I’m so happy with my current WIP (work in progress). It’s brioche knitting with Knit Picks Chroma Fingering in Drawing Room and Bare. I love the gentle color shifts in Drawing Room. This was yarn I found in my small stash.
Of course it can’t be just plain brioche rib, right? So there’s some syncopation going on, plus some increases and decreases to make it pretty and engaging to knit. Because this yarn is single ply, it’s knitting up to be a fluffy wonder, but probably too warm to wear until this fall. I think the plied version is going to be be perceived as lighter weight, even though they’re both fingering weight yarns.
Side craft: I saw Romi Hill do this on Instagram, so I wanted to try it.
Crafty pouf time!
You know those bath poufs for scrubbing? They’re made of a long tube of nylon net, which is pretty much the same as a very long yarn sleeve. I had a pink one at home, but decided that I wanted a more neutral color. This pale green was as close as I could get to neutral. I snipped the string that held the center together, and was rewarded with 3.5 yards (3.2 meters) of usable tube.
Yarn sleeves!
I like mine to be about 5.5 to 6 inches long; they shorten up when stretched. I’ll get at least 20 sleeves from this inexpensive (less than $2) pouf. I’m finding that these are a little looser/wider than the commercial ones, but they’ll do. (Edit: Romi says that steaming them can make them a little narrower/tighter.) Why do I like these sleeves? They keep the ball tidy, no yarn unwinding from the outside of my center pull ball.
Knit Picks Chroma in Bare and Drawing Room
Do you prefer a center pull ball/cake, or working from the outside? I usually like center pull. But I’m knitting one of my projects with Knit Picks Chroma, and it’s easier to knit from the outside of those balls, no sleeve needed.
This monogamous knitter just said “one of my projects,” haha! I kind of have two right now. They’re related; the green one is an brioche and assigned pooling project but I made an math error in my decrease rate, whoops! It was bottom up, so while I was re-figuring, I also decided to make it top down. And to save the yarn from many more froggings while I work things out (it’s holding up amazingly well through several different design ideas), I decided to do a non-pooled version with the Chroma.
I’ve just frogged the green project, so I really do have only one project on my needles!
Well, I didn’t manage to knit in public on Worldwide Knit/Craft in Public Day, but I did knit at a baseball game last Thursday. I’ll knit anywhere, on MY schedule. That piece of knitting has since been frogged; I decided I wanted it to be narrower. Each cast on is a swatch, until it’s not!
The previous cast on went along for quite a while until I realized that I made a math error on the decrease shaping. Along the way I decided to flip it from bottom up to top down because increases are prettier than decreases, and I’d start with fewer stitches. Bonus! That’s what I was experimenting with at the baseball game.
Marine Drive, Columbia River
No knitting while bicycling! DH and I went on a bike ride along the Columbia River. We had great views of the river, birds, Mount Hood (see it at the top of the picture?). This is an urban ride on a path alongside Marine Drive, which is very busy! I’m glad we could be off the road for most of it.
Fundraiser for Parkinson’s support
We’re participating in a fundraiser for Parkinson’s Resources of Oregon this month. DH was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease last year (early, mild symptoms, doing great). Parkinson’s Resources of Oregon has very helpful programs including informational seminars, activities, and support groups. If you’d like to donate, here’s my link. Thanks for considering it! And here’s a link to DH’s Parkinson’s blog, if you’re interested.
We’re making the most of a string of perfect summer days. Not too hot, not too cool. I hope your weather and knitting are…perfect!
Purple was the overwhelming favorite pick for comb and wattle, and I think it looks great. I chose green eyes to pick up the green in her tail feathers. And I didn’t bother washing/blocking before seaming; her stitches are pretty even, right off the needles. Git. Er. Done.
Eggatha joins her big sister Henelope Aubergina Featherington. I used a US7 needle for Henelope, and a US5 for Eggatha. Eggatha is smaller and stuffed more firmly, which is what I wanted for Emotional Support Chicken #2. Do you ever knit something more than once, because you have an idea for how you’d like it better if you changed something about it?
Henelope and Eggatha, size comparison
And now I guess I should get back to work knitting! I think I’m going to frog my brioche/assigned pooling project and start over, because it’s not quite what I want. Almost there, I hope? The chickens have been a nice diversion while I ponder what happens next. Procrastiknitting for the win!
I couldn’t resist, and Eggatha Crispy is nearly done. I just need to knit comb and wattle, and then stuff and sew! I’m knitting on a smaller needle (US5 instead of US7) with the same yarn, Malabrigo Rios, so she’s smaller and more compact than her sister Henelope Featherington.
Currently trying to decide if her comb and wattle should be lilac like her breast, or peach like her beak. Or deep purple, for contrast. Any thoughts?
Bellini Bubbles is a triangular shawlette, knit on the bias from the point to the wide end. It features assigned pooling and bubbly eyelets.
Bellini Bubbles is knit with a single skein of fingering weight yarn that is dyed for assigned pooling. You can also extend the size with another skein of yarn, if you like a bigger shawl.
I knit mine with Yarn Snob’s Bellina colorway, which inspired this design’s name.
This pattern is available on Ravelry, link here, and also on Payhip, link here. Use coupon code BELLA for 15% off on either platform.
Thanks to tech editor Jen Lucas, test knitters Ann Berg, Carolyn Crisp, Alaina Foster, Sarah Gallegos, Ann Harting, Jacqueline Lydston, Lenore MacLeod, Ellen Peters, Jamie Peterson, Kristin Smith, Crystal W., and model Sharon Hsu.
Special thanks to Keith Leonard of Yarn Snob/Knits All Done for this beautiful yarn to design with!
Miss Henelope Featherington is our diamond debutante of the season!
I thought her name was Aubergina, but perhaps that’s her middle name. I was watching Bridgerton last night, and realized that this chicken needed to honor Penelope. So she’s Miss Henelope Aubergina Featherington.
Miss Featherington enjoys the pianoforte.
She joins her family, waiting to be knocked over by Calvin the Cat.
Is this a come hither look or what?
Notes: Pattern is Emotional Support Chicken, available on Ravelry or from the Knitting Tree LA. I used Malabrigo Rios and a US 7 needle; if I were to do it again I’d use a smaller needle so I could stuff it more firmly without the stuffing showing through. Seaming wasn’t as awful as I thought it might be. And I used scraps of yarn to close up any gaps that showed in the fabric (like where the tail feathers come together, and next to the decreases on the beak) before stuffing.
I FINALLY sewed in my ends (there are just two, beginning and end) on Bellini Bubbles because I’m taking pictures with my sister tomorrow. Nothing like the power of a deadline! But do you see what made me gasp?
See the unsecured bent petal of that middle flower? I’m going to guess I dropped a stitch somewhere above it, because…see the two loose stitch columns above the unsecured petal? Clearly there’s a column of stitches missing above that unsecured petal. There’s no stitch missing from the flower above, so it happened somewhere between the two flowers.
I hooked up the column with a crochet hook: The loose pink loop was the first to get picked up on my hook. Then I hooked up the running thread *between* those two loose stitch columns. That takes up the slack that made those two stitch columns become loose when the in-between stitch dropped down, so it’s firming up the green stockinette area, as well as rescuing my loose loop.
To secure this, I put a piece of yarn through the last loop at the top of the column (right before the next flower), pulled it to the back of the work, and fastened it there. Whew! And now I have four ends sewn in, instead of the original two.
There’s a little gap between the first 2 petals of the next flower because now there’s a stitch column where there wasn’t one when that flower was made. That’s a small price to pay for securing my flower petal. All better.
Bellini Bubbles is nearly done with test knitting, and I am seeing some stunning colors. Assigned pooling is so much fun! I’m planning to publish this next week, May 21. Get your yarn ready!
In other news, Chickalong Day 6 finds me waiting for my wet blocking to dry. Stuffing and seaming up next! I have a forever bag of poly fiberfill from some project in the distant past, so I’m ready.
I finished the body/head/beak this afternoon. Behold the spatchcocked chicken!
That bit of orange yarn is where I started picking apart the tail seam. I had crocheted it at night. Dark purple yarn and low light meant I wandered off my straight line. I started picking it out to fix it, and then realized I was picking from the beginning, not the end. Just like knitting, crochet only ravels in one direction (you have to tediously pick in the other direction). So I yanked the whole seam from the other end, and it’s much better now.
Folded in half, you can see that it really is going to be a chicken! I’ve also knit the comb and the wattle, and I’m halfway through the undersection. After that, it’s just seaming and stuffing, and picking an eye color. I now own enough eyes for dozens of chickens; you can’t just buy a couple sets online. But at least I’ll have a range of colors to choose from.
Calvin is looking forward to meeting Aubergina. You can see he’s quite comfortable with Gromit and Wocket, and the korknisse, too. Yes, my little Christmas tree is still up. Up until this week, Calvin had stopped sitting with/knocking over Gromit. But suddenly the tree doesn’t intimidate him any more, so it’s time to take it down!
She’s coming along nicely! I’m about to start the breast. More short rows! In garter stitch, short rows are no big deal. I don’t use them a lot in my knitting life; I tend to think in straight lines. I also spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at safety eyes on Amazon; she’s going to need some peepers!
We had a great weekend. Yesterday the kids came over to make dinner for Mother’s Day. My pick? Oxtails. We used this Instant Pot recipe. Yummmm. I think next time I’d sub apple cider vinegar for the balsamic. It didn’t need a deeper flavor, but the brightness was nice. And we added more fish sauce for perfect umami. It’s super fun to hang out with these guys and play with food!
Friday night my Facebook feed blew up with pictures of the aurora borealis, seen from here in Portland and points further south, too. I went out at midnight to find a bit of dark sky. I ended up on Marine Drive on the Columbia River, looking across to Government Island by the I-205 bridge.
Glenn Jackson I-205 Bridge, waxing moonset
I couldn’t see the aurora with my naked eye, but my iPhone XS picked up some color.
If you can’t see it with your eye, can you say you’ve seen the aurora? My eyes didn’t see the sky as green; it was black with a little bit of white-ish haze.
Aurora Borealis
I edited the previous picture to pop a bit more, and to match the background of what my eye was seeing (the blackness of trees on the island). This pinkness matches more what friends with newer phone cameras were seeing. I invited DH out the next night to see, so I could try his newer phone.
No aurora Saturday night, but night mode on his camera works great! (No flash, and the red is from the neighboring car’s tail lights). Our kids went out to Powell Butte to try to see, but there was’t anything to see. The lesson here: Wait until your Facebook feed blows up with pictures, and then you know it’s time to go!
So I’ve “seen” the aurora, and I haven’t! But it was fun trying. It’s still on my bucket list. Did you see it?
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 