Category Archives: pattern design

A little frogging

Posted on November 22, 2020 | 13 comments

Yes, you *can* frog and recover your brioche knitting.

I accidentally added an extra couple rounds of brioche rib after finishing the leaves; I was wondering about that as I was binding off. Oops.

I had some help. If you don’t remember how to frog and get your brioche back on the needles, you can check out my video tutorial here. And there are lots more tutorials of all kinds on my tutorials page.

All done! Now it’s mimosa time…

The Leafy Origami Cowl pattern is coming in December. I think I may knit one more, withe the colors reversed, just for fun. Knit on!

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Leaf season

Posted on November 20, 2020 | 6 comments

The leaves on my maple tree outside my studio window are nearly gone. It’s been a glorious season. I still have leaves on my mind, though.

Coming soon: Leafy Origami Cowl. This worsted weight project is flying along!

The stitch pattern makes the fabric fall into mountain and valley folds, like origami folds. It’s a fun rhythmic brioche knit.

Blocking makes a big difference on this piece!

I’m looking for a few test knitters who are experienced with brioche increases and decreases. This project takes some special attention on a few of the rounds because the markers need to move forward or backward by 2 stitches to keep things orderly. Of course, I made a video tutorial for moving the markers!

Let me know if you’re interested! I’m hoping to publish this pattern in early to mid-December.

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Introducing: Deep End Cowl

Posted on November 10, 2020 | 1 comment
Taller cowl

When I designed the Deep End hat as a teaching piece for my brioche classes, a knitter asked if I would also design it as a cowl, because she doesn’t wear hats. Voilà!

The Deep End Cowl is a 2-color brioche cowl, knit in the round from the bottom up. It features a large staghorn motif flanked by an adaptation of the gull stitch, echoing the curves of the staghorn.

You’ll learn both of the decreases on the first patterning round and have the option of one more; it’s like jumping in the deep end of the pool!

Shorter cowl, like a mock turtleneck

Cowl requires 80 (100) yards/73 (92) meters dark color, 60 (80) yards/55 (73) meters light color worsted weight yarn for shorter (taller) cowl. I knit both of these with the leftovers from my Deep End hats. They’re knit with Malabrigo Rios.

Taller cowl allows tucking top or bottom, or not, if your neck is longer than mine!

I love knitting these; they’re my comfort knitting. Most of the rounds are just plain brioche rib, and the increase/decrease pattern is easily memorized. I may knit a couple more!

The pattern is available through Ravelry here, and also through my Payhip shop here. It’s on sale for 10% off through November 17 with coupon code DEEP.

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

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Rockaway Beach birthday

Posted on November 4, 2020 | 5 comments

The family was scheduled to go to the coast in September to celebrate my birthday, but wildfire smoke (and fire at the coast) meant we had to postpone. We finally did go last week…I like to joke that I celebrate my birthday all month, but this has been a two month birthday. Why not, 2020?

We’re still distancing from the kids; they’re a bubble and we’re a bubble. I rented the house I usually rent for Crafty Moms weekend. They had the downstairs unit and we had the upstairs. The house has 5 bedrooms/5 bathrooms and sleeps 16, and there were only 4 of us.

The weather cooperated beautifully, which meant we could have all our meals out on the deck. Otherwise, we would have been dining separately on two levels.

One rather large jellyfish

We had lots of beach walks and good conversation. (And my boots finally cracked and leaked. Sorry to see these go.)

Deep End Cowl

I finished the cowl version of Deep End. I love, love, love it. Pattern coming soon. I knit this with the leftovers from the first Deep End hat.

Don’t knit with the tail, really

I wanted to knit a shorter version (I have a short neck) so I cast on another, with leftovers from the pink Deep End hat. I noted that I should cut the tail so I wouldn’t knit with it. Well, you know what happened…of course.

I managed to make some progress before going home. And it was so warm on the last day, I could hang out with no sleeves at all. Pretty nice for almost November!

It was a perfect birthday celebration.

Twin Rocks at sunset
Rockaway sunset

Carrying that peace forward as we await the results of Election Day here in the USA. Just breathe!

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Evolution in class planning

Posted on October 21, 2020 | 2 comments

My new and improved Brioche Increase/Decrease class is set to debut this Saturday. I designed my new Deep End hat especially for this class, so you can get a lot of practice with both left and right leaning decreases during the 2 hour class. 

Deep End brioche hat
Deep End

I was chatting in a Petite Brioche class this past weekend, and someone asked if there would be a cowl version of this hat, because she didn’t wear hats and would rather knit a cowl. Well, there’s not a cowl yet, but I could see doing one. Not in time for this weekend, though!

Madrona Cowl

But! My Madrona Cowl uses the same kinds of increases and decreases, and it would be perfect for this class, too. So I’m expanding the class projects to be a choice of either the Deep End hat or the Madrona Cowl. I like that there are options in this class; that makes it better for more students. I always want to improve my classes, and this one has been especially fun to develop.

If you’re already registered for this class, I’ll be emailing you with the added option. And if you would like to register, the link is here. If you’re registering for class through Twisted, the pattern is already included in your class fee.

In order to make this work, I’ve updated the Madrona Cowl pattern with easier-to-read charts (thanks, Stitchmastery!). I’ve also changed the pattern language to use the more standard sl1yo terminology, which matches the language in the Deep End hat. No confusion in class! The pattern is available on Ravelry, and also on Payhip. Also, if you previously purchased the Madrona Cowl pattern through Ravelry, the updated version is in your library, as well as the older version.

I’m having a lot of fun teaching on Zoom. These pictures are from my Petite Brioche classes this past weekend. I took them near the end of class, so some people have already left. We had fun!

Petite Brioche is a great first step in 2-color brioche in the round. From there, increases and decreases are a logical next step. Come knit with me!

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Fun with Knit Picks

Posted on October 18, 2020 | 2 comments

First off, my Holiday Stockings pattern from Knit Picks has been free for one week (I think through Monday, tomorrow), during their 12 weeks of gifting event. You can find the pattern here. (Sorry for the late notice; I was waiting for one more Knit Picks related thing to include in this post, but it hasn’t happened yet. Rather than have you miss the pattern, I’m posting without it.) Sixty-eight days ‘til Christmas!

I designed this pattern for them a few years ago, and it has done so well for them that they bought it from me outright, rather than returning it to me at the end of its exclusivity period. Win-win!

These are knit with bulky yarn, so they’re big and they’re quick. Lots of room in there. They’re very similar to my Snowflake Christmas Stocking, which is knit with worsted, and has many more motif options for the cuff.

(there’s a bird motif, too, not shown here)

Also fun, here’s a YouTube link to the Facebook Live Zoom interview I did with Knit Picks this summer! It feels like a very long time ago.

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Posted in giveaways, Knit, pattern design

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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?

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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!)

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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!

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Introducing: Piano Christmas stocking!

Posted on September 17, 2020 | 8 comments

Busy busy over here! I guess being confined to quarters (wildfire smoke creating beyond hazardous air quality, plus pandemic) makes me pretty productive.

pdxknitterati piano christmas stocking

I‘ve had requests for a pattern for my piano Christmas stocking from knitters who have seen it on my blog and my project page on Ravelry. I’m finally getting to it! This is one I made for myself about 20 years ago, before I started designing.

I wrote a Snowflake Christmas Stocking pattern based on the other stockings I had knit for the family. I’ve updated it with additional cuff treatments over the years. It was pretty easy for me to look at my piano stocking and chart it. It did require a little adjustment to the stitch count, but that was easy to figure out, too. I’ve just added the new chart to the Snowflake Christmas Stocking pattern. These knit up quickly in heavy worsted/aran weight yarn. (I used Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted for mine.)

We have quite an assortment! These are the family stockings. All these designs, plus birds, are in the updated Snowflake Christmas Stocking pattern. (I made the new piano keys chart just a bit taller, to match the other stockings.) If you previously purchased this pattern, you will find this update in your Ravelry library.

If you’d like to purchase this pattern, it’s available on Ravelry and Payhip. Both are on sale for 15% off through September 23. Newsletter with subscriber discount coming soon, too. (I’m trying to consolidate some newsletter items so I don’t send a raft of newsletters this month. One more item tomorrow!)

pdxknitterati christmas

Here’s a classic assortment at our house. The Super Cabled Christmas Stockings are another pattern of mine, in super bulky yarn. The cat pawprint stocking is from a book, not mine, somewhere.

Between these stockings and the Tidal Wave Mitts and Hat, I think it might be time to start knitting for the holidays! Looking forward to having 2020 in the rearview mirror.

It’s still really smoky here, and the Air Quality Index is still listed as Hazardous. A sunbeam broke through the smoke yesterday to grace my sunroom floor. The air is supposed to improve this weekend. Hoping it does!

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