Category Archives: yarn

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.

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!

4 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged design process, dream in color smooshy, Star Flower shawl

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.

5 Comments

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.

3 Comments

Posted in giveaways, Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged anzula yarn, Honey Bee Mine, knit picks

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)!

20 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged Honey Bee Mine, Knit Picks ebook, Knit Picks Hawthorne

A very knitterly weekend

Posted on June 13, 2023 | 2 comments

I had a fabulous weekend! It began on Friday with Romi Hill’s Embrace Your Lace class, which went deep into adapting lace patterns into repeatable blocks that fit into the shaping of your designed piece. Her lace work is next level up, always gorgeous. Check out her work on Instagram, @romidesigns

Saturday morning I sat in on Julie Rosvall’s First Impressions class, which was about printmaking, including printing from knits. I only watched, because it was at 7 am my time (11 am her time in Canada!). You know I love block printing, and you know I’ll be trying this! @julierosvall on Instagram.

Both of these classes were through Virtual Knitting Live from Vogue Knitting. I also taught during this event on Sunday, Next Steps in Brioche: Increases and Decreases, using my Deep End hat, cowl, and Madrona cowl patterns.

I also had a fun chat with Josh Bennett and Amy Snell on Sunday before teaching my class. So much fun! But this was only the VKL portion of the weekend.

Saturday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day, and Knit Picks knows how to throw a party!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Michele Lee Bernstein (@pdxknitterati)

Video

I didn’t knit a stitch at WWKIP Day, but I *talked* about knitting, non-stop!

With trunk show designers MKNance and Emily Kintigh

Yes, I have the t-shirt too, but I really wanted to wear this preview of an upcoming piece for Knit Picks. Honey Bee Mine will be in a book coming this summer.

They gave me this tote (thanks for the grafting reminder!) stuffed with yarn

including these yarn samples, and several skeins of a new yarn that I don’t think I can show you yet. Stay tuned! I love that the above samples fit my 2 skein attention span rule. That purple Luminance could be a spectacular shawl.

I also snagged 3 sets of interchangeable wooden needles: Caspian, Rainbow, and Rosewood (inside the silver case), and this notions bag and pin. Swag is fun, yes?

The venue was lovely, Hidden House in Vancouver, Washington. It was great to have indoor and outdoor space. Lots of snacks, and a no-host bar for coffee or adult beverages.

Now I’m back to finishing up hat crowns for the Brioche Pastiche revamp! Knit knit knit…

2 Comments

Posted in events, Knit, pattern design, Portland area fun, yarn

Tagged knit picks, Virtual Knitting Live, Virtual VKL, WWKIP Day

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!

8 Comments

Posted in Knit, yarn

Tagged Ebb and Flow, ebb and flow cowl, Schmutzerella Yarns

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!

10 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged assigned pooling, dream in color smooshy, Schmutzerella Yarns

Ebb and Flow, encore

Posted on April 12, 2023 | 3 comments

The linen knit is coming along nicely, but I decided I needed an even simpler project for multi-tasking. I cast one one more Ebb and Flow cowl, which is mostly stockinette. I bought these minis from Schmutzerella Yarns at Red Alder Fiber Arts Festival for just this purpose. So it’s not stash!

I want the blue up by my face, and the green at the bottom edging. I’m so happy the minis have numbers on them in case I get them out of order. Blue is 6, Green is 1, so I’m working in reverse. Each mini is 92 yards/20g, and there are 6 of them for 120g total. Doing a little math, 100g is 460 yards, which is lighter in weight than the Moss Fibers (100g/394 yards) that I used for the original cowl here.

I cast on with the same size needle (US 4), but decided pretty quickly that the fabric was too open. I started again with a US 3. Much better! It makes the neck slightly smaller, but that’s fine with me. And with 552 yards total, I’m able to have both the taller cowl neck and the longer triangle body, and I know I won’t run out of yarn before I’m done.

Do you like to knit the same thing more than once? I don’t mind, especially if it’s a good multi-tasking knit.

3 Comments

Posted in Knit, yarn

Tagged Ebb and Flow, knitting gauge, Schmutzerella Yarns

Spring knitting with linen, again

Posted on April 11, 2023 | 4 comments

What goes around, comes around! This was an abandoned project from last year. I set it aside when it became clear that I wouldn’t be wearing it before summer was over. Now it’s spring again and this is the perfect simple project to keep my hands busy while I dream about the next design project and work on getting Brioche Knit Love re-published.

As I wrote last year: Back in 2019, I was swatching/playing with Quince & Co Sparrow, which is fingering weight linen. I ultimately decided to design Kittiwake in Quince’s Kestrel, which is Aran weight, for a quicker project. I used the same stitch pattern for both weights.

The blocked fingering weight piece was relegated to the stash bin for later evaluation. When I pulled it out last year I fell in love all over again with the beautifully crisp yet drapey fabric. The original piece was an excellent gauge swatch, and it even had the needles in it so I knew what size to use. I started an oversized top, basically two rectangles, no shaping. The oversized shoulder seams would come down as faux sleeves.

I was knitting it in the round from the bottom up to the armholes. Instead of the swatch’s 16 repeats/37 inches wide, I was knitting 20 repeats/46 inches, which gives me 9 inches (a lot) of ease. Perfect for a drapey swingy top for summer. I have about 2 inches (5 cm) to go before it’s time to split to work the front and back separately, back and forth to the shoulders.

I’m not usually good about going back to abandoned projects, but this one looks worthwhile! It’s not a design project, just a fun for me project, so there’s no pressure about getting it done. I’m just enjoying the ride again.

What’s on your needles for summer (or winter, down under)?

4 Comments

Posted in Knit, yarn

Tagged linen, quince and co

Coming soon: Starfall Cowl

Posted on April 10, 2023 | 12 comments

Still on the assigned pooling bandwagon! I just blocked this, and I love it. It’s a fingering weight bandana cowl with a cascade of assigned pooling stars, and an Old Shale lace edging. This is one of my favorite looks to wear; it looks like a shawl but it stays on without a fuss.

I just finished writing the pattern and video tutorial, and it will be tech edited this week. I’m looking for a few test knitters; you’d need one skein of fingering weight yarn that’s dyed for assigned pooling, with a color pop of about 8” long. I used Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere.