Tag Archives: Brioche Knit Love

Red Alder 2026

Posted on February 19, 2026 | 1 comment

I had a fabulous time at Red Alder Fiber Arts Festival last weekend. I taught 4 classes: Brioche Pastiche, Brioche Doctor, Embellished Brioche (brioche + assigned pooling), and Fun Stitches for Assigned Pooling. I was in my technique heaven!

Andrea

Andrea wore her Whale Conga Line to Assigned Pooling class. I love seeing finished projects from previous classes!

Katherine wore hers, too! And I loved wearing my Seagull Flight shawl from Brioche Knit Love. (Seagull Flight pattern is still on sale for 15% off with code FLOCK through February 24.)

It was fun to have Lily Chin teaching on this coast! I usually see her in NYC.

The marketplace was full of goodies, as usual. And I feel like an influencer: Last year I asked several dyers if they had assigned pooling yarns, and I only found one.

Tara from Stranded by the Sea gave me the yarn that turned into Fired Up last year (see it over her shoulder?), and had lots more pooling yarn this year in both fingering and worsted weight.

I picked up some Starry Night to demo in my assigned pooling class, and also picked up sparkly yarn…and chocolate.

Phat Girlz Fibre also had pooling yarn, and Ashley took my pooling class to make the most of it.

Dragonfly Fibers/Canon Hand Dyes had gradient and rainbow assigned pooling minis (very cool).

And Northwest Yarns had assigned pooling yarn AND my books, which we sold out. Woohoo!

Greta showed me her Portland Frog Hat. I’m getting to ya!

I also loved Susan’s little frog hat in the Runway Rubber Duck contest. He took 3rd place, yay!

Debbie’s duck took Top Duck and Fan Favorite. The small scale lace and bead shawl plus the red hat were well done.

Anna-Lisa’s group won the Top Flock award with this Olympic themed team.

And Mr. New Beginnings at the train station modeled my Fired Up Cowl.

I had a great time teaching, socializing, shopping, and knitting.

But perhaps brioche plus pooling isn’t the best choice for knitting by the fire during a late night game of Cards Against Humanity. I taught Brioche Doctor the day before, so I was definitely prepared to frog and get this back on the needles!

This morning I gave a presentation on Design Process and taught an assigned pooling class for the Greater Boston Knitting Guild; we had a fun 3 hours together! Let me know if your guild would like a presentation or class, too. Tomorrow I’m off to Spain to visit friends. DH is staying home with the cats. Hasta luego!

1 Comment

Posted in classes, events, Knit, travel, yarn

Tagged , , , , , ,

Seagull Flight relaunch

Posted on February 11, 2026 | 4 comments
a woman with a brioche knit shawl

Seagull Flight is one of my favorite designs from my book, Brioche Knit Love: 21 Skill Building Projects from Simple to Sublime. I’m now publishing it as a stand-alone pattern, too.

Seagull Flight is a two color brioche half-pi shawl that is knit flat. It features syncopated brioche rib, and brioche increases and decreases to create the seagulls. The shawl is shaped by increasing at pre-planned intervals rather than on every row, making it a very easy to follow knit. It’s knit with two 100g skeins of fingering weight yarn, or more if you’d like a bigger shawl.

a collage of photos of me on the beach with a hand knit brioche shawl
Seagull Flight on Rockaway Beach, Oregon

When I was working on Brioche Knit Love, I envisioned an Oregon Coast theme. We changed that to a coffee shop theme, so I had to rename all the patterns to fit that vibe. Seagull Flight is the only design that doesn’t have a coffee or pastry name.

A brioche knit shawl, and cups of coffee

So we photographed it with a flight of coffee!

The pattern is now available for individual purchase through Ravelry and Payhip, as well as in Brioche Knit Love. (If you’re planning to purchase more than 3 or 4 patterns, you should buy the book or ebook.) Please note that there are 2 files to download; the pattern plus an abbreviations page. Use coupon code FLOCK for 15% off through February 24, 2026.

(Apologies if you’re an email subscriber to the blog and are seeing this twice; I hit post before adding the links, so I deleted the post and started over.)

4 Comments

Posted in Knit, my book project, pattern design

Tagged , , , ,

Bootie and Bossy Podcast Interview

Posted on July 5, 2025 | 3 comments
Bootie and Bossy Eat Drink Knit logo

I’ve been a fan of the Bootie and Bossy Eat Drink Knit podcast for a while now. These two sisters talk about knitting, cooking, and life. Recently they’ve been on a read-through of Anne L. Macdonald’s No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting. I read this when it first came out (in hardback!). I think I’ll read it again, on my Kindle.

I was honored when they invited me to have a chat with them for their podcast. It was a fun and rambling conversation about all things knitting, and more.

Cheetos and chopsticks

I think my suggestions for snacking while knitting really captured their fancy. Have a listen here, and giggle along with us! (Link is for Apple Podcasts, but you can also find them on Spotify.)

Thanks to Erica and Jenny, aka Bootie and Bossy!

3 Comments

Posted in Day Old Pastries, Fame, Knit, my book project, Pie Birds, recipe

Tagged , ,

Ring in the New Year with a new project

Posted on December 31, 2023 | 1 comment
2023 publishing recap

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 , , , , , , ,

Celebrating Brioche Knit Love

Posted on October 30, 2023 | 3 comments
Brioche Knit Love

October marks the second anniversary of the publication of my book, Brioche Knit Love. I wrote it in 2021, as an extension of my love for designing and teaching brioche knitting. It’s still my favorite kind of knitting!

Seafoam Latte scarf

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to write this book. It was first published by Marie Greene’s Library House Press, which no longer exists. Since then it sold out, and I had to figure out how to keep it going.

Printing 1000 copies and running a warehouse from my home? I didn’t have the mental bandwidth for that. In May I finally figured out how to sell it via Amazon/Kindle Publishing Direct, and that works really well for me. I don’t have to mail anything myself, which is great. I also sell the books wholesale to local yarn shops, if it works for both of us. Winner!

I’ve been enjoying all the Brioche Knit Love Facebook Memories posts this month, so I wanted to share that bit of fun.

Seagull Flight

If you want a book that takes you from beginning to more advanced brioche, Brioche Knit Love is the book for you. I made video tutorials to go with the book, too, for a complete brioche experience.

Currently on the needles: more brioche! It’s all about the syncopated brioche edges on this piece. I’m knitting with this gorgeous Anzula Lucero DK which has a bit of sparkle in it.

I’m finding that I’m on a roll with wooden needles; I really like them for a little more control than my usual stainless steel. These needles are Knitters Pride Ginger. I like the finish on these birch needles; they’re not overly slick. But not sticky, either!

Do you have a favorite type of needle? I find it depends on the yarn. For this project, these needles are perfect!

3 Comments

Posted in Knit, my book project, pattern design, yarn

Tagged , , , ,

Re-introducing: Brioche Knit Love!

Posted on May 17, 2023 | 1 comment

It’s back! I’ve just re-published my book, Brioche Knit Love, through Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon’s print on demand service). You can order your copy here. The book is also available through For Yarn’s Sake, the LYS where I teach. Support a local business!

Brioche Knit Love is also available as an ebook. Some of you have asked me for an ebook version, and here it is! You can view it on the Kindle app for phones, tablets, computers, and on the Kindle Fire tablet. It’s a print replica (works like a pdf), so it’s not for the Kindle e-reader. Here’s the ebook link.

The book is also available in other countries through other Amazon marketplaces, like amazon.uk. Search for it if you aren’t in the US.

If you’ve previously purchased Brioche Knit Love and enjoyed it, I’d love it if you’d leave a review on the Amazon page.

I’m really pleased to be able to offer this book again. It’s been a long journey figuring out how to make it happen, and I’ve learned all sorts of things along the way. Many many thanks to Carlee Wright, the designer of the original book, for working with me to get everything formatted to republish.

And I’m so glad that I don’t have to warehouse books and ship them out. I’d rather be knitting and designing and teaching.

Now I can get back to my knitting…on a plane! I’m headed to Buffalo, NY to teach for the guild this weekend. Happy spring!

1 Comment

Posted in my book project

Tagged ,

Almost there! So close…

Posted on May 8, 2023 | 4 comments

I’ll be re-publishing Brioche Knit Love through Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon). This way makes the most sense for me. The prospect of ordering 750 – 1000 copies, warehousing them, and being the distributor for them was overwhelming.

I uploaded my files, and we’re soooo close! The cover needs a little adjustment (it’s riding high; that white stripe at the bottom doesn’t belong there).

That’s especially true on the back, where our heads are floating out of the frame. But it’s all been sorted, and I just ordered a final proof copy to make sure everything looks right. Soon!

I’m not quite as far along on the e-book. I uploaded a file for that, and it’s not doing what I want. We’re working on it…

4 Comments

Posted in Knit, my book project

Tagged ,

Brioche Knit Love review in Vogue Knitting

Posted on April 7, 2023 | 12 comments

The new issue of Vogue Knitting is out to subscribers (thank you to Kathryn to sharing hers with me), and should be at your LYS soon.

My Brioche Knit Love was reviewed in this issue; here it is:

I’m so happy they liked it! I sent the book for review last fall. After that I found out that my publisher was closing, and the book was close to sold out. I bought the last 120 and have sold most of them via my two LYSes. (Those are gone now.) I have about 8 books left…If you want one right now, I can sell them as long as I have them.

I’m learning all sorts of things about self-publishing, including that I don’t want to have them printed myself (750 books at my house, and I would have to manage and distribute.) I’d earn more money that way, but I thought about it and realized I’d rather be knitting and designing. I’m working on having the book reformatted so I can use a Print on Demand service (my book isn’t a standard size for POD), and I’m also planning on publishing this as an ebook. I’m hoping there are physical books available by the end of May, and ebooks sooner than that. I’ll also be publishing individual patterns from the book, if that’s more your jam.

Step by step, and I’ll get there. But for now, I’m THRILLED by the review in Vogue Knitting!

If you’d like to keep current and know when the book is available again, including the ebook, sign up for my email newsletter. It comes out once or twice a month and includes knitting news, tips, and a 25% discount on my new pattern releases. I promise I won’t spam you…I don’t have the time or energy to send more often than that! Here’s the sign up link.

In the meantime…keep on knitting!

12 Comments

Posted in book review, Knit, my book project

Tagged , ,

An epiphany!

Posted on November 12, 2021 | 3 comments

I was looking at a Knit Picks call for design submissions, and it said that the designer needs to have a USA, Canada, UK, or Australia shipping address. I knew they shipped to USA and Canada, but the rest was news to me. Hello!

Knit Picks is carrying my book, Brioche Knit Love, and where it would cost me $80 to ship to Australia via the post office, their rates are much better. So if you’re in the UK or Australia and want my book; check it out. My publisher doesn’t have distributors there, so this is a great way to get access. And it works for Canada, too. We do have a Canadian distributor (Julie Asselin), but I don’t know if books are in Canadian LYSes yet.

Currently sold out, but they’ve ordered more!

Knit Picks featured me in their email newsletter last month; that was thrilling.

It’s supposed to go on their blog this month; I’ll post a link if/when that happens. For now, I’m chuffed that my book can get to some other countries! It can travel internationally, even if I can’t, yet.

3 Comments

Posted in Knit, my book project

Tagged , ,