Brioche weekend away

I had a fabulous weekend teaching a two-day brioche workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon Coast. The setting is lovely, nestled among the trees on a slice of land on Cascade Head near Lincoln City. 

We started with one color brioche, a scarf in super bulky yarn (Brioche Entrée), just to get a feel for the sl1yo and brk stitches. 

Then we moved on to 2-color in the round, setting up for Brioche Pastiche. I’ve revamped the pattern for plain brioche rib or leafy climbing vines, on either a hat or cowl. I like giving options. 

I also included the Whale Watch pattern, because it fits so nicely with the coastal theme. But Pastiche is a much gentler introduction to increases and decreases, so that’s what we actually worked on. 

The weather was glorious all weekend, so we took our knitting outdoors!

Sitka Center features arts workshops all summer long. The other participants this weekend were creating beautiful things, hand building with clay. 

Kristin showed me some of her beautiful work. I want to try this! Check out the catalog of classes for this summer here.

Cathy and I visited the Salmon River estuary after class on Saturday. That looks like a whale’s ribcage, but it’s really a tree.

I had time for a walk on the sand after my last class on Sunday. I headed south to the beach at Road’s End (north end of Lincoln City); that’s Road’s End Point in the distance. It was foggy on the beach, with blue skies inland.

My stay at Sitka included the night after my workshop, so I’m writing from this sweet stairway nook on Monday morning. It’s drizzling now, and raindrops are hanging on the maple leaves outside my window. Perfect. 

There’s so much art on campus; here are some things I saw while walking around. 

And nature makes her own art, too. I love this lichen!

Bisquee wanted to come with me, but I had to say no. I needed to bring clothes.

And I even had time to knit! More about that in another post. How was your weekend?