March 19: Aspen Leaf Coasters. This small project is a perfect introduction to brioche increases and decreases. If you have knit a little brioche rib, this class is a perfect next step for you. I need a few more students to make this class a go, so please register now if you’re interested.
May 7: Embellishment Cowl. This cowl features 3 fun techniques: A lacy fancy stitch, slip stitch quilted lattice, and beads! You’ll get a great start on all three during this class.
Brioche Entree
I’m speaking tonight (Thursday March 9) for the Puddletown Knitters Guild; you can join us in person or online. I’m talking about my brioche love affair, and starting this intro to brioche project with you. It’s free, check out the details here.
And I’m participating in Knit for Food with an in-person knitting meet up at Fremont United Methodist Church on Sunday March 26, from noon to 5 pm. Details here.
Fanfare is a convertible cowl/hat knit with worsted weight yarn, designed for my assigned pooling class at For Yarn’s Sake next month. It can be worn as a cowl
or as a hat. It’s knit with yarn that is dyed especially for assigned color pooling, with a color pop of 10 to 16 inches. This yarn is Dream in Color Classy with Cashmere, in the Violet Fields colorway. It feels so plush!
The yarn comes in 12 pooling colorways. I knit a second version to confirm my instructions (and avoid yarn chicken this time), using Dream in Color Classy with Cashmere in the Storm Berry colorway.
The color pop was longer in this skein of yarn, so I adapted my fan stitch to accommodate the difference. Instructions for the fan stitch are given in a video tutorial and in written instructions, too. There are also instructions on adapting the size of the fan stitch to suit your yarn.
The pattern is available through Ravelry and Payhip. It’s 15% off through March 14 with coupon code FAFF. If you’re signing up for my online class through For Yarn’s Sake, the pattern is already included in your class fee. Don’t buy it twice! The class is on April 2.
I have one or two more pooling patterns in the works. It’s kind of addictive!
Posted onMarch 6, 2023|Comments Off on Puddletown Knitters Guild
I’m giving a talk about my love affair with brioche knitting, including a little introductory brioche project, this Thursday evening for Puddletown Knitters Guild. The meeting is both in-person and online. Here’s a link for more information if you’d like to join us! Masks and vaccinations required for in-person. Hope to see you there!
Rose City Yarn Crawl was my third event of the month. That’s packing in the fun!
On Thursday, the day of my postponed trunk show, I put on my snow boots + YakTrax cleats and walked up to Close Knit. I wore these ancient Selbu mittens; I don’t remember when I knit them. They were too big when I knit them, so I fulled them in the sink way back when, and they are toasty warm! Way better than gloves.
I bought this tote by Kirikomade (IG) that I’ve been eyeing since last year. It’s lightweight denim, with a sweet print. One pocket inside. So pretty!
I did make it to For Yarn’s Sake on Friday for my delayed trunk show! It was great to visit with intrepid knitters. I signed books and chatted about my upcoming classes (Assigned Pooling, Aspen Leaf Brioche Coasters, Embellishment Cowl).
I bought another skein of Dream In Color Classy Cashmere to knit another Fanfare Cowl/Hat (is that it’s name? Probably! Pattern coming next week) because the green/purple one goes to For Yarn’s Sake.
Bisquee says it passes the sniff test.
I didn’t make it to more shops; I had other things on my agenda. I did personalize my bag with pins from JaMPDX and ShannyPeasCorner. Love that yarn chicken! Then we hit the road.
We ended February with Bruce Springsteen, Saturday in Portland and Monday in Seattle. It was DH’s 50th Springsteen show. A big deal, but remember…Bruce has held my sock knitting.
It’s official; we have a place for local PDX knitters to gather on Sunday, March 26. We’ll be knitting in the fellowship hall (downstairs) of Fremont United Methodist Church, 2620 NE Fremont Street in Portland. We’ll be there from noon to 5 pm (although I’ll be knitting all day). Join Margaret Waddell (co-founder of Puddletown Knitters Guild) and me for an afternoon of knitting for a good cause. Masks optional, but highly appreciated.
I’m participating in this 12 hour knitting marathon to raise funds and awareness for food insecurity. The money we raise will be equally divided among Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels.
Please support me by donating through this link.You can also sign up to participate yourself, if you’re interested. Come knit with us!
PS: I’ll have some door prizes/raffle prizes from my knitting book collection to share with you. My shelves are overflowing!
We’re snowed in! This weather system stalled over us, and we have 6-10 inches of snow. That’s a lot for Portland; we’re not equipped for it and our roads are a mess.
This means I won’t be having my trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake today. We’re hoping that roads are decent tomorrow (Friday), and if they are I’ll be there!
I still have knitting on my mind. doesn’t this look like a sweater yoke? It’s the netting between two neighboring driveways, to keep the basketballs on their side.
The brickwork on my front porch looks like slip stitch knitting. And I love how the snow is a gradient from thin to thick based on how the wind blew. I see some bobbles in there, too!
The snow on my bamboo is lovely. (I’m looking out my kitchen window; please ignore the garbage cans behind it.) To get a better view I’d have to actually go outside, and I’m still in my jammies. Maybe later. I may even ski the neighborhood.
How much can we pack into February? A LOT. I’ll never get to completely blog VKLive NYC and Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat in Tacoma, but here are some highlights.
Fun classes with great students, both at VKLive
And at Red Alder. why am I showing both Sheepy Steeky Coasters classes? Because the joy of scissors makes a great photo op!
So happy to meet up with Keith Leonard and Shaina Bilow again after Knit Maine. And new friend Dario Tubiana, too. (Check out the sheep on the door of La Pecora Bianca.)
The Empire State Building makes a great tiara…or unicorn horn. You decide.
I didn’t have a full length mirror in NYC, but I did in Tacoma, so I could do my traditional what did I wear collage. Coffee Breakers Shawl (from Brioche Knit Love), Camellia Wrap, Ebb and Flow cowl.
Ebb and Flow looks good on everyone! New Beginnings statue outside the Federal Courthouse in Tacoma. It was the train station a long time ago.
Hanging out with Alasdair Post-Quinn (double knitting king), Michael Kelson (Spinpossible), and Xandy Peters.
We had fabulous markets on both coasts. What did I buy, since you know I don’t stash yarn?
Super fun yarn and NYC-themed project bag from Maker’s Mercantile. And it comes with a notions box that fits in the pocket, too. Look closely to see all the fiber-related pictures!
Also from NYC, Jūl’s new toolkit. Choose your shape: round, square, or triangle.
You can make the shape into a shawl pin with the stick pin, or a shawl cuff with the leather band. You can use the stick pin by itself. The other two leather pieces are to close a cardigan front. And the buttons have a round ball at the end of the shank, and a leather back to pop over the ball. You can move your buttons from one piece of knitwear to the next. So far I’ve only used the cuff, but I’ve used it a lot.
From Tacoma: a silly cats in hats project bag, also from Maker’s Mercantile. Did I need it? Yes. It will help corral supplies for a class.
Oh look, yarn! I bought this peacock green to teal gradient from Schmutzerella to knit one more Ebb and Flow. I love how smoothly the colors melt into each other. I can have both the taller neck and the longer triangle with this much yardage. It’s not stash if I have a plan to cast on soon! Right now I’m trying to decide if I want the blue on top or bottom. The piece gets wider towards the bottom, so the stripe down there will be narrower, but more visible. What do you think?
Always nice to see Mt. Rainier from my hotel room window.
So very different from my hotel room view the week before!
Currently on the needles: I’m finishing an Embellishment Cowl sample. I used it in class last week at VKL, and now I need it to display at For Yarn’s Sake as a sample for my class on May 7. It’s almost done. I need to have it bound off and steam blocked by Thursday morning, just in time for my trunk show. Wish me luck!
Here’s last year, and we hope to see you this year, too! Pictured with me left to right: Debbie Stone, Lorajean Kelley, shop owner Anne Lindquist, and Shannon Squire. Our trunk show is Thursday February 23, from 10 am to 4 pm. The shop is open from 10 am to 6 pm that day.
I’ll have copies of Brioche Knit Love to sign for you; this is a great last chance to get a copy before they’re gone! I don’t know if there will be a reprint, and we’re down to the last few boxes. I’ll also have samples of my applied pooling adventures, and samples for upcoming classes. Come say howdy!
I’m just back from Vogue Knitting Live in NYC. I’ll catch up with pictures from that eventually, but right now I’m packing to go to Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat in Tacoma, Washington. I’m leaving today, so…I’ll catch up when I catch up! You can see some of my pictures on Instagram.
I worked on this assigned pooling design on my flights to and from New York. I have a very small digital scale for travel, but it’s not very accurate on a bouncy airline tray table. I waited until I was in my hotel room to carefully weigh my yarn to see how many grams it took to knit a round. Then I figured the number of rounds I needed to complete my project, and added a buffer. That yarn there? That was calculated to be enough to bind off, and knit a cord to cinch the top of this cowl/hat, just like the finishing on Pooling is a Cinch.
Almost done…and it’s clear that the bit of yarn left is not going to be enough to finish binding off the stitches on the needle. So much for math! I need about the equivalent of one more round, but I’d have to frog 10 rounds to get to the place where I would shorten this piece. Blergh.
Luckily, I remembered this trick, so here is this tutorial for you.
Binding off when you’ve lost at yarn chicken…
I win! And I like this narrower cord; it will fit in the eyelets better. That’s serendipity!
Have you ever had to resort to binding off without yarn?
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.
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