Category Archives: Knit

Upcoming Brioche Pastiche update

Posted on May 31, 2023 | 1 comment
Brioche Pastiche

This is the original Brioche Pastiche (Ravelry link); I designed it to be a quick start introduction to brioche in the round for a 3 hour class back in 2018. It begins with a bit of 2 color brioche rib to learn and get comfortable with the technique. Increases and decreases happen next, to form the leafy pattern.

Alternate crown

Last year I added a different crown shaping to the pattern, just for fun.

And now I’m planning to add a cowl to the pattern. This one is pretty short; I’m hedging my bets to make sure that two 100g skeins of worsted weight yarn can make a cowl and hat set. I’m keeping careful track with my handy yarn scale! (Some would call it a kitchen scale, but I know better.)

So I’m re-knitting the hat with the alternate crown, too. I want the pattern to look more cohesive, so I want new pictures for hat and cowl in the same color set, with the same yarn as the original (Malabrigo Worsted). Three color sets and two yarns is too jangly in one pattern.

While I’m at it, I’m making the pattern “choose your own adventure” style. I like offering both hat and cowl in a class, because not everyone wears hats, and not everyone wears cowls, either. Also, in class, a student can choose to complete a project in plain brioche rib, if they’re not ready to tackle increases and decreases. Lots of options! Those options are also good for knitting at home.

That’s a lot of updating! So I’m going to make these all these changes to the pattern, and make it stand alone. It will no longer be part of the Brioche Hat Trick (Ravelry link) collection when the updated pattern is released. If you already purchased Brioche Pastiche (Ravelry link), or the Brioche Hat Trick collection, you’ll get this updated pattern for no additional charge. If you want the updated Brioche Pastiche pattern, buy it now at the current price (pattern or collection), and you’ll get the update without paying the new price.

This pattern will be my teaching pattern on the Vogue Knitting Cruise to Alaska in September. That’s what’s driving this update! We had thought about using Whale Watch Cap and Cowl, but we have some repeat cruisers and wanted to do a different brioche project. We’ll pretend that those leaves are sea kelp, and stay on theme. I’m really looking forward to this cruise; I haven’t been to Alaska since working at a salmon cannery to pay for college.

No salmon roe packing for me this time!

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Posted in events, Knit, pattern design, travel

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Winning brioche

Posted on May 30, 2023 | 1 comment

I’m taking a break from my assigned pooling project to knit some brioche. You know I can’t resist.

It feels so good to have brioche in my hands again! I’m knitting new samples for Brioche Pastiche to use in a class; I’ll show you more in the next post. But for now, I just wanted to announce that Martha is the winner of my Next Steps in Brioche: Increases and Decreases class at Virtual Vogue Knitting Live! I’ll email her to let her know.

If you’re not Martha, there is still room in this class for you! It’s on Sunday, June 11 at 2 pm Eastern. Register here!

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Win my brioche class at Virtual Vogue Knitting Live

Posted on May 25, 2023 | 6 comments

I’m teaching Next Steps in Brioche: Increases and Decreases for Virtual Vogue Knitting Live on Sunday, June 11, 2 – 4 pm Eastern (11 am Pacific). Vogue is generously letting me give away a seat in this class via my social media channels.

Deep End Hat and Cowl, and Madrona Cowl in lower right corner

In this class you’ll learn how to knit brioche increases and decreases that create the lovely patterning in two color brioche. We’ll also talk about fixing mistakes and reading a chart. Prerequisite for the class is knowing how to work two color brioche in the round. To enter to win a seat in this class, leave a comment on this post telling me what you want to knit with these increases and decreases. For an extra chance to win, leave a comment on my Instagram post for this giveaway. Contest closes at 11:59 pm Pacific on Monday May 29, and I’ll let the winner know on Tuesday, May 30.

I’ve taught a lot of knitters to knit two color brioche with my Petite Brioche class and pattern. If you don’t know how yet, sign up for my Zoom class via For Yarn’s Sake! The class is on June 3 at 10:30 am Pacific (1:30 pm Eastern). Learning from this class or from my free Petite Brioche pattern on your own will have you ready to learn increases and decreases.

Big thanks to Julie Rosvall (@julierosvall on Instagram) for letting me use her giveaway graphic! She’s teaching at Virtual VKL too, and I’m looking forward to taking her First Impressions: Print Making with Knitting class on Saturday June 10 at 10 am Eastern (7 am Pacific, oy!). Luckily, Vogue is recording our workshops during the June event, so I can replay it if I need a reminder from this early (to me) morning class.

Here’s a description of Julie’s class: Join textile artist and printmaker Julie Rosvall for a hands-on textile printmaking workshop. Julie will share how she went from knitter to printmaker, and why she loves capturing the pattern and texture of knitted shawls and swatches on paper. Participants will have the chance to try textile relief printmaking in a simple hands-on process, no experience necessary. Julie will provide information in advance for preparing textiles to print, or if you’d like to use stencils or other materials to mimic the textiles she will provide alternatives that can be picked up at your local dollar store or craft supply store.

You know I’ve been playing with block printing. Printing from knit fabric swatches will be next level fun!

Block printing

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Posted in classes, giveaways, Knit, Other craftiness

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WWKIP 2023

Posted on May 11, 2023 | 2 comments

WWKIP is World Wide Knit in Public Day! Will you be knitting with maximum visibility?

I’ve been participating in Knit Picks’ WWKIP festivities since 2017. They stopped in 2020 (hello pandemic) but are starting up again this year. Their events always have raffle prizes, free yarn, free books…and snacks!

This year’s event will be on June 10, from noon to 3 pm. The venue has both indoor and outdoor possibilities, so we’re covered in case of rain! Here’s a link to their post.

See you there, local-ish peeps?

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Posted in events, Knit, Portland area fun

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Introducing Starfall

Posted on May 8, 2023 | 2 comments

Starfall is a fingering weight bandana cowl featuring a cascade of assigned pooling stars on a stockinette stitch background. Knitting begins in the round at the neck with a reverse stockinette rolled edge. Simple shaping at the center front creates the look of a triangle shawl, and Old Shale Lace adds a beautiful, scalloped edging.

Choose a yarn that is dyed for assigned pooling, with an accent color run of about 8 – 10” long. Hand-dyed yarns vary, and the pooling color length can vary from skein to skein! You may have a longer pooling color run, which you can address by having color streaming on each side of your stars. Suggestions are given in the pattern for managing your color.

Blocking is magic! You’ll want to wet block this piece to make it the star of your dreams. Pattern includes a blocking tutorial.

The pattern is now available from Ravelry, link here.

And also from Payhip, link here.

Use coupon code METEOR for 15% off through May 15. If you’re taking my Zoom class through For Yarn’s Sake on June 4, the pattern is already included in your class fee; don’t buy it twice!

Thanks to tech editor Jen Lucas, test knitters Carmen Adkins, Peggy Baker, Ann Berg, Shelly Dinh, Angela Gronewold, Desta Packan, Jamie Waclawik, and model Sharon Hsu. It takes a village and we had fun!

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Almost there! So close…

Posted on May 8, 2023 | 4 comments

I’ll be re-publishing Brioche Knit Love through Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon). This way makes the most sense for me. The prospect of ordering 750 – 1000 copies, warehousing them, and being the distributor for them was overwhelming.

I uploaded my files, and we’re soooo close! The cover needs a little adjustment (it’s riding high; that white stripe at the bottom doesn’t belong there).

That’s especially true on the back, where our heads are floating out of the frame. But it’s all been sorted, and I just ordered a final proof copy to make sure everything looks right. Soon!

I’m not quite as far along on the e-book. I uploaded a file for that, and it’s not doing what I want. We’re working on it…

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Darn it! Hook it? Mend it!

Posted on May 3, 2023 | 7 comments

My sister asked if it’s possible to mend a hole in a shawl. Well, anything is possible, but I hadn’t done that before.

It looked like it was just one stitch, so I thought I could just duplicate stitch over it. Unfortunately, a closer look revealed that the edge stitches were also frayed, so I’d have to make a patch about 4 stitches wide by 3 stitches high to attach it to stable fabric.

I didn’t have the exact same yarn any more, but this red was pretty close. The back isn’t nearly as pretty, but it’s the back! You can definitely see the frayed hole on the back side, plus the patch covering the front.

I ran yarn back and forth across the hole, leaving a loop twice as long on the left edge as the yarn covering the hole, each time I passed there. Then I used that yarn and hooked up a column from an existing stitch below the hole, beginning with the stitch on the furthest right. At the top of the column, graft to the existing stitch above using the yarn that’s still in the yarn needle. Then hook up the next column and do the same. Lather rinse repeat until the hole is covered. Hooking up uses up the extra loops that were on the left.

It’s similar to the patch I knit over this hole (blog post here) but it’s hooked up instead of knitted back and forth (and also much smaller than that blown out heel). It’s tidier because instead of using k2tog and ssk at the sides of the patch to attach it to the fabric, which creates bulk, the yarn is just put into position to be hooked up, so it lies flatter at the bottom and sides of the patch. The only place it’s bulky is at the top of the patch, where it’s grafted to the existing fabric. I couldn’t get it flat. But it’s still better than a hole that’s going to get bigger!

I decided to re-block it, because blocking is magic, and it had been a while. And that’s when I discovered…

another hole. This one happened right next to an eyelet, which means the same kind of fix wouldn’t be appropriate here.

I played with it a little. I think I can work with these two ends, bringing them to the back and tying them off. The edges here aren’t frayed, so it should be pretty secure. I’ll see what happens after it’s dry; I can’t do anything yet.

Whew! That was a lot of words to describe the fix. Should I make a video tutorial?

Do you mend your knits? I always mean to, and drop them on the mending pile, but it’s not a high priority for me. You?

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Ebb and Flow encore

Posted on April 30, 2023 | 8 comments

My third Ebb and Flow cowl. It’s my favorite of the three, and it’s everything I dreamed for it to be. I’m so glad I ripped back to put the color changes at the garter ridges. And the yarn blocks out so crisply, it’s an absolute joy. I sewed in the ends this morning so I could wear it today.

Blocking is magic! A reminder of how it looked, just off the needles. Now it’s airy and perfect.

Schmutzerella mini skeins. So much yardage, I could have both the taller cowl neck, and the longer triangle point. There’s yarn left over, because of the color changes at the garter ridges. I love it when a plan works out perfectly!

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On and off the needles

Posted on April 27, 2023 | 10 comments

Knitting goes a lot faster if you’re not second guessing with every stitch whether you should rip it out. After deciding to make my mini skein color changes at the garter ridges, this was a breeze of a multitasking project. Three bands of the first two colors, two bands of the next three colors, and one band of the last color for the lacy edging. I spent a couple afternoons finishing my Ebb and Flow while reading in the sunny backyard. (Spring has finally sprung!) I’ll be blocking it today.

I’m also playing with this yarn combo. It’s Dream in Color Smooshy in Tip Top Tangerine and Sonoran Magic. Yes, a little more assigned pooling!

Getting the yarn to cooperate for assigned pooling is tricky when you don’t have many stitches on the needles yet. I ripped it out and started again after cutting off about 18” of yarn at the beginning of the orange. Much better. The orange and hot pink are pretty fun together. We’ll see if it fulfills my vision for this piece. Wish me luck!

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

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Upcoming Zoom knitting classes

Posted on April 27, 2023 | Comments Off on Upcoming Zoom knitting classes

I’m teaching several Zoom knitting classes via For Yarn’s Sake in May and June.

I’m scheduled to teach my Embellishment Cowl class on Sunday, May 7, from 1 to 3 pm Pacific. The class (and cowl) features slip stitch quilted lattice, a fancy fan stitch, and beads! I’d love for you to join me; I need a few more people to sign up before the class is a go. If you’re interested, you can sign up via For Yarn’s Sake here.

Saturday June 3 I’m teaching Petite Brioche, beginning 2 color brioche in the round. Sign up here.

Sunday June 4 I’m teaching another assigned pooling class. I’ll be using my new Starfall Cowl pattern, which is included in the class fee. The pattern isn’t out yet; my test knitters are having fun with it. It should be out the first week of May. You can sign up for class here.

That’s all I have on the Zoom schedule for now; I’ll start Zoom classes again in the fall. Carpe diem; let’s knit!

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