I love my little peekaboo motif so much. I couldn’t let it go yet. Brioche plus assigned pooling is my current obsession. (Did you see my Peekaboo Cowl?)
With a little fiddling, I can work it from the right side *and* the wrong side. Again, reversible, and different yet attractive from either side. This shawlette is knit with two skeins of fingering weight yarn, one of which is dyed for assigned pooling. I used Singles Fingering from A Chick That Knitz in Forget Me Not (pooling) and Glenhaven. It’s light and cozy at the same time.
I’m looking for a few test knitters for this shawlette. Are you interested? Let me know!
The Peekaboo Cowl is a 2 color brioche cowl, knit in the round. It features assigned pooling/algorithmic knitting motifs that peek between the brioche ribs. The pattern includes a video tutorial for the Peekaboo motif.
Peekaboo is reversible; the motif looks completely different on the inside. You can wear it with a bit of both sides showing, for maximum fun. I do!
Choose 2 skeins of fingering weight yarn, one of which should be dyed for assigned pooling. You can make the cowl close to the neck, longer for double looping, or anywhere in between. I knit a short cowl because I wanted a quick project!
The Peekaboo Cowl pattern is on sale 15% off through October 29, 2024 with coupon code PEEKING. The pattern is available through Ravelry, link here. This pattern is also available through Payhip, link here. You can use the coupon code on either site.
This pattern has been professionally tech edited. Thanks also to test knitters Ann Berg, Carolyn Crisp, Diane Kay Gelder, Rhea Kohlman, and Diane O’Brien. Thanks to Keith Leonard/Yarn Snob for the beautiful yarn for the design.
I’m working on more brioche plus pooling…can’t stop, won’t stop!
Are you planning your 2025 knitting? It’s just around the corner!
VKL NYC lineup
I’ll be teaching at Vogue Knitting Live in NYC January 17-19. My newest class is Whale Conga Line, which includes brioche, syncopated brioche, and increases and decreases. I’m also teaching YO? YO! Fun and Fancy Stitches, Minerva Entrelac Cowl, Log Cabin Knitting, Tink Drop Frog (Fixing Mistakes), and Sheepy Steeky Coasters, which is always a favorite. The New York show is always amazing, especially the market and fashion shows. Come knit with us!
Red Alder lineup
Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat is February 13-16 in Tacoma, Washington. This retreat is at the Hotel Murano, which is lovely with lots of art glass on display. The classes are wide ranging, including knitting, spinning, weaving, and crochet. I’m teaching Brioche Pastiche (beginning brioche in the round), Whale Conga Line, Brioche Doctor, and Fun Stitches for Assigned Pooling. Come play with us!
I’m planning to attend Nash Yarn Fest in Nashville with the crew of Modern Daily Knitting March 14-15. This one’s just for fun for me! I’ll go to the all day festival, and the before and after parties. There will be lots of vendors that are new to me, so let’s see what comes home with me! I may have to spend some extra time before or after; I love the music scene in Nashville. And the boots!
Are you planning to attend any fiber events in 2025?
I left town before dawn last Thursday to teach for the Minnesota Knitters’ Days retreat. Our topics for the weekend: brioche, more brioche, and assigned pooling. All my favorite things!
Look at all the smiling brioche knitters! We worked on Brioche Pastiche, my choose your own adventure pattern for hat or cowl, plain or embellished. (I’m teaching this class again at Hook and Needle on Saturday; if you’re local and want to learn to knit brioche, please sign up!) We also worked on Whale Conga Line, as an introduction to brioche knit flat and syncopated brioche. That’s a lot of brioche!
Ursula and Beth finished their hats over the weekend.
And Janet simplified and fancied up the cowl pattern. I love it!
On Sunday morning we played with assigned pooling, which was a great palate cleanser. It’s fun to let the yarn boss you around…a little. You’re still the boss of your knitting, overall.
The knitters were a great group, with lots of mad skills! (Thanks to Stacey for recommending me; she was in my class at YarnOver Minnesota a couple years ago, and here too.)
Kris’s purple sweater on the left is amazing; I love the lively ribbing pattern on the collar and cuffs.
Sheryl (on the right) is the organizer of this well-run event. This is the 40th anniversary of this retreat; Sheryl was a long-time participant and took over when the previous organizer retired. Many of the participants have known each other through this event for a very long time!
Sheryl’s show and tell sweater was a fantastic example of yarn color dominance. Those stripes aren’t ribbing; they’re 1×1 stockinette stripes.
Linn brought her cardigan to show me what she did with Yarn Snob Keith’s Cabana Boy pooling colorway. I love how the white stripes lightened things up; you can see on the bottom band that the colors are pretty intense! And look how the hot pink pooled on one sleeve, and the orange pooled on the back of the other. You could never get it to do that if you were planning it.
Cabana Boy yarn
We were at a Franciscan retreat center in Prior Lake, and the grounds were lovely.
Labyrintha quiet place for tai chiOne of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakesSame sunsetMount Hood on the way home
Why yes, I choose my seat for the Mount Hood view! And now I’m home, and prepping for this weekend’s classes. Brioche Pastiche at Hook and Needle, and a stranded colorwork class at For Yarn’s Sake on Sunday, based on the Shetland Wool Week Islesburgh Toorie.
I was so blown away by the lovely colors that I forgot to do the phone trick. There’s not much tonal contrast between the Peony and Cameo, so I’ll use the Yorkshire and Peony together. I may need to downsize the pattern to make it work with these two 50g skeins, which is easy to do.
But what about that tote bag? Nash Yarn Fest will be MDK’s first foray into hosting a fiber festival. It’s happening March 14-15, 2025, and tickets go on sale TOMORROW, October 1. There are lots of ways to participate: Festival only, opening night party, after party, workshop with Arne and Carlos, or a longer destination travel getaway. Read all about it here.
Last goodies: Two MDK field guides; one for brioche, and Renewal, which is a collection of textural sweaters and accessories by Norah Gaughan. I don’t have time to knit a sweater, but I may knit these lovely mitts!
Austen Mitts, photo from Renewal field guide
Norah has such an inventive mind, and she’s a delightful person, too. She was the other teacher and my cruise buddy on the Vogue Knitting cruise to Canada and New England in 2022.
I taught a steeking class at Hook and Needle yesterday. I’ve been teaching my Sheepy Steeky Coasters class with a crochet-reinforced steek, no sewing machines for me. Too hard to carry to class! Also, I don’t trust a machine to not eat my knitting.
Boxed Hearts Coasters
I knit an additional sample this week so I could demonstrate a couple more reinforcement methods in class. This is my Boxed Hearts Coasters that I designed for a class with the Knitting Circle during the pandemic. I knit it while watching video classes the other day; can you spot my oopsie? If not, no big deal. It was fine for class!
I added a hand sewn backstitch reinforcement for students to practice, and a felted steek. Everyone got to poke all stabby-stabby on this sample, down the center red stripe. It’s already been felted in the picture above; the front looks completely normal.
But you can see that the backside is all fuzzed up. This edge isn’t going to fall apart when it’s cut!
Completely stress free. From there, the process is the same. Pick up and knit stitches along the sides, then knit the garter stitch edge that matches the upper and lower borders. Just like a buttonband. After that, sew everything down.
I love small projects for teaching new techniques. It’s much less fraught to cut a coaster than to cut a sweater as your first steek project.
We went to Nashville last week for AmericanaFest, and I didn’t knit a stitch! But there was a lot of great music, from many new-to-me artists, and a few that I did know.
Brandy Clark at City Winery
We saw Brandy Clark in the round with several other artists. This was the one singer I really wanted to see. I love her songs; she can really turn a phrase! Her song “Dear Insecurity” won the AmericanaFest Song of the Year award the night before we heard her sing it here. So close!
Old Crow Medicine Show
Old Crow Medicine Show did a pop-up at Robert’s Western World; we found out about it a few hours before. There was quite a line when we arrived, and DH was sure we’d never get in. I told him we’d stand in that line til they told us no! We got in, and eventually ended up right in front. And I got a free beer (PBR, but whatever), a cowboy boot-shaped beer cozy, and a show poster. Made out like a bandit!
My new favorites: Paul Thorn, Tami Neilson, Steve Poltz, Melissa Carper, Sunny Sweeney, Grayson Capps. Go find them all on Instagram! Now to listen to more music; I generally work in silence but it’s time to change things up.
Stopped for a soda on a hot walk, and there was a John Prine booth. Of course, Nashville, of course.
The area near 5th and Broadway has gotten a lot nicer. There’s a new National Museum of African American Music, which was excellent. And the Assembly Food Hall (in the same building, right across from the Ryman Auditorium) offers a lot of dining choices at reasonable prices, a big plus.
This was the tastiest ice cream I’ve had in a long time!
Back to my knitting! I’m teaching two classes this weekend, Sheepy Steeky Coasters at Hook and Needle in Vancouver, Washington, and Brioche Pastiche at For Yarn’s Sake in Beaverton, Oregon. Both are sold out. Happy knitting season!
I had a busy weekend teaching for Vogue Knitting Online. Sunday’s Brioche Pastiche class was particularly interesting from a teacher’s standpoint. Brioche Pastiche is a choose your own adventure pattern, good for brioche beginners and those ready for learning increases and decreases.
Brioche Pastiche options
Several of my students had tried brioche before, and wanted to review and move forward. Two had taken classes with me before. I teach brioche with conventionally mounted stitches (right leg in front), either English (right hand throw) or Continental (left hand carry, pick or throw), but the stitch mount is the same. Right leg forward.
Last February I had a student who knit using the Eastern Uncrossed style, where all stitches and yarn overs are left leg forward. I made a video for her, because it’s so different from what I usually teach.
That same student came to yesterday’s class to move forward with increases and decreases, so I had to learn that on the fly. I made a video after class, and here it is.
If you don’t knit Eastern Uncrossed, you probably don’t want to watch it because it will confuse you. But it does show that I’m dedicated to making sure my students get what they need!
Who says you can’t have it all? I’ve been dreaming of combining brioche knitting and assigned color pooling since January. After working through many design ideas, I’ve finally found one that lets both of these techniques shine.
Peekaboo Cowl, WS
This is my new Peekaboo Cowl. It’s 2 color brioche rib, knit in the round with fingering weight yarn. It features assigned pooling peeking out between the ribs. The Peekaboo stitch is reversible, and the inside of the cowl looks completely different! You get two looks with one knit.
I knit this with yarn left over from one of my Trailing Leaves cowls. The small cowl only uses 165 yards/38 grams of each color. You can easily adjust the pattern for length and height if you like longer/taller cowls.
The pattern is back from my tech editor and is ready for test knitters. Let me know if you’re interested in test knitting this lovely little cowl! (Or bigger cowl, if that’s your jam.)
Well, last week was super hot, 100 degrees F here in Portland. Definitely not dreaming-of-wool weather! So I’m extending the discount for Trailing Leaves to September 15, 2024. Use coupon code WILLOW for 15% off the Trailing Leaves pattern on Ravelry or Payhip.
Trailing Leaves
It’s going to be a lovely 74 degrees here in Portland today, with rain coming in tonight. Perfect.
I made a new video tutorial! Trailing Leaves uses a brioche purl increase along the border edging, brpyobrp. Which is just what it sounds like, but here’s the video. There’s also a link to it from my tutorials page, should you ever need it.
Time for me to get back to my knitting! I’m on a brioche plus assigned pooling tear…
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 