorite to knit will but I'm up for other suggestions if I fall in love with the pattern. I will have a trans-atlantic plane ride as well as multiple semi-long train rides.

My last trip on the European continent I brought yarn for a hat, a hitchhiker and a pair of socks. I bought plenty of yarn so I had more to cast on but I'm faster now and need more to knit on. I plan to visit multiple yarn stores while abroad, but just in case there is some catastrophic reason why I don't love the yarn I want to be able to knit.

I'll also be traveling with a knitting friend so we will make time to stop and knit different places. We plan to stop at multiple yarn stores but I want to have enough with me to keep me going to a while. Ideas anyone? Thanks for the help!