embellished brioche | PDXKnitterati

What’s been in my new project bag this past week? Something that got too big for the project bag it started in.

two color brioche rib shawl featuring assigned pooling motifs — Effervescent

This is Effervescent, finished and blocked. It’s two color brioche rib, with a syncopated brioche edging and assigned pooling motifs.

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?

It was a toss-up about which of my frogged yarns was going to be on the needles first.

And it was this one!

two balls of yarn, and a bit of knitting

Remember I said I thought the dark purple was too contrasty with the pooling yarn? Before I went to New York, I popped in the LYS to pick a green, figuring that Mother Nature knows what she’s doing. But I didn’t love this so I ended up going with the dark purple again.

two hanks of yarn, before soaking to unkink it

I was really glad I wound 3 of my 4 hanks on my swift, because the dark purple that I wound on my 2 yard niddy-noddy was too wide for my swift when I was ready to re-wind it after soaking. I had to wait for DH to come home from a trip so he could be my human swift, the night before I left for VKLive.

The initial bit of knitting looks pretty good. Using the dark purple as background and a small featured accent helps tone it down. I’m not sure about my pooling motifs, though. And then I had another idea while I was at my aqua-fit class. I do a lot of mind knitting in the pool.

So this yarn is now the project on the needles.

brioche and assigned pooling knitting in greens

I’m realizing that the orange color pop is shorter than I’m used to, but it works fine for the motif I’m using. Part of the fun of assigned pooling is that every yarn is different, and you can choose what you want to do or not do, to adapt or let it be.

So this is my “mindless” knitting project to take with me to Red Alder Fiber Festival on Wednesday. I’ll be gone for the weekend, teaching classes and hanging out with other fiber loving creators. For now I have to set it aside and prep my teaching things, and pack!