Friday, March 20, 2020

Color Riot 2.0



This was a fun one! Color Riot 2.0 is the sibling to my first shawl pattern Color Riot! This release is the anniversary of Color Riot hitting the internet. To be quite honest, Color Riot 2.0 was knit rather quickly after the first one. But, I thought it would be fun to have this shawl come out to celebrate the anniversary/accomplishment of my first paid pattern.



Color Riot 2.0, in my sample, uses 400 yards of a gradient and 800 yards of a complimentary solid. When I use gradients I like them to be the star, sometimes a lot of pattern can take away from seeing the yarn. Color Riot 2.0 lets you feature the gradient but still be interesting to knit and wear. The yarn used is a 100% Merino so any fingering weight yarn with a bit of body would be great! This is quite a large shawl so you don't want to use a yarn that is so heavily the shawl drops off your body. 

It's also a fairly large shawl and makes a great accessory for winter. As I said, I've had this knit for quite awhile and wore it all winter long!


Monday, March 9, 2020

Calumet Beanie

Hello Knitters!

This pattern is so much fun because it was designed with a family member in mind!


Pattern Story:

My mom (Susan) and Uncle Jon grew up in Calumet, Michigan which is in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) and there is snow on the ground about 9 months out of the year. At Christmas time of 2019 my mom asked me to design a beanie for my uncle that she could knit him as a gift. My uncle has always been a great supporter of my knitting and now my design career.

This is how the Calumet beanie came to be! It's an easy to memorize ribbed pattern that works for both men, women, and anyone in between! There are 5 sizes so it fits all ages! Also, the decreases on this hat worked out perfectly! I love me a good finish.


The yarn I used is a 100% Superwash Merino Wool in a tonal colorway. I would suggest a similar style of yarn be used; a solid or a tonal will show off the nice ribbed pattern and the wool will give great stitch definition. As always, please send me an email or comment if you would like yarn help! Many of my testers use a full synthetic yarn so you have so many possibilities. 

Happy Knitting!

Sierra

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Cantelow Beanie

Another new pattern! Cantelow Hat is the companion piece to my Cantelow shawl featured in my last blog post. Cantelow features a long extended cables that leaves lots of easy and drape. The nature of the beanie is a ribbing so the hat is really stretchy and fits a variety of heads.


The pattern is written for three different sizes Youth, Adult Small, & Adult Large and each one was test knit by some great knitters! My hat was knit with a creamy color with a bit of sparkle but I think that anything that isn't too dark or highly variegated would be great.

As always with something textured, a solid or a tonal will show the stitching off more. A few of the testers used solid colored alpaca and had some gorgeous haloed hats. In the larger sizes I had a few testers who were able to finish in 50 grams! You definitely want to use a yarn that has some 'life' or spring back to it so your hat doesn't stretch out and not go back into shape