Category Archives: pattern design

Celebrating Brioche Knit Love

Posted on October 30, 2023 | 3 comments
Brioche Knit Love

October marks the second anniversary of the publication of my book, Brioche Knit Love. I wrote it in 2021, as an extension of my love for designing and teaching brioche knitting. It’s still my favorite kind of knitting!

Seafoam Latte scarf

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to write this book. It was first published by Marie Greene’s Library House Press, which no longer exists. Since then it sold out, and I had to figure out how to keep it going.

Printing 1000 copies and running a warehouse from my home? I didn’t have the mental bandwidth for that. In May I finally figured out how to sell it via Amazon/Kindle Publishing Direct, and that works really well for me. I don’t have to mail anything myself, which is great. I also sell the books wholesale to local yarn shops, if it works for both of us. Winner!

I’ve been enjoying all the Brioche Knit Love Facebook Memories posts this month, so I wanted to share that bit of fun.

Seagull Flight

If you want a book that takes you from beginning to more advanced brioche, Brioche Knit Love is the book for you. I made video tutorials to go with the book, too, for a complete brioche experience.

Currently on the needles: more brioche! It’s all about the syncopated brioche edges on this piece. I’m knitting with this gorgeous Anzula Lucero DK which has a bit of sparkle in it.

I’m finding that I’m on a roll with wooden needles; I really like them for a little more control than my usual stainless steel. These needles are Knitters Pride Ginger. I like the finish on these birch needles; they’re not overly slick. But not sticky, either!

Do you have a favorite type of needle? I find it depends on the yarn. For this project, these needles are perfect!

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Posted in Knit, my book project, pattern design, yarn

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Coming soon: a bit of brioche

Posted on October 24, 2023 | 7 comments
Aspen leaves on a brioche cowl

I just finished knitting the second iteration of this piece, a bit smaller than the one shown. It’s a cowl that looks like a triangular shawl. This is one of my favorite shapes, because it’s so easy to wear. No danger of falling off!

Swatching with a Dutch 75 on our Alaska cruise last month

The cowl features syncopated brioche rib, and an aspen leaf motif that climbs along the edge. It takes two skeins of fingering weight yarn in contrasting colors. I knit both sizes with my two skeins of Manos del Uruguay Alegria.

I’m looking for a few brioche-loving test knitters. Is that you? Let me know!

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Introducing: Star Flower Shawl

Posted on October 19, 2023 | 3 comments
Star Flower Shawl: Dream in Color Smooshy, Tip Top Tangerine and Sonoran Magic

This gorgeous shawl has been in the works since last spring! I wanted it to be absolutely perfect, and let the yarn tell me what it should be. The first idea was a whisper, and I refined it several times until it sang out. The shawl features flowers and assigned pooling stars (or are they flowers, too?) on a garter stitch background. I love that it has more than just assigned pooling; lace adds a harmonious counterpoint. And it’s an answer to several knitters who wanted a shawl instead of a cowl.

Star Flower Shawl: Dream in Color Smooshy, Bali Wood and Rabbit Ears

Choose two 420 yard skeins of fingering weight yarn and enjoy the star show! I loved choosing these color combinations in Dream in Color Smooshy.

Star Flower Shawl: Dream in Color Smooshy, Violet Fields and Lime Ice

So much so that I helped test knitter Ann Berg pick these for her version, too!

Pink Pop and Sonoran Magic would also be lovely!

The Star Flower Shawl pattern is available through Ravelry, link here.

It’s also available through Payhip, link here.

Use coupon code SHINE through October 25, 2023 for 15% off the pattern on either site. Edit: I’m extending this to October 28, 2023 because I forgot to post to Instagram before Rhinebeck weekend, and it got a little lost!

Thank you to tech editor Jen Lucas, test knitter Annie Berg, and model Sharon Hsu.

Three lacy flowers at the center neckline
Star Flowers

This combination made me think of meteor showers amid the Milky Way. What do you want yours to be?

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Slip Away Cowl update

Posted on September 17, 2023 | 7 comments
Slip Away Cowl

I just updated my Slip Away Cowl pattern. I’ve added a bonus stitch pattern, Zig Zag Lightning. It uses a nifty cable stitch to zigzag the slipped stitches.

Zig Zag Lightning

I also updated the single garter stitch edge to a 2 stitch knit-in i-cord edging. I really like it; you can see it on the edges of the swatch above. You probably won’t see much of it when the cowl is worn, but it’s a great skill to have in your knitting toolbox. It’s not just for slip stitch knitting. It looks especially nice on garter stitch.

Slip Away Cowl

I enjoyed knitting this new sample, after I finally settled on colors. This is English Rose and Liquidambar in Malabrigo Rios.

I originally designed the Slip Away Cowl as a teaching piece. The cowl is knit with two colors of worsted weight yarn. It features six easy slip stitch patterns; you get fun colorwork while using just one color per row. It’s knit flat, and then joined together at the end. This is a great way to get your cowl to be exactly the length you want. This is my favorite cowl length for wearability. The pattern includes tips on using these stitch patterns in the round, too.

The updated Slip Away Cowl pattern is available on Ravelry and Payhip. If you purchased this from me (not The Knitting Circle) previously, you’ll see the updated pattern available to you there. I’ll leave the original pattern there too, in case you prefer the previous garter edge. If you’re new to Slip Away, use the code SlipSlide for 20% off, through September 25, 2023.

Dotty Bed Socks

If you love slip stitch, also consider my Dotty Bed Socks. They’re a quick knit in worsted weight yarn; I used Malabrigo Rios for these, too. They’re knit from the cuff down, and have a flap and gusset heel turn. Magic! You can knit the top of the instep in either Dotty or stripes; instructions for both are in the pattern. The Dotty Bed Socks pattern is available through Ravelry and Payhip. Use the code SlipSlide for 20% off, through September 25, 2023.

I do love knitting with two colors, one at a time. It’s like…brioche! Which is on my needles again, finally. More on that, soon.

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Squirrel! Redux

Posted on August 31, 2023 | 4 comments
Slip Away Cowl

Again, I’m supposed to be packing, but instead I’m playing with knit-in i-cord edges for my Slip Away Cowl. You can barely see them on the right side of the fabric.

Malabrigo Rios, Solis and Liquidambar

But they’re pretty obvious on the wrong side! They’re very tidy and I love them. I’m revamping the pattern to include them, and adding an extra slip stitch pattern as a bonus. Soon!

Now I really do need to pack…

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Posted in classes, Knit, pattern design

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Buggiflooer musings

Posted on August 31, 2023 | 3 comments

I started the Buggiflooer Beanie a few days ago, adjusting the stitch count based on my known gauge with this yarn.

Katie’s Kep, da Crofter’s Kep, Bonnie Isle

I’ve knit 3 previous Shetland Wool Week hats with Jamieson’s Spindrift, which means I have 3 existing gauge swatches!

I did some math so I could reduce the main stitch count by one flower motif (which would make it an inch smaller than the previous hats), but I goofed up my math between the ribbing and the pink zigzag sections. I only realized it when I got to the next motif (flower), and was off by 4 stitches. Math, blech. I could go back and fudge it, but I I took it as a sign that I should knit a cowl instead of a beanie, anyway. I don’t wear hats very often.

You can see that I shortened the corrugated ribbing a bit when I restarted; I took out one row of each of the colors (white/gray/white) because the ribbing will repeat at the top of the cowl (symmetry!), and I don’t want it to overpower the lovely buggiflooer.

It’s going swimmingly. Look at all those pretty heathered colors in the background color, Mirry Dancer! So much more interesting than flat black. And I made a little braid with my yarn ends, so I don’t accidentally knit with a tail. I know I could weave in ends as I go, but I’m still not completely committed to the project yet.

I recently bought myself a little present…a knitting light. It’s helpful with the black yarn if I’m tinking (I don’t have to see to knit) in bed; the lamp on my nightstand isn’t quite enough. It will also be a hands-free camping light. I tried a different one earlier this month, but it was heavier and clunkier, and prone to accidentally turning on in my bag. I like this one much better!

I need to start packing for the Vogue Knitting Alaska cruise. And of course that means deciding what knitting project will come with me! I’m enjoying Buggiflooer, but I don’t want it to be my main cruise knitting next week. Cruise knitting is social knitting, and counting charted colorwork isn’t conducive to chatting.

My little DK brioche project from the schooner trip isn’t panning out the way I hoped. It was great social knitting, though. I have about 4 inches done, and it’s lovely, but my yarn scale and math are telling me that two skeins won’t get me across the finish line. It won’t be a cost-effective cowl design if it requires 4 skeins of sparkly luxury yarn, so I’ll use this beautiful yarn for a something else later.

I do have an experimental version of this shape under way in fingering weight yarn, and I think that can be completed with two skeins. But I’m not completely committed to it yet, either. I need a backup plan.

Malabrigo Rios in Solis andLiquidambar

Ever since MDK Summer Camp, I’ve been thinking of the elegant knit-in i-cord edging that we put on our mini washcloths (thank you Lorilee Bateman). So tidy! I’m planning to re-knit my Slip Away Cowl before upcoming classes, and play with that i-cord edging. If I like it, I’ll update the pattern to include it. This should be a reasonable social knitting project. Except that I’m monkeying with it a bit…

When you go on trips, what do you pack first? Knitting? Or clothing? I think you can see my priorities all over this page!

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, travel, yarn

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Coming soon: Star Flower Shawl

Posted on August 29, 2023 | 4 comments

This one has been cooking for a while! I wanted to combine assigned pooling with something in a second color to make things even more enticing, and I think it does. I began building this on ideas from my Aloha Shawl, but it was supposed to be flowers upon flowers upon flowers in the assigned pooling section, and the same flower but smaller in the flower band stripe. (That flower band took the focus away from the assigned pooling, so away it went.)

I worked really hard to make this low tonal contrast assigned pooling yarn sing on my first sample.

And so it did! The bi-colored rings around some of the flowers were fine in this orange/pink combo.

(Pre-blocking)

I knit it once more in another color while double-checking my math for the edging. I then realized that I didn’t love the all of the assigned pooling flowers in a contrastier yarn. I only liked the starry ones! See the bi-colored rings around the flowers? No thank you.

Team star flower all the way. Post-blocking

So I adjusted my directions, and now the pooling flowers are more like stars. And because I just can’t get enough of this colorway, Bali Wood, this shawl is a kissing cousin of my Starfall Cowl.

The pattern is currently being tech edited, and I’m looking for some test knitters. Is that you? You’d need 2 contrasting skeins of fingering weight yarn, one of which is dyed for assigned pooling. I’m hoping that test knitting is finished by September 30.

The pattern features assigned pooling on a garter stitch background, and some fun and fancy stitches in the contrast color. I’ve made video tutorials for the pooling stars and the flower bands.

If you look at it just right, these are shooting stars amid the Milky Way! I knit part of this during our Perseid meteor shower camping trip earlier this month. If you want to emphasize the shooting star look, you could let the extra bit of pooling color extend on just one side of the star flower. I balanced my star flowers between the extra color, only realizing while knitting the last section that I could make it look more like meteors. That’s not something I’d frog and re-knit for, but I love the idea.

Sooo, are they stars or are they flowers? I think it’s knitter’s choice!

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Tonal contrast in knitting

Posted on August 18, 2023 | 5 comments

I’m on the second knit of an upcoming assigned pooling shawl design; I won’t show you the whole thing until I’m ready to ask for test knitters. First I need to knit through again to confirm some numbers.

I started with this color combo back in March or April. So pretty!

There’s not a lot of tonal contrast between the orange and the pink…

Which meant it didn’t make much difference if I had garter bumps on the edges of the star/flower stitches.

In fact, it added a little something-something that I kind of liked.

But in my second knit, I really didn’t like those contrasty garter bumps. They looked kind of like toothy maws, waiting to bite. No thank you!

So I’m editing the draft pattern to make all of the stars/flowers smooth on the top and bottom edges. (Looks like I may have missed one up there, oops.) This will look good in both the less contrasty and more contrasty yarns.

This design has been through a lot of fussing since I began it; I really wanted to make the assigned pooling sing as the star of the show. I think all the do-overs will be worth it in the end. The orange/pink version blocked out beautifully. I’m so glad, because I didn’t know if I would like the finished shawl until I blocked it. That was a leap of faith to keep knitting til the bitter end.

I’m looking forward to sharing this with you soon!

If you like thinking about tonal contrast, check out this previous post and this post about picking colors for my Soldotna Crop sweater in 2019.

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Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Squirrel! I should be packing, but…

Posted on July 28, 2023 | 3 comments

I’m supposed to be packing for my teaching gig in Bellingham, on the Zodiac schooner, and Ellensburg. I’m leaving tomorrow morning. But I was daydreaming in my aqua-fit class at the gym (I do a lot of designing in my head during class), and I had an idea.

So of course I had to come home and cast on. It’s brioche, my true love. This beautiful yarn is Anzula Lucero, a DK weight yarn that’s 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, and 10% Stellina (sparkle!). The colors are Storm (blue) and Hippo (gray). It’s so bouncy and fun to knit with!

It was so tempting that I now have TWO projects on the needles, which is pretty wild for this monogamous (monomaniacal?) knitter.

My other project is an assigned pooling shawl, the second knitting of this design. I need to check some numbers along the way so I’m knitting it again before putting out a call for test knitters. The first colorway turned out gorgeously, although low contrast tonally, so I’m going for high contrast this round. More about that later.

Right now? I’m still supposed to be packing (7 classes packed for next week, but no clothes yet) something besides my knitting projects, but I need to announce a winner!

The winner of the Nature Walk ebook from Knit Picks is Lynne. Congratulations! I’ll be in touch via email to work this out with you.

I’m thrilled that Honey Bee Mine is part of this collection.

Have a great weekend; have a great week! I’m leaving DH home in charge of the cats. Or the cats at home in charge of DH. It’s a mutual aid society.

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Posted in giveaways, Knit, pattern design, yarn

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Introducing: Honey Bee Mine

Posted on July 26, 2023 | 20 comments
Honey Bee Mine in Spark Speckle, Slate Kettle, and Compass Kettle

Honey Bee Mine is a cozy three-color bandana cowl that features sweet honey bees flitting among the honeycombs. The cowl looks like a triangular shawl when worn, but it needs no fussing or pinning to remain stylishly in place.

Honey Bee Mine is worked in the round from the bottom up, so the bees are flying upwards. Multiple yarnovers over several rounds are dropped and scooped up to form the wings of the honey bees, and double yarnovers create bold eyelets for the honeycomb. The pattern uses 3 colors of fingering weight yarn. The edging can be knit in either Brioche Rib or 1×1 Ribbing. (I’m always sneaking in brioche!)

Honey Bee Mine in Panettone Speckle, Slate Kettle, and Gold Hill Tonal

I designed this for Knit Picks using Hawthorne Fingering. I love this workhorse of a yarn! The pattern is available from Knit Picks too, as an individual pattern download, or as part of the Nature Walk Lace Patterns ebook.

Thanks to Sharon Hsu for modeling for me (top picture)!

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