Vogue Knitting is launching a membership community in September, the Next Loop. You can read about the Next Loop here. They’ve been running newsletters in advance of the launch, and I was pleased to be included in a discussion: Is brioche still hot? You can read the article here.
I love reading or listening to podcasts while I’m knitting. One of my favorites is Articles of Interest by Avery Trufelman. It’s about fashion and the things we wear, but not about being fashionable. Lots of interesting history. The current episode is titled Lace and Labor, and it’s about knitting, crocheting, and the history thereof. Give it a listen here.
Another favorite podcast is We Tried To Tell You, hosted by Marie Greene (designer, teacher, my ex-publisher) and LYS owner Sarah Keller. I love this industry insider look at knitting/fiber.
You can listen to these on Apple Podcasts, or directly from the links listed above.
Do you read/listen/watch TV while you knit? I’m not much of a TV watcher, but reading and listening work for me!
I’ve always meant to publish more patterns from my book, Brioche Knit Love: 21 Skill Building Projects from Simple to Sublime. Still working on it! I just released the patterns for the Hello Brioche set: scarf, hat, mitts. These three pieces are knit in single color brioche. The scarf is knit flat, the hat is knit in the round, and the mitts begin in the round, flat for the thumb section, and in the round for the top.
You can purchase them through Ravelry, individually or in an ebook. The ebook contains all three pieces for less than the price of two individual patterns. The link is here. Use the coupon code HIYA for 15% off an individual pattern or the entire ebook. If you’re a subscriber to my newsletter, you have a coupon code coming; I have to write the newsletter first!
I just checked on Amazon for the listing for Brioche Knit Love so I could update my Ravelry pages from the old Library House Press listing, and I noticed that the book is on sale for $17.69, 34% off list price. This is the same price as the Kindle ebook version, too. It’s a great deal. I’m not the one who put it on sale; that’s Amazon. If you’re going to want more than the Hello Brioche ebook from Ravelry, you should jump at buying the whole book on Amazon. I don’t know how long that price will hold, so go check it out if you’re so inclined. (When my original publisher closed doors, I turned to Kindle Direct Publishing to keep my book available; it was the simplest way to get it done.)
I don’t know about your weather, but it’s been a bit cool here in Portland. The hours of daylight are shrinking, too. I can feel autumn is just around the corner. Time to start knitting cozy things, so we’re ready!
I collaborated with Sweet Paprika Designs for their Skill Building Yarn Club this spring. My design for the yarn box featured…brioche, of course!
Cowl
This is the Staghorn Cowl Hat. I love convertible cowl/hats as teaching pieces, because not everyone loves a cowl…or a hat. So you get to choose!
Hat
You can also choose to knit the whole piece in 2 color brioche rib, without the decorative increases and decreases that make the Staghorn motif. This is a great way to practice brioche knitting before getting into the more challenging parts.
Wider cowl
If you know you don’t want a hat, you can make the cowl a bit wider because it doesn’t need to fit a head. Choices!
Staghorn Cowl Hat is knit with 2 colors of worsted weight yarn. The cowl/hat is knit with 140 yards/128 meters dark color, 66 yards/60 meters light color heavy worsted weight yarn. Shown in Sweet Paprika Andante (100% superwash merino wool, 4oz/110g/195 yards/178m), Jacaranda (LC) and Deep Purple (DC). If you’d like to buy the Sweet Paprika Designs kit, you can do so here.
If you’re a newsletter subscriber, you’ll get a code for 25% off this pattern. I’m a little behind in getting my newsletter written, so it’s not too late to subscribe before the newsletter comes out on Saturday (I hope!). Subscribe here.
This pattern is available through my Ravelry store, link here.
This pattern is also available from my Payhip shop, link here.
What’s been in my new project bag this past week? Something that got too big for the project bag it started in.
Effervescent
This is Effervescent, finished and blocked. It’s two color brioche rib, with a syncopated brioche edging and assigned pooling motifs.
Frogged and reconditioned yarn
This is the yarn from a previous shawl that I frogged and reconditioned. I had a better idea for it, and it came out like a dream. The yarn is a little fuzzy now; it’s a single ply and I’ve effectively knit it through three projects. But it’s soft and lovely.
I was about 70% finished with the second shawl in this yarn’s life, when I decided it needed to have bigger motifs, and be knit on a smaller needle. Ooof. Good thing I like to knit.
Then I was worried that it was going to be too small. But blocking is magic.
I didn’t block it aggressively; I just patted it out as the fabric relaxed after soaking for wet blocking. It’s airy and drapey.
The pattern has been tech edited, and I’m looking for test knitters that love brioche knitting and assigned pooling. Is that you?
Still catching up! I came home from Spain because I had a trunk show at For Yarn’s Sake for Rose City Yarn Crawl. It’s an honor to kick off the crawl there.
Trunk show!
This year I featured brioche, assigned pooling, and brioche plus assigned pooling. That pretty much sums up what I’ve been working on this past year. Also, those are the classes I’m teaching at For Yarn’s Sake, so it was a great chance to promote them.
Dawn Barker of Barker Wool was there with a trunk show of yarns and designs. She’s done so much pioneering work with assigned pooling, and dyeing her own yarns to make her vision come to life. She has also done pooling yarn collaborations with MadelineTosh (and I have used several of those), but this year’s focus was on her own brand.
It’s always fun to see knitters wearing my designs! The Portland Frog Hat (free pattern!) was a big hit this last year. Alison’s hat looks great.
Margaret’s Starstruck is perfect! She took my brioche + pooling class last year, and this is the FO that came out of it.
Not my pattern, but Lisa took my steeking class last year, and then steeked this sweater that she designed. She had been waiting to cut until she took a class.
And Sam came by wearing the hat featuring the pooling stitch that I used on the Scattered Petals cowl I’m wearing. Rhyming!
The day was super busy, so I don’t have any more photos from the crawl. I taught a pooling class last weekend, and I’m scheduled to teach beginning brioche on Sunday April 26 at For Yarn’s Sake.
I taught the same class at Hook and Needle last weekend; we had fun! Come knit with me!
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.
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 