impressionist kaleidescope blanket

I just finished a design project (picture soon). I’m a monogamous knitter, so that meant I had nothing on the needles. Quelle horreur! I poked around my limited stash, and found the qiviut I bought at Changing Tides in Juneau while on the Vogue Knitting Alaska Cruise in September.

This is one ounce of qiviut/qiveut (musk ox yarn), 200 yards. I guess that means it’s laceweight, not fingering! I don’t usually enjoy knitting with laceweight, but this is so fluffy, it doesn’t feel skinny.

Especially when knitting on US 6 needles! I poked around on Ravelry to see what other people made with a single skein of this yarn. The Bubble Net cowl is a popular choice. I bought the pattern and cast on. Yes, I could have chosen any simple lace pattern and figured something out, but this will be a one and done project. It’s not a design project and I wanted someone else to do the gauge/cast on math/needle sizing for me. Perfect!

The lace is a four row repeat, and two of those rows are just knitting rest rows. But the other two require chanting in my head, especially because the yarn is dark and it’s hard to read my knitting.

knit blanket square — Knit Picks Chroma Twist in Sandpiper

So I also cast on a second project. Quite a novelty to have more than one project! This is one block out of 9 planned blanket blocks. I have the yarn for this project because I designed the Impressionist Kaleidoscope Blanket for Knit Picks in 2021. They sent me enough yarn for the design, but I only knit one of the blocks while designing it, the one pictured above. The rest of the blocks are all knit the same, so I didn’t knit them!

Knit Picks chose their own color for the sample knit. It’s all garter stitch, from the mitered squares in the center to the log cabin borders. The pattern is easy to remember, but the constant change from mitered square to mitered square, and then to the log cabin border keeps the knitting interesting. It’s not just one big garter stitch blob.

Chroma Twist yarn changes color on its own, giving each blanket square its own dynamic personality. And the pattern is free! It was part of Knit Picks’ Twelve Weeks of Gifting in 2021. I’ll knit on this when it’s too dark to see my qiviut stitches, or if I need to zone out while dreaming of what I’m designing next…

How many projects do you have on your needles?

I recently designed the Swizzle Cowl for Knit Picks, for their Twelve Weeks of Gifting. It’s available today!

Knit with Muse Fingering and Aloft Kid Mohair held together on US10/6mm needles, it’s a quick knit for you or a loved one. The Swizzle Cowl pattern has instructions for 3 sizes, so whether you like your cowls close to the neck, long and double looped, or somewhere in between, I’ve got you covered.

Here’s a closer view of the stitch pattern from my submission swatch. Apparently I never took a picture of the finished cowl! It’s in a box here, somewhere…

I’m really pleased to have TWO patterns in this year’s Twelve Weeks of Gifting. My Impressionist Kaleidescope Blanket is the other one.

One other Knit Picks item going on…I’m knitting a version of my Cherry Blossom Wrapture shawl with Knit Picks Hawthorne, so I can offer the pattern through their IDP (Independent Designer Partnership) program.

Knit Picks Hawthorne in Camellia, Poseidon, and Italian Ice Speckle

The Poseidon and Camellia have a blue undertone, but the speckle has more of a yellow undertone that I expected. (The joy of choosing color online!) Poseidon plays well with both of the other colors, but I wasn’t sure about the Camellia with the speckle. So I’m making the log cabin frame around the speckled center in Poseidon instead of Camellia. The pink will be a pop, and begin further away from the big speckled center. I think it will work. We’ll find out soon…