The Peekaboo Cowl is a 2 color brioche cowl, knit in the round. It features assigned pooling/algorithmic knitting motifs that peek between the brioche ribs. The pattern includes a video tutorial for the Peekaboo motif.
Peekaboo is reversible; the motif looks completely different on the inside. You can wear it with a bit of both sides showing, for maximum fun. I do!
Choose 2 skeins of fingering weight yarn, one of which should be dyed for assigned pooling. You can make the cowl close to the neck, longer for double looping, or anywhere in between. I knit a short cowl because I wanted a quick project!
The Peekaboo Cowl pattern is on sale 15% off through October 29, 2024 with coupon code PEEKING. The pattern is available through Ravelry, link here. This pattern is also available through Payhip, link here. You can use the coupon code on either site.
This pattern has been professionally tech edited. Thanks also to test knitters Ann Berg, Carolyn Crisp, Diane Kay Gelder, Rhea Kohlman, and Diane O’Brien. Thanks to Keith Leonard/Yarn Snob for the beautiful yarn for the design.
I’m working on more brioche plus pooling…can’t stop, won’t stop!
I left town before dawn last Thursday to teach for the Minnesota Knitters’ Days retreat. Our topics for the weekend: brioche, more brioche, and assigned pooling. All my favorite things!
Look at all the smiling brioche knitters! We worked on Brioche Pastiche, my choose your own adventure pattern for hat or cowl, plain or embellished. (I’m teaching this class again at Hook and Needle on Saturday; if you’re local and want to learn to knit brioche, please sign up!) We also worked on Whale Conga Line, as an introduction to brioche knit flat and syncopated brioche. That’s a lot of brioche!
Ursula and Beth finished their hats over the weekend.
And Janet simplified and fancied up the cowl pattern. I love it!
On Sunday morning we played with assigned pooling, which was a great palate cleanser. It’s fun to let the yarn boss you around…a little. You’re still the boss of your knitting, overall.
The knitters were a great group, with lots of mad skills! (Thanks to Stacey for recommending me; she was in my class at YarnOver Minnesota a couple years ago, and here too.)
Kris’s purple sweater on the left is amazing; I love the lively ribbing pattern on the collar and cuffs.
Sheryl (on the right) is the organizer of this well-run event. This is the 40th anniversary of this retreat; Sheryl was a long-time participant and took over when the previous organizer retired. Many of the participants have known each other through this event for a very long time!
Sheryl’s show and tell sweater was a fantastic example of yarn color dominance. Those stripes aren’t ribbing; they’re 1×1 stockinette stripes.
Linn brought her cardigan to show me what she did with Yarn Snob Keith’s Cabana Boy pooling colorway. I love how the white stripes lightened things up; you can see on the bottom band that the colors are pretty intense! And look how the hot pink pooled on one sleeve, and the orange pooled on the back of the other. You could never get it to do that if you were planning it.
Cabana Boy yarn
We were at a Franciscan retreat center in Prior Lake, and the grounds were lovely.
Labyrintha quiet place for tai chiOne of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakesSame sunsetMount Hood on the way home
Why yes, I choose my seat for the Mount Hood view! And now I’m home, and prepping for this weekend’s classes. Brioche Pastiche at Hook and Needle, and a stranded colorwork class at For Yarn’s Sake on Sunday, based on the Shetland Wool Week Islesburgh Toorie.
I was so blown away by the lovely colors that I forgot to do the phone trick. There’s not much tonal contrast between the Peony and Cameo, so I’ll use the Yorkshire and Peony together. I may need to downsize the pattern to make it work with these two 50g skeins, which is easy to do.
But what about that tote bag? Nash Yarn Fest will be MDK’s first foray into hosting a fiber festival. It’s happening March 14-15, 2025, and tickets go on sale TOMORROW, October 1. There are lots of ways to participate: Festival only, opening night party, after party, workshop with Arne and Carlos, or a longer destination travel getaway. Read all about it here.
Last goodies: Two MDK field guides; one for brioche, and Renewal, which is a collection of textural sweaters and accessories by Norah Gaughan. I don’t have time to knit a sweater, but I may knit these lovely mitts!
Austen Mitts, photo from Renewal field guide
Norah has such an inventive mind, and she’s a delightful person, too. She was the other teacher and my cruise buddy on the Vogue Knitting cruise to Canada and New England in 2022.
I taught a steeking class at Hook and Needle yesterday. I’ve been teaching my Sheepy Steeky Coasters class with a crochet-reinforced steek, no sewing machines for me. Too hard to carry to class! Also, I don’t trust a machine to not eat my knitting.
Boxed Hearts Coasters
I knit an additional sample this week so I could demonstrate a couple more reinforcement methods in class. This is my Boxed Hearts Coasters that I designed for a class with the Knitting Circle during the pandemic. I knit it while watching video classes the other day; can you spot my oopsie? If not, no big deal. It was fine for class!
I added a hand sewn backstitch reinforcement for students to practice, and a felted steek. Everyone got to poke all stabby-stabby on this sample, down the center red stripe. It’s already been felted in the picture above; the front looks completely normal.
But you can see that the backside is all fuzzed up. This edge isn’t going to fall apart when it’s cut!
Completely stress free. From there, the process is the same. Pick up and knit stitches along the sides, then knit the garter stitch edge that matches the upper and lower borders. Just like a buttonband. After that, sew everything down.
I love small projects for teaching new techniques. It’s much less fraught to cut a coaster than to cut a sweater as your first steek project.
I had a busy weekend teaching for Vogue Knitting Online. Sunday’s Brioche Pastiche class was particularly interesting from a teacher’s standpoint. Brioche Pastiche is a choose your own adventure pattern, good for brioche beginners and those ready for learning increases and decreases.
Brioche Pastiche options
Several of my students had tried brioche before, and wanted to review and move forward. Two had taken classes with me before. I teach brioche with conventionally mounted stitches (right leg in front), either English (right hand throw) or Continental (left hand carry, pick or throw), but the stitch mount is the same. Right leg forward.
Last February I had a student who knit using the Eastern Uncrossed style, where all stitches and yarn overs are left leg forward. I made a video for her, because it’s so different from what I usually teach.
That same student came to yesterday’s class to move forward with increases and decreases, so I had to learn that on the fly. I made a video after class, and here it is.
If you don’t knit Eastern Uncrossed, you probably don’t want to watch it because it will confuse you. But it does show that I’m dedicated to making sure my students get what they need!
Who says you can’t have it all? I’ve been dreaming of combining brioche knitting and assigned color pooling since January. After working through many design ideas, I’ve finally found one that lets both of these techniques shine.
Peekaboo Cowl, WS
This is my new Peekaboo Cowl. It’s 2 color brioche rib, knit in the round with fingering weight yarn. It features assigned pooling peeking out between the ribs. The Peekaboo stitch is reversible, and the inside of the cowl looks completely different! You get two looks with one knit.
I knit this with yarn left over from one of my Trailing Leaves cowls. The small cowl only uses 165 yards/38 grams of each color. You can easily adjust the pattern for length and height if you like longer/taller cowls.
The pattern is back from my tech editor and is ready for test knitters. Let me know if you’re interested in test knitting this lovely little cowl! (Or bigger cowl, if that’s your jam.)
Well, last week was super hot, 100 degrees F here in Portland. Definitely not dreaming-of-wool weather! So I’m extending the discount for Trailing Leaves to September 15, 2024. Use coupon code WILLOW for 15% off the Trailing Leaves pattern on Ravelry or Payhip.
Trailing Leaves
It’s going to be a lovely 74 degrees here in Portland today, with rain coming in tonight. Perfect.
I made a new video tutorial! Trailing Leaves uses a brioche purl increase along the border edging, brpyobrp. Which is just what it sounds like, but here’s the video. There’s also a link to it from my tutorials page, should you ever need it.
Time for me to get back to my knitting! I’m on a brioche plus assigned pooling tear…
Trailing Leaves is a brioche bandana cowl, knit in the round from the top down. It features a central double leaf motif in syncopated brioche against a background of MC brioche rib. Choose 2 skeins of fingering weight yarn in coordinating colors to knit this beauty.
Trailing Leaves in Knit Picks Chroma Fingering
A gradient yarn will add an interesting color play to the brioche rib background, as shown here in Knit Picks Chroma Fingering. Knitter’s choice! This pattern is easily adjustable for neck circumference and length. This is one of my favorite cowl shapes; it looks like a shawlette but doesn’t fall off. So easy to wear.
Trailing Leaves in Yarn Snob A Good Fingering
I’ve knit four samples of this, to get it just right. The sample above featured some assigned pooling, but it doesn’t show, so it’s not in the pattern.
Trailing Leaves in Knit Picks Chroma
And this sample was a little too long due to a different increase rate. But you get the idea!
Posted onSeptember 2, 2024|Comments Off on Fall classes, virtual and live
I’m teaching for Vogue Knitting for the September virtual event September 13-15, and live in New York City January 16-19. Who says you can’t have it both ways?
Whale Conga Line, modeled by my sister Sharon
I’m teaching Brioche Doctor (fixing mistakes), Whale Conga Line (brioche increases, decreases, syncopation), and Brioche Pastiche (beginning brioche, choose your own adventure). And of course there are a lot of other teachers offering classes in nearly every fibery thing you can think of, too! Registration is here.
Vogue Knitting Live NYC is January 16-19. I’m teaching Whale Conga Line, my only brioche class at that event. I’m also teaching a whole bunch of technique driven classes: Log cabin knitting, steeking, fixing mistakes, entrelac, fancy stitches. Early registration for VIP packages starts later this week, and regular registration will come after that. The registration link is here.
I’m also teaching locally at For Yarn’s Sake in Beaverton, Oregon, and at Hook and Needle in Vancouver Washington. Here’s the schedule:
Sheepy Steeky Coasters at Hook and Needle, Sept. 28 Brioche Pastiche at For Yarn’s Sake, Sept 29 Brioche Pastiche at Hook and Needle, Oct. 19 Stranded Colorwork: Islesburgh Toorie at For Yarn’s Sake, Oct. 20 Thrumbelina Thrummed Slippers at For Yarn’s Sake, Nov. 17 Starfall Assigned Pooling Cowl Zoom class via For Yarn’s Sake, Dec. 7
This colorway, Bellina from Yarn Snob/Knits All Done, is one of my favorites, ever. It made me want to try to combine assigned pooling with my favorite technique brioche.
Trailing Leaves, kinda
The assigned pooling doesn’t really show up in Trailing Leaves (currently in test knitting phase). The brioche leaves are beautiful, but where’s the assigned pooling? I thought the issue was because the leaves are front and center, and the pooling is on the side, so I knit a small cowl with the same theme.
Still can’t see the pooling, really
I know I’ll never wear the little cowl shown above, so why not reclaim the yarn?
frogged!
The yarn was pretty kinky since I had wet blocked the cowl, so I wanted to smooth it out. (The last time I knit with previously blocked yarn, it really showed in the finished object. Lesson learned.)
I wound it on my niddy-noddy (had to google how to use it; it’s been a while). Look at that kink! I tied it off and soaked it, then squished it in a towel and gave it a nice snap to straighten it up.
Much better! It’s currently drying (not on the mannequin; that’s just for a nice picture). And then I’ll move on to attempt number 365 or so to see if I can successfully combine brioche and assigned pooling, without bobbles (not my fave look). Wish me luck!
Find my patterns on Ravelry: Michele Bernstein Designs
Here are some of my favorites, and the newest. Many of my designs are also available through my Payhip store.
PDXKnitterati 