knit picks chroma twist | PDXKnitterati

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 had the joy of designing this blanket last spring; it’s the Impressionist Kaleidescope Blanket. The blanket is a celebration of garter stitch, and so much fun to knit!

Impressionist Kaleidescope Blanket in Knit Picks Chroma Twist

The blanket is made up of 9 (or more) units that are all knit the same. The fun is in letting the color shading yarn work its magic. We start with a mitered square, and then add three more mitered squares, to finish the center. A log cabin style frame is worked after that. Mitered squares and log cabin work so well together; it’s a symphony in garter stitch!

The pattern is free from Knit Picks as part of their Twelve Weeks of Gifting, which they do as a run up to the holidays. (I was paid for this design, never fear. It’s free to YOU, though.) Here’s the link: Impressionist Kaleidescope Blanket. I had mentioned this to my Log Cabin Knitting class at the virtual Knit Camp at the Coast last month, and now you can download the pattern!

I have one more pattern coming in the Twelve Weeks of Gifting series; I’ll let you know when it goes live. Have fun!

If you haven’t already, check the previous post to enter to win a copy of my new book, Brioche Knit Love: 21 Skill Building Projects from Simple to Sublime. I’ll be back to showing you more designs from the book soon.