I’m in Spain, Madrid and Alicante. Coming home soon. But I wanted to share this:
I happened upon El Gato Negro near Plaza Mayor in Madrid.
It’s a cute shop, and they had some fun speckle and space dyed yarn, too.
It matched my flower power jacket. I had to buy some! It’s cotton, sport weight, 2 100g skeins. I wonder if I can get the pink to pool a bit. It’s a pretty short color pop. We shall see, later.
Rosaria shawls, my 2014 RCYC MKAL design
I’m coming home soon. Rose City Yarn Crawl starts Thursday, and I’ll be at For Yarn’s Sake on Thursday with a trunk show! See my latest designs, and get my book, Brioche Knit Love, if you haven’t already.
Also, I’m teaching Brioche Pastiche, beginning brioche, on Sunday April 26 at For Yarn’s Sake. Come learn brioche in person with me, me, me!
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!
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.
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.
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.)
I have a shawl that I don’t wear, and I decided to frog it (rip-it! rip-it!) to give the yarn another chance to shine.
I didn’t publish this design; I didn’t like the edge (this was my first attempt at putting brioche and assigned pooling together). And I decided (much later) that I didn’t love the high tonal contrast of this dark purple with the pooling yarn.
I decided to frog it with the ICE knitters today. It was 31 degrees F when I left the house, and I knew my current tiny needle entrelac project would be too fussy for cold fingers. Ripping is much easier.
I got most of it done, but had to finish at home. Too cold!
Why yes, I was wearing my Portland Frog Hat while frogging!
It didn’t look too bad in the ball, but you can see how kinky the yarn is when it’s no longer under tension. I wound the purple yarn on my 2 yard niddy-noddy, and the pooling yarn on my swift. The swift is easier; I’m not sure if I put a twist in with the niddy-noddy.
The yarn has been soaked, and it’s now hanging to dry. I may use a lighter purple, or what if I went all the way wacky and used magenta? Too much? I have some velvety deep blue in the same base, and that could be nice, too. This is MadelineTosh Twist Light.
I need to get something on my needles before I leave for New York next week! I’ve packed my teaching suitcase with class supplies and tech, so I’m almost ready.
Simply Stellar is an asymmetric triangle brioche shawlette, knit on the bias from narrow end to wide end. It features assigned pooling stars. The pattern requires two skeins of fingering weight yarn, one of which should be dyed for assigned pooling.
I knit my Simply Stellar with A Chick That Knitz Deluxe sock in Wildflowers (pooling) and Sassy, a fabulous hot pink.
I designed this shawlette as a slightly simpler version of my Starstruck. Tammy Pelfrey, the dyer at A Chick that Knitz, told me that some people were intimidated by the syncopated border on Starstruck, so Simply Stellar was designed as a simpler introduction to brioche plus assigned pooling. The shaping is very simple, and the yarn tells you when it’s time to make a star.
This pattern is available through Ravelry, link here, and Payhip, link here. Use coupon code SHINE for 15% off through September 9, 2025.
I started a brioche project with a new to me yarn. This lovely Andante worsted from Sweet Paprika is 195 yards/110g, or 1.77 yards/gram. My usual worsted is Malabrigo Rios, which is 210 yards/100g, or 2.1 yards/gram. So the Andante is a bit heavier/thicker than what I’m used to. I cast on with Andante based on my previous gauge with Rios, and it turned out that it was noticeably bigger.
As usual, my project is a project, until it’s a swatch. At least I measured my swatch for gauge before frogging!
You can really see that brioche is a 2 layered fabrc when you frog the colors separately. I find this highly amusing.
I’m back on track, and have a fun project that is easily memorizable. It will be fairly simple, for newer brioche knitters. I’m designing this for Sweet Paprika’s Skill Builder Yarn Club; it will be published in 2026.
Scattered Petals is a bandana cowl knit in the round. It features a dusting of assigned pooling petals on a two-color brioche rib background. Choose two skeins of fingering weight yarn, one of which is dyed for assigned pooling. Knitting begins in the round at the bottom with a contrast color brioche rib edging. Simple shaping at the center front creates the look of a triangle shawl.
Smaller and larger cowls stacked, for comparison
The pattern offers the cowl in two sizes, depending on how much coverage you like.
Assigned pooling stitch detail
I used Yarn Snob’s A Good Fingering for my cowls, in Black Orchid (pooling color) and Wicked Green. I love, love, love how this turned out.
The Scattered Petals pattern is available on Ravelry, link here. It is also available on Payhip, link here. Use coupon code ROSES for a 15% discount on either site. I hope you enjoy this sweet knit!
I’m happily knitting away on my Simply Stellar (brioche plus assigned pooling shawlette) sample, and test knitters are beginning theirs, too. I love this yarn combo; it’s Wildflowers (pooling) and Sassy (pink) Deluxe Sock from A Chick that Knitz. There is just a tiny overlap of that fuchsia in the pooling yarn, but not enough to be confusing to the eye. Perfect!
I misread my intentions and started with a US3 needle instead of a US4. Not a big difference, but I decided to change mid-project. I wouldn’t do that on a sweater, but on a bias brioche shawlette? It’s not really going to show. It might give it a tiny bit more drape, and it might make me finish a tiny bit sooner. I was 126 rows in when I decided to swap needles. And then I swapped needles again today after another 6 inches, because my yarn was catching on a rough spot where the needle goes into the metal join, grrr. So away with the Knitters Pride Ginger (I usually really like these), and onto a KnitPicks wooden interchangeable that was in my stash. Things are going more smoothly now.
Sometimes the pooling color pops up where you don’t want it. One way to deal with it is to knit a pooling motif in the background color of the pooling yarn. This will reset where the color pool happens.
Another way is to cut your yarn and move the pooling color along. But that means you’ll have more ends to sew in. I don’t cut until I’m done with the project, because sometimes I frog entire projects! So I just pull up a big loop of the background color of the pooling yarn.
I’m enjoying this knit. I’ll have time to work on it this weekend. Airplane knitting! My sisters and I are going to our cousin’s wedding celebration. Yay, family time!
Yes, two of them! Both are for accessories knit with brioche + pooling.
Scattered Petals is a bandana-style cowl that features brioche plus assigned pooling. It’s knit in the round with 2 skeins of fingering weight yarn, one of which should be dyed for assigned pooling. The pattern is written for two sizes, and you can customize further if you wish. Yarn shown is from Yarn Snob/Knits All Done from Keith Leonard. Colors are Black Orchid and Wicked Green on A Good Fingering base.
Simply Stellar is a shawlette featuring brioche and assigned pooling stars. It’s knit flat using 2 skeins of fingering weight yarn, one of which should be dyed for assigned pooling. This design is the result of a conversation I had at Nash Yarn Fest. Yarn dyer Tammy Pelfrey (A Chick That Knitz) mentioned that she loves my Starstruck Shawlette, but brioche + syncopated brioche + assigned pooling can be intimidating to newer brioche knitters. I decided to design a simpler shawlette with no syncopated border. There is minimal shaping as a backdrop to the assigned pooling stars. Yarn is A Chick that Knitz Singles Fingering in Tropical Flowers and Caribbean.
These two test knits are both mashups of brioche + assigned pooling. You should already know how to knit brioche to test knit. Previous experience with assigned pooling isn’t necessary; there’s a video tutorial for each assigned pooling motif.
Both of these patterns have been professionally tech edited. Why test knit? It helps me to fine tune the instructions. Tech editing gets me halfway there, but real life knitters really help. Test knitters get early access to the pattern and tutorials, and help future knitters. The test knits will run for 4 weeks. You provide your own yarn, and keep the sample you knit. Leave a note in the comments if you’re interested in test knitting; let me know which project.
I was merrily knitting along on my Simply Stellar, but then I decided I wanted to see what it looked like with more tonal contrast. I’m in love…guess I’m starting over because I’m obsessed. This is from A Chick that Knitz, Deluxe Sock in Wildflowers and Sassy.
Reader, the gauge in the second version of the cowl was much better, but the cowl was still too big/tall/wide after blocking. I want that vertical center line to be straight, not wobbling back and forth because the piece is too big, at least for me. I had a taller friend try it on, and it was better on her, but it still needs adjusting. I had about a half skein of each color left, so I promptly recalculated and cast on for the THIRD time. For ME.
Post-midnight bind off
This is more what I envisioned. It’s still going to grow with blocking, but I think it will be the right proportions. Yes, I could just steam block it, and not let it grow much, but I think something that is worn around your neck should be able to be washed, eventually! So I’ll definitely wet block it.
Soooo close. I need to block and photograph, and then it will be ready for a test knit call. Current name? Scattered Petals, or Cascading Petals. What do you think?
Design by trial and error. I do all this refiguring/reknitting so you don’t have to!
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 