Category Archives: classes

VKLive from the student side

Posted on October 13, 2020 | 8 comments

I sat in on a couple classes at Virtual VKLive this weekend. I enjoyed them both!

The first was Lucy Neatby’s 2 color double knitting in the round. I originally took this class in 2017 at Madrona, but I never did anything with it. Time for a refresher! I re-learned how it works, and several different ways to manage 2 yarns. It was fun, but it still doesn’t speak to me like brioche does.

I also sat in on Franklin Habit’s mosaic knitting class. I’ve done lots of slip stitch knitting before (most recently Half the Knit Sky), but not actual mosaic knitting, as defined by Barbara Walker. I learned a bit about how to chart mosaic knitting, and considered playing with different textures. All garter stitch? Garter on stockinette background? Stockinette on garter background? My personal preference is garter on a stockinette background, like in Half the Knit Sky and my Dotty Cowl and Dotty Cake hat.

I don’t love the waffle weave look of all garter stitch mosaic. And that’s when I realized…my Dissent Cowl is garter stitch mosaic. The waffle texture is most noticeable on the dot pattern at the beginning. But the collar portion is so iconic, it doesn’t come off as mosaic garter stitch. Well played.

The cowl is coming along nicely. It’s pretty intuitive knitting. I adjusted it to make it smaller, and the neck a little shorter. We’ll see how that turns out over all, soon. You know, of course, this just makes me want to knit a second one, with more modifications, but I don’t think I want to invest that much more time. So many things to knit!

What’s on your needles? I have this and Rio Calina, and maybe mitts to go with the Deep End Hat. I’m not feeling too excited about the mitts right now. I’m not sure I want mitts at this gauge? Would a cowl be more compelling? You couldn’t wear it with the hat (too much all together around your head/neck), but it would be a nice option for those who don’t wear hats. What do you think?

8 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit, pattern design

Tagged dissent cowl, double knitting, mosaic knitting, Virtual Knitting Live

Biking and Zooming (new classes with For Yarn’s Sake)

Posted on October 12, 2020 | 5 comments

Fall is here, and last Monday was a perfect day for a bike ride in the Columbia River Gorge. I went with some friends to bike through the Mosier Twin Tunnels, out past Hood River. They’re just on the other side of the Cascade mountains, the dry side, but it was a glorious day all around.

The ride isn’t terribly long, maybe 8.5 miles out and back, but it’s hilly! It’s on a dedicated bike/pedestrian path that follows the old Columbia River Highway. You can see the (not that new) Columbia River Highway, Interstate 84, down below.

Eighteen Mile Island from the other side

Breathtaking diagonal geology across the river on the Washington side

This section of the old highway was abandoned in the 1950s when the new highway was built closer to the river. It was restored for recreational use in 2000.

Standing between the tunnels, looking east through the east tunnel

It felt so good to get out for a while!

We stopped for refreshment at Thunder Island Brewing’s new digs in Cascade Locks. They used to be down on the water, now they’re up on the main drag. Great view from the deck!

Cascade Locks is on the wetter, greener side of the Cascade mountains

It’s windy and rainy today (Sunday), but the forecast is for cool, drier weather this coming week. I’m on Day 4 of work; I spoke about blocking for the Puddletown Knitters Guild on Thursday evening, and have been teaching for Vogue’s Virtual Knitting Live all weekend. Busy busy!

I have a couple new Zoom classes through For Yarn’s Sake. We’re doing Petite Brioche on Sunday October 25 (I love teaching new brioche knitters!) and Braided Wristlets on Sunday November 8.

Braided Wristlets is one of my favorite classes to teach. It dips into beginning colorwork knitting, tonal contrast, yarn color dominance, and of course, the very fun herringbone braids. Links to the For Yarn’s Sake classes are here. Are you ready to learn a new skill?

5 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit, Portland area fun

Tagged braided wristlets, classes, columbia river gorge, for yarn's sake, Petite Brioche

Deep End class and discount

Posted on October 7, 2020 | 8 comments

My Deep End brioche hat class has just been listed at Twisted. This class will teach you brioche increases and decreases in a jiffy! Most of the techniques are introduced in the first patterning round. The class is not a beginning brioche class; you should already know how to knit brioche rib. The Deep End pattern is included in the class fee. Registration link here. Class is on Saturday, October 24, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific time.

If you want to knit Deep End but don’t need a class, you can still purchase the pattern, and the introductory discounts are good through tomorrow, October 8. Purchase through Ravelry or Payhip.

WordPress has just chosen to force me into using their “new” block editor today. They’ve been trying to do this for a long time; I like the old editor just fine. Now I have to learn a new thing, and I’m not sure I have the mental bandwidth this week. Ugh! Aaaaand the preview tab doesn’t work. I hate change…grumble grumble grumble. Well, I’m going to go ahead and post; hope this looks okay!

8 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit

Tagged Brioche knitting, classes, Deep End

Introducing: Deep End

Posted on October 1, 2020 | 9 comments

Deep End is a 2 color brioche hat knit in the round from the bottom up. One side features a large staghorn motif, the other side uses a variation of the gull stitch. I like wearing the staghorn on the side, but you can style it any way you want.

I designed this hat as a teaching piece for my classes. You’ll learn both left and right leaning brioche double decreases on the first patterning round; it’s like jumping in the deep end of the pool! After that it’s oodles of brioche rib before the next increases and decreases.

Two crown options are included. Choose the quadruple decreases for a challenge, or go back to the shallow end of the pool with familiar double decreases.

This pattern is available through Ravelry. It’s on sale for 10% off through October 8, no coupon code needed.

This pattern is also available through Payhip, and it’s on sale there, too.

Thanks to tech editor Meaghan Schmaltz, and test knitter Ann Berg.

I’m teaching a Zoom class with this pattern through Twisted on Saturday October 24. If you’d like me to email you when registration goes live, leave me a comment. (Coordinating all aspects is like a dance, and the pattern has to go live before the class can go live. One step at a time!)

9 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged brioche, Deep End, Thataway hat

Best laid plans

Posted on September 18, 2020 | 16 comments

Remember this? It was going swimmingly, until I got to the planned swirly decreases for the crown. It was a great plan, but in real life I didn’t like that the decreases didn’t hit the staghorn and gull motifs in a consistent way. I worked out another decrease for the top, but it’s based on 10 stitches instead of 6 or 12, which is the number of stitches I had. Blergh.

So I started over. But first, I checked to make sure I would like the new crown shaping. I decreased the extra stitches out, and then worked out the new planned crown. Just to make sure I wasn’t starting over for nothing.

It worked just fine, but it’s a much more rapid decrease than the swirly top, so the hat has to be knit taller before beginning the decreases. Ask me how I know. Call it a giant swatch. Yup.

I reknit the hat in 2 days. Partly because I can be a bit obsessive with my knitting. Also, I had a date with my tech editor for Monday, and it had to be ready because she’s booked for months.

I love it! The new decreases look just right with the gull stitch.

And the staghorn side is a thing of beauty at the top. Well, it is to me, at least.

The hat is being test knit now, and it will be published soon.

I frogged the first hat to reclaim the yarn, and am playing with mitts. Small circumference brioche is a bit fiddly with dpns or flexiflips or magic loop or 2 circulars! It’s so easy to gain or lose a YO by accident. But mitts could be very pretty. We’ll see how it works out.

In the meantime, I’m planning more classes. My classes with Twisted sold out immediately, so I added another Petite Brioche in October, and that sold out, too. We’re planning more. I’m thinking of Petite Brioche again on Sunday October 18. Message me if you want an email when registration goes live.

The new hat will be the project for a brioche increase/decrease class; I’m really looking forward to that. I’m planning that for Saturday, October 24, but I can’t list it until the pattern is ready. Soon! Again, message me if you want an email when registration goes live.

Smoke update: We had thunder/lightning/downpour at 4 a.m. The air is now merely Unhealthy, which is a vast improvement from Beyond Index, Hazardous, and Very Unhealthy! It will get better, bit by bit.

Onward!

16 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit, pattern design

Tagged brioche classes, brioche increases and decreases, Thataway hat

Tinking Brioche Decreases tutorial

Posted on September 14, 2020 | 5 comments

A student asked me how to tink brioche decreases. I made a little video so I can share it with all of you, too.

Also, my Petite Brioche class through Twisted on September 26 is full!

So we added another class on October 17. Link to register is here.

There’s still room in my Syncopation class on October 3, link here.

Let’s knit!

5 Comments

Posted in classes, tutorial

Tagged Brioche knitting, brioche knitting tutorials

More brioche classes!

Posted on September 11, 2020 | 2 comments

You may remember that I started teaching knitting about a dozen years ago at Twisted, my neighborhood LYS. I was sad to see Twisted move to an online only model early this year. But given the way 2020 has gone, it seems to have been a very good idea.

So I got to thinking: Online shop, online classes. Why not? I’m happy to announce that I’m teaching a couple classes for Twisted via Zoom.

I’ll be teaching Petite Brioche on Saturday September 26, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm PDT. This is a gentle introduction to two color brioche in the round, which I think is the easiest way to learn brioche. Register here.

I’ll be teaching syncopated brioche using my Syncopation pattern on Saturday October 3, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm PDT. If you’re already comfortable with knitting brioche rib and want to get fancy, this class is for you. Register here.

Classes are via Zoom, and they’re limited to 12 students each. We’ll have a cozy knitting time together.

Come knit with me! I think we could all use a happy diversion right about now.

2 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit

Tagged classes, Petite Brioche, Syncopation, twistedpdx

The river runs on

Posted on August 18, 2020 | 7 comments

It was a big week! I did a little knitting, and a lot of teaching.

Here’s the little knitting, before. I ripped back my Rio Calina a bit. I learned that it’s not so much the direction of the cable cross that drives me, but the over/under. I didn’t like long snakey lines that continued uncrossed on the top of the fabric, so I changed it! Do you see what I did?

I like it a lot better this way.

The squash I’ve been pollinating (plant sex!) in the garden did some sneaky growing while I wasn’t paying attention. It got big!

I guess the bees can manage from here on out.

I used one of the squash on a pizza. Same basic structure as the puff pastry tarts in previous posts, but this is a little more substantial than the puff pastry.

Do you remember mug cakes, from a few years ago? We needed a small dessert, so I made a mug cake. This is half, plus some goodies. Here’s the recipe.

I taught 4 classes for Virtual VKLive, including Syncopation, which made its VKLive debut. It was really fun; my students were awesome!

Now I’m working on more video tutorials, and launching a Payhip store. More on that later.

Knit on!

7 Comments

Posted in classes, foodies!, Knit

Tagged garden, Rio Calina cowl, Virtual Knitting Live

Brioche trifecta

Posted on July 17, 2020 | 10 comments

Apparently I’m living my best brioche life today. This morning I got up early and took a VKLive class with Nancy Marchant, Lacing Up Brioche.

I learned 2 ways to make eyelet holes in my brioche, the double yarn over method, and the release purl method. Brilliant! I bought Nancy’s book back in March, but had yet to open it. I just needed someone to make me pay attention. It was 7 a.m. here for me, and 4 p.m. for Nancy in Amsterdam. There were students all over the world; thank you Zoom!

Here’s a better look at my swatch, with the light shining through.

Brioche item 2: I also taught a Petite Brioche class later in the morning; these are always fun. Twenty new brioche knitters sent out into the world!

Brioche item 3? I’m test knitting a hat for Hunter Hammersen. I saw her call for test knitters on Twitter, and her sample was so pretty I couldn’t resist. It’s knitting up nicely in Malabrigo Rios. The variegation in the dark color doesn’t show much on the public side, but the inside is spectacular.

It’s been a very brioche day. But not to worry, I also got a few rows in on my Half the Knit Sky KAL.

I just finished the next increase row, so my smile is getting bigger!

Tomorrow I’m teaching brioche increases and decreases, and Petite Brioche again on Sunday. Lots more brioche going on!

If all this talk of brioche makes you want to learn, there are still a few spots in my classes *next* weekend through the Peacetree Fiber Adventures online retreat. I’m teaching Petite Brioche and Next Steps in Brioche: Increases and Decreases. Check it out!

10 Comments

Posted in classes, events, KAL, Knit

Tagged brioche, brioche lace, Half the Knit Sky KAL, nancy marchant, peacetree fiber adventures, VKLive

Tutorial: Fixing a dropped brioche YO several rows down

Posted on July 5, 2020 | 1 comment

I promised a video tutorial to 3 of my classes at the last Virtual VKLive, and I made one and sent it along. But I just re-made it with more descriptive detail. Here’s the link on YouTube.

I learned this technique from a video by Nancy Marchant, and then expanded on it as I learned how and why it works. Just another tool in the brioche toolbox!

I put a link to this video on my tutorials page, so you don’t even have to remember where to find it. And if you didn’t know I have a tutorials page, go check it out. I have lots of tips over there, and I’m getting better and better at making videos.

My brioche classes are sold out at VKLive, but you can take brioche classes from me at the Peacetree Fiber Adventures online retreat on July 24 and 25. Register here.