Turns Out It’s Hot In Arizona

Well, summer has officially left us and fall has hit in full force. I was happily knitting away on a couple winter sweaters while the weather cooled off in New York  and then BAM I moved back west and I’m in Arizona for the time being, where it is currently 93 degrees and my sweaty little knitting fingers can’t bear to cable anything.

I was on quite a sock roll until my mother, the sock napper, stole what I had been working on and literally walked off in them. I have switched to knitting my Sizzle Pop shawl by Knit Graffiti, which hasn’t gotten a formal intro here.

It’s a brioche shawl that uses two colors plus increases and decreases to create a graphic pattern that is happiest in a crazy color combo. It is challenging in all the main color right side rows, but the rest of the rows are easy to memorize which makes a nice rhythm of being engaging, but not mind bogglingly difficult the whole time.

I’m using Knit Picks Stroll tonal for the main color, and a yarn I bought on this trip in Durango. I can’t remember the name or colorway whatsoever but it sure is pretty.

I’m going to keep marching on with this one until my fingers get too slick to hold needles, then we might have to reevaluate.

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Dream Hat??

I think I finally knit my dream hat. Knitting grownup hats for a baby sized head is always a bit of an ordeal. Even if my gauge is correct, the measurements of the finished hat are almost always too big for me, either in width or in height. See my Skiff (knit on needles 3 sizes smaller than recommended size) for an example of what I mean. No good.

I have knit so many hats for other people that turn out perfectly, but the ones I have made and truly enjoyed for myself have been few and far between. So. Since I cannot for the life of me knit a hat that fits me exactly how I want it, I am oh so happy to have one that fits me about 80% as well as I could hope for. It is a bit slouchier than intended but I am 26 for Pete’s sake. These next couple years are the apex of my crop topping, see through shirting, slouchy hatting years, so I better damn well do it up.

The pattern is Vintage Prim by Andrea Mowry and it was SO FUN to knit. Go out and get yourself this pattern. I used some leftover Cascade Fingering in Brown and Knit Picks Palette in Mai Thai Heather. And I believe I used size 3 needles?

From my experience, and looking at the other projects on Ravelry, I think the key to a good color combo on this one is two solid colors that are high in contrast. I typically love brioche made with variegated yarn, but this hat seems to make much more of an impact with solid colors. It’s got a lot going on already and I think it could go overboard in a hurry if you weren’t careful. But that being said…

Brioche for life.

Brioche With A View

I am writing from the road in Colorado. I’m out visiting my man friend and we are doing what we like doing best, which is driving around. There is so much to see on our continent that is reasonably easy to get to–so why not go see it?

We started out road tripping around in my tiny Toyota Yaris a few years ago and that was all well and good–the gas mileage was ridiculous and we could car camp out of it pretty easily. But a couple years ago we upgraded in a major way to a truck camper that makes us feel like we’re living in luxury. A refridgerator and a real bed are pretty excellent amenities. We’ve named the rig Chief Whitesmoke and we’ve been all over in it. We’ve done lots of little weekend trips here and there and our big trip to Mexico was in Chief Whitesmoke. We are on a quick tour of southern Colorado and I am doing some major roadtrip knitting–which I think may be my favorite kind of knitting. I love to knit and look outside and munch on candy. Knitting on a trip also seems to tie my project to the place and time of the trip too, which makes the memory of the trip a little more tangible for me.

Right now I am working on a test knit for a brioche cardigan that is really captivating. I’ve knit brioche before but never with increases and decreases. It is so clever and really makes me want to keep knitting. I’ll link the project on Ravelry and post some links to the designer when I finish up the sweater and not writing on my phone. For now, here’s some pictures of sunny Colorado and brioche!