Tag Archives: assigned pooling

New brioche knitters, upcoming classes

Posted on October 16, 2024 | 4 comments

Mount Hood, and clouds above the Columbia River

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.

We were at a Franciscan retreat center in Prior Lake, and the grounds were lovely.

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.

Come knit with me!

4 Comments

Posted in classes, Knit, travel

Tagged assigned pooling, Brioche knitting, brioche knitting classes, islesburgh toorie, knitting, Minnesota Knitters Days, stranded colorwork

Peekaboo Cowl, test knitters wanted

Posted on September 12, 2024 | 10 comments

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.

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.)

10 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged assigned color pooling, assigned pooling, Brioche knitting, brioche plus assigned pooling, peekaboo cowl

Dream fulfilled, and upcoming design

Posted on August 29, 2024 | 12 comments

Remember this? It was worth frogging, re-skeining, soaking, rewinding.

I’ve been dreaming all year about a way to combine brioche and assigned pooling/algorithmic knitting in a way that pleases me. I’ve done a lot of knitting and frogging along the way.

I love this color pooling yarn from Yarn Snob/Knits All Done; the green/purple is Bellina, which is named for an orchid. I wanted to make it sing! Bisquee thinks it looks good, too. Do you see peacock feathers? Flames?

I had first used some of this yarn to design Trailing Leaves (coming soon!). It’s lovely, but you can’t see the pooled stitches, so Trailing Leaves will be just brioche. And no, I didn’t frog this cowl!

I frogged this one, that I knit with the remaining yarn. And I’m glad I did.

Side note: Test knitting for Trailing Leaves is wrapping up, and I’m planning to publish it next week. I have a wonderful group of test knitters; we’ve had a great time working on this. I’ve knit two more samples along with them. Stay tuned!

12 Comments

Posted in cat, pattern design, yarn

Tagged algorithmic knitting, assigned pooling, Brioche knitting, Knits All Done, trailing leaves, trailing leaves cowl, yarn snob yarns

Decisions, decisions

Posted on July 9, 2024 | 10 comments

I’ve been playing with some ideas, zeroing in on what to keep, and what to toss. This first version (Knit Picks Chroma Fingering) was my attempt to spare my pooling yarn from the tenth frog/restart. It’s pretty good, just a bit longer than I wanted. I’ve got it figured out, and I’ll be looking for test knitters soon.

This pooled version (Yarn Snob Fingering) is the right length, and I changed the increase rate to get to the number of stitches I wanted for the edging. But you can’t really see the pooling, because it’s on the sides and back of the green brioche section. Why do all that extra work, if you’re not going to see it when you wear the finished object? The leaves are really the star of the show. So I don’t plan to release a pooled version as a pattern; it’s a unicorn.

That doesn’t mean I want to give up the idea of combining brioche with pooling/algorithmic knitting.

Places you can knit: Bon Bon Vivant sound check!

There’s enough yarn left over for me to design another piece. It features that lovely syncopated edging, too. I’m halfway done…

Places you can knit: Margo Price at the Blues Fest

We had a great time at the Waterfront Blues Festival this weekend. It was HOT, so we were mostly there during the evenings. Of course I brought my knitting.

And my Lantern Moon fan, which I’ve had since 2009 (Sock Summit!). Make your own breeze!

Local great Curtis Salgado and 11 more fabulous musicians

Hawthorne Bridge lift for the fireworks barge to get through

Doing our part! (We take this picture every year)

Bisquee hopes you’re keeping cool! We have central air conditioning, so she’s not as hot as she looks. She’s enjoying her bit of sunshine.

Do you knit when it’s hot? It’s always nice indoors here! But I did knit outdoors at the festival, too. At least it was a small, not very woolly project!

10 Comments

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

Tagged algorithmic knitting, assigned pooling, bon bon vivant, briioche cowl, Brioche knitting, trailing leaves cowl, waterfront blues festival

If at first you don’t succeed…

Posted on April 20, 2024 | 8 comments

I worked very hard at not working on my current design project during the week before I went to the coast. I wanted to have an established work in progress so I could be sociable while I knit.

I want to combine brioche and assigned pooling, two of my favorite types of knitting! I was planning to use a V’d stitch like in Fanfare. In my imagination, they’d be airier because there would be the brioche purl stitches between the knit stitches, and I was going to dip down and out to the side to make upside down Vs. But I found out pretty quickly that it would not be very much fun to make those Vs if the pooling color happened on the wrong side of the fabric. I need a pooling stitch that will work on both right and wrong sides. And it needs to fit into the rhythm of brioche.

I used brioche increases to make my Vs instead. So sweet! I set the project aside, ready to knit at the coast.

It took 70 rows of coastal knitting, but I finally realized: All of those cute stitches *really were* increases, and they were going to throw off my shawl shaping. You can see in the picture above where all the increases have thrown off the straight edge on the right. Oops. Also, I had elongated the Pear Leaf edging from 10 to 12 rows, and it didn’t really look like a leaf any more. Double oops.

So this is my project, frogged, at the coast. Since then I’ve knit and frogged and restarted it at least 5 more times while settling on the syncopated cream colored edging pattern (not pear leaf after all) and how to handle the pooling stitches. Remember, I make the mistakes so you don’t have to! And now I’ve figured out where it’s going. I’m kind of obsessed, and all I want to do is knit this gorgeous yarn. Why yes, that’s Yarn Snob Keith’s Bellina colorway again, this time paired with cream. I love the combo; it tones down the green just a little bit. No previews yet.

What are you knitting for spring?

8 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design, yarn

Tagged assigned pooling, Brioche knitting, knitting, yarn snob yarns

Coming soon: Bellini Bubbles? (Test knit?)

Posted on April 18, 2024 | 15 comments

I thought I was done with assigned pooling for a while, but during my Starfall KAL with Yarn Snob Keith I fell in love with a colorway used by one of the participants.

The colorway is Bellina, named after one of dyer Keith’s orchids. When I saw it, I had to have it. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

When I asked Ann Berg to test knit Prosecco Pop in a smooth yarn, she used a pooling yarn instead of a slubby one. I loved the idea, but I wanted more pooling, and fewer eyelets. It took a few tries to figure out the proportions, and I even changed my mind after my sample was finished, but here’s the basic idea.

I was going to use a different assigned pooling stitch, but these star flowers are so perfect here. This was knit with one skein of fingering weight yarn, dyed for assigned pooling.

The pattern has been tech edited, and now I’m looking for a few test knitters. Is that you? Let me know!

Edit: Test knit is full, thank you!

15 Comments

Posted in KAL, pattern design, yarn

Tagged assigned pooling, bellini bubbles, knitting, test knit, yarn snob yarns

Ring in the New Year with a new project

Posted on December 31, 2023 | 1 comment

I forgot to add the biggest knit thing I did in 2023, which was also a second chance: I re-published my sold out, out of print book, Brioche Knit Love: 21 Skill Building Projects from Simple to Sublime! It’s for sale through Amazon.com and through select yarn shops including For Yarn’s Sake and Northwest Yarns and Mercantile. Get a copy and enjoy brioche knitting!

To ring out the old year and ring in the new, I’m having a sale on my 2023 individual self-published patterns on Ravelry. These are the eight designs you see above (not the book, which is not on Ravelry). Here’s a link to the Ravelry bundle so you can find them easily. Get 20% off any of my 2023 patterns from now through January 5, 2024. Explore assigned pooling, play with brioche, or just have a simple knit and let a gradient yarn walk you through Ebb and Flow! (If Ravelry is not accessible for you, message me and we’ll work it out.)

Happy new year…are you doing something fun for New Year’s Eve? We’re staying home with the cats. That’s enough excitement for us!

1 Comment

Posted in Knit, my book project, pattern design

Tagged assigned pooling, Brioche Knit Love, brioche knit love book, Brioche knitting, Knit, knitting, pattern sale, ravelry

2023 knit recap, second chances, aloha

Posted on December 30, 2023 | 5 comments

These are my finished designs of 2023; there are still 3 in the hopper that will be published in 2024. Assigned pooling was definitely a big part of my year! Pooling is a Cinch, Firefly Trails, Fanfare, Starfall, and the Star Flower Shawl were my pooling pieces.

I started the year with the Aspen Leaf Coasters, which were a brainstorm off my re-worked Aspen Leaf brioche scarf for Knit Picks. Because what if you only had to knit one leaf instead of a whole scarf?That was a fun idea, and I designed them so I could use them for a class on brioche increases and decreases. (I’m teaching it at Red Alder on February 16.) I finished the year with the Aspen Leaf Brioche Cowl (center bottom) because I love that leaf motif. I’m back to my beloved brioche and leaves after my assigned pooling detour.

I counted up all my projects for the year, and there were 25 FOs. Two were from other designers, the Sink Mates mini washcloths by Lorilee Beltman, and the Buggiflooer cowl adapted from the Buggiflooer Beanie by Alison Rendall (for Shetland Wool Week). The other 23 were from my own designs.

I knit several of these pieces more than once while developing or revising the designs. I love second (and third) chances, don’t you?

Ebb and Flow in variegated, long gradient (pink), mini skeins (blues/greens)

I designed Ebb and Flow to use a souvenir skein of Moss Fibers yarn from Knit Maine 2022. Then I knit it again with the long pink gradient. I loved the color, but I think the yak/silk blend doesn’t have enough bounce to help it hold its shape (it didn’t help that I made the neckline wider, but that was a good thing to learn for the design). And then I knit it with mini skeins, and that was awesome.

I knit two more Starfall cowls for the upcoming knit along with Knits All Done/Yarn Snob, and found that a bigger, fuller star was ideal based on Keith’s dyeing patterns, along with an extended lace edging due to his generous yardage. (I had to knit through an entire skein to make sure there would be enough.)

Second chances can add a lot to an experience, whether it’s knitting or something else. While we were on vacation this month in Hawaii, we took advantage of two second chances. I had gone rock hopping with the kids at Wawaloli Beach in 2018, but we never came to the wave crashing tide pools that were pictured in our guide book.

These are great for wading, if you’ve got kids. The calm pools that we saw before were full of interesting sea life, including shingle urchins.

We hiked the the 1871 Trail at Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau in 2021, but missed the Coastal Trail that intersects with it.

It was definitely worth going back and doing it again for the short Coastal Trail; the tide pools were full of interesting fauna. Why do sea urchins put things on themselves? Camouflage, maybe?

Looking back from 1871 Trail at lava shelf/tide pools

I was a little sorry to learn that we were going to be on vacation during the new moon, which meant no moonsets. But after several days of waking at 5 AM by accident, I decided to have my coffee in the dark on the lanai.

Orion, December 15 (amazing to capture with iPhone)

The sky was perfectly clear, and I saw Orion setting over the ocean. A green shooting star dropped from his shoulder. I saw six more meteors in the next half hour as Orion sank to the sea. Apparently the Geminid meteor shower happens at this time of year, who knew? Gemini is near Orion in the night sky. There is also an Orionid meteor shower, but that one peaks in October.

Do you knit/do things more than once? I do! And learn a little more each time.

Happy new year!

5 Comments

Posted in KAL, Knit, pattern design, travel

Tagged Aloha, assigned pooling, big island, geminid meteor shower, hawaii, knit design, kona, meteor shower, tide pools

Starfall KAL update

Posted on December 26, 2023 | 2 comments

We’ve added Pooling is a Cinch to the Starfall KAL, so now it’s a PDXKnitterati Assigned Pooling KAL!

We’re kicking off the knitalong on January 9 via Zoom. I’ll be there to demonstrate some techniques and give you pointers on how much more you can do with Starfall and this fabulous yarn!

The Starfall pattern is available through Ravelry, link here. It is also available through Payhip, link here.

Check out Keith’s colors here; choose a color that works for assigned pooling in 100g fingering weight for Starfall. There are a lot of pooling colors to choose from. Your yarn purchase will get you on the Zoom invite list. Order your yarn by December 27 so you can knit with us in January!

Convertible hat/cowl knit using assigned pooling technique — Pooling is a Cinch in Times Square colorway

UPDATE: We’re adding Pooling is a Cinch to our KAL; if you order this yarn (it’s worsted weight, so an even quicker knit) from Keith, you’ll get the Zoom invite, too. Wednesday Dec. 27 is the last day to order to get your yarn on time for the January 9 Zoom. Jump into the pool with us!

AND! I’ve opened a thread in my Ravelry group so we can discuss both of these projects and the KAL. Here’s the link. Hope to knit with you in January!

2 Comments

Posted in events, KAL, Knit, yarn

Tagged assigned color pooling, assigned pooling, kal, knit-along, knitalong, knitting, Pooling is a Cinch, starfall cowl, starfall kal, starfall knitalong, yarn, yarn snob yarns

Yarn, beautiful yarn

Posted on November 16, 2023 | 4 comments

I’m planning to make a sample of my Starfall cowl with Keith Leonard’s fingering weight Yarn Snob yarn. I love his yarns for assigned pooling. We’re planning to do kits.