I was tickled to see my Both Sides Now Shawl peeking out under a pile of yarn in an email from Knit Picks.
A green version of Both Sides Now is on the website.
I received another email this morning. It’s like seeing your kids out in the world. Sweet!
I’m not sure how long the sale lasts, but if you want to buy some Hawthorne, here’s the link.
Here’s Both Sides Now, available for purchase on the Knit Picks website. It was on the cover of their brioche book several years ago. So pleased to see it again!
Every time I picked up my knitting, the cast on edge bugged me. It was a little too tight, and it was curling badly. I didn’t know if it was going to block out, and that made me hesitant to continue.
So I ripped it out. And while I was ripping it out, I started thinking…of course I did. I liked the fabric I was getting with the US 6 needles. I knew about how many stitches I needed for a cowl. And wouldn’t it be nice if it had fewer patterning rounds, and more plain knit since it’s so hard to see the dark stitches?
Do-over!
I cast on loosely, and then knit two garter ridges (4 rounds) before beginning the Old Shale lace patterning. I wanted a substantial edge that wouldn’t curl. I also wanted to put the first lace patterning row further away from the edge, hoping that would also help prevent the curl.
The Bubble Net pattern had patterning on Rounds 1 and 3, and plain knitting on rounds 2 and 4. I’m working Old Shale (with no garter ridges), which has easily memorized patterning on Round 1, then 3 plain rounds. Less paying attention, perfect. I’m very happy with the new start.
I guess I’m designing my own cowl after all.
I’m knitting on Knit Picks Rainbow Options (birch) interchangeable needles. I picked these up at their Knit in Public Day in June. They have just enough grip with this skinny yarn.
Oh, I want to give a shout out to this ebook, Old Shale Variations edited by Mary Spanos from the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild. It’s a free download on Ravelry, and chronicles the guild’s group project of varying ways to knit Old Shale lace: wider, narrower, garter, stockinette, etc. Very fun to see how you can change the appearance.
I chose to use stockinette (no purling, in the round), and a short number of rounds. Fewer rounds means more complete repeats before heading into an ending garter stitch edge and bind off. (Example: If you only have enough yarn for 10 rounds, you can knit two 4 round repeats, or *zero* 12 round repeats which would waste a lot of this precious yarn. Shorter is better.)
Do you listen to that little voice that tells you to DO OVER? Sometimes I wait a lot longer, and the ripping is brutal! Glad I listened early.
I just finished a design project (picture soon). I’m a monogamous knitter, so that meant I had nothing on the needles. Quelle horreur! I poked around my limited stash, and found the qiviut I bought at Changing Tides in Juneau while on the Vogue Knitting Alaska Cruise in September.
This is one ounce of qiviut/qiveut (musk ox yarn), 200 yards. I guess that means it’s laceweight, not fingering! I don’t usually enjoy knitting with laceweight, but this is so fluffy, it doesn’t feel skinny.
Especially when knitting on US 6 needles! I poked around on Ravelry to see what other people made with a single skein of this yarn. The Bubble Net cowl is a popular choice. I bought the pattern and cast on. Yes, I could have chosen any simple lace pattern and figured something out, but this will be a one and done project. It’s not a design project and I wanted someone else to do the gauge/cast on math/needle sizing for me. Perfect!
The lace is a four row repeat, and two of those rows are just knitting rest rows. But the other two require chanting in my head, especially because the yarn is dark and it’s hard to read my knitting.
Knit Picks Chroma Twist in Sandpiper
So I also cast on a second project. Quite a novelty to have more than one project! This is one block out of 9 planned blanket blocks. I have the yarn for this project because I designed the Impressionist Kaleidoscope Blanket for Knit Picks in 2021. They sent me enough yarn for the design, but I only knit one of the blocks while designing it, the one pictured above. The rest of the blocks are all knit the same, so I didn’t knit them!
Knit Picks Chroma Twist in Lupine
Knit Picks chose their own color for the sample knit. It’s all garter stitch, from the mitered squares in the center to the log cabin borders. The pattern is easy to remember, but the constant change from mitered square to mitered square, and then to the log cabin border keeps the knitting interesting. It’s not just one big garter stitch blob.
Chroma Twist yarn changes color on its own, giving each blanket square its own dynamic personality. And the pattern is free! It was part of Knit Picks’ Twelve Weeks of Gifting in 2021. I’ll knit on this when it’s too dark to see my qiviut stitches, or if I need to zone out while dreaming of what I’m designing next…
I’m supposed to be packing for my teaching gig in Bellingham, on the Zodiac schooner, and Ellensburg. I’m leaving tomorrow morning. But I was daydreaming in my aqua-fit class at the gym (I do a lot of designing in my head during class), and I had an idea.
So of course I had to come home and cast on. It’s brioche, my true love. This beautiful yarn is Anzula Lucero, a DK weight yarn that’s 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, and 10% Stellina (sparkle!). The colors are Storm (blue) and Hippo (gray). It’s so bouncy and fun to knit with!
It was so tempting that I now have TWO projects on the needles, which is pretty wild for this monogamous (monomaniacal?) knitter.
My other project is an assigned pooling shawl, the second knitting of this design. I need to check some numbers along the way so I’m knitting it again before putting out a call for test knitters. The first colorway turned out gorgeously, although low contrast tonally, so I’m going for high contrast this round. More about that later.
Right now? I’m still supposed to be packing (7 classes packed for next week, but no clothes yet) something besides my knitting projects, but I need to announce a winner!
The winner of the Nature Walk ebook from Knit Picks is Lynne. Congratulations! I’ll be in touch via email to work this out with you.
I’m thrilled that Honey Bee Mine is part of this collection.
Have a great weekend; have a great week! I’m leaving DH home in charge of the cats. Or the cats at home in charge of DH. It’s a mutual aid society.
I had a fabulous weekend! It began on Friday with Romi Hill’s Embrace Your Lace class, which went deep into adapting lace patterns into repeatable blocks that fit into the shaping of your designed piece. Her lace work is next level up, always gorgeous. Check out her work on Instagram, @romidesigns
Saturday morning I sat in on Julie Rosvall’s First Impressions class, which was about printmaking, including printing from knits. I only watched, because it was at 7 am my time (11 am her time in Canada!). You know I love block printing, and you know I’ll be trying this! @julierosvall on Instagram.
Both of these classes were through Virtual Knitting Live from Vogue Knitting. I also taught during this event on Sunday, Next Steps in Brioche: Increases and Decreases, using my Deep End hat, cowl, and Madrona cowl patterns.
I also had a fun chat with Josh Bennett and Amy Snell on Sunday before teaching my class. So much fun! But this was only the VKL portion of the weekend.
Saturday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day, and Knit Picks knows how to throw a party!
I didn’t knit a stitch at WWKIP Day, but I *talked* about knitting, non-stop!
With trunk show designers MKNance and Emily Kintigh
Yes, I have the t-shirt too, but I really wanted to wear this preview of an upcoming piece for Knit Picks. Honey Bee Mine will be in a book coming this summer.
They gave me this tote (thanks for the grafting reminder!) stuffed with yarn
including these yarn samples, and several skeins of a new yarn that I don’t think I can show you yet. Stay tuned! I love that the above samples fit my 2 skein attention span rule. That purple Luminance could be a spectacular shawl.
I also snagged 3 sets of interchangeable wooden needles: Caspian, Rainbow, and Rosewood (inside the silver case), and this notions bag and pin. Swag is fun, yes?
The venue was lovely, Hidden House in Vancouver, Washington. It was great to have indoor and outdoor space. Lots of snacks, and a no-host bar for coffee or adult beverages.
Now I’m back to finishing up hat crowns for the Brioche Pastiche revamp! Knit knit knit…
I recently had a fun chat with Lee, Stacey, and Andi on the Knit Picks podcast. We talked about my designing and teaching, and about the upcoming World Wide Knit in Public Day, which is this Saturday, June 10. Have a listen here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
I’ve been participating in Knit Picks’ WWKIP festivities since 2017. They stopped in 2020 (hello pandemic) but are starting up again this year. Their events always have raffle prizes, free yarn, free books…and snacks!
This year’s event will be on June 10, from noon to 3 pm. The venue has both indoor and outdoor possibilities, so we’re covered in case of rain! Here’s a link to their current post.
I’ll be there as a special guest designer. I’m bringing knit samples, including the assigned pooling pieces we talked about in the podcast. And books! Brioche Knit Love is back in print, and I’ll have some with me for sale.
See you there, local-ish peeps?
There are many other events in the Portland metro area, and all over the world. Pick one or many! Go forth and knit, and have fun.
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.
I had the joy of designing this blanket last spring; it’s the Impressionist Kaleidescope Blanket. The blanket is a celebration of garter stitch, and so much fun to knit!
Impressionist Kaleidescope Blanket in Knit Picks Chroma Twist
The blanket is made up of 9 (or more) units that are all knit the same. The fun is in letting the color shading yarn work its magic. We start with a mitered square, and then add three more mitered squares, to finish the center. A log cabin style frame is worked after that. Mitered squares and log cabin work so well together; it’s a symphony in garter stitch!
The pattern is free from Knit Picks as part of their Twelve Weeks of Gifting, which they do as a run up to the holidays. (I was paid for this design, never fear. It’s free to YOU, though.) Here’s the link: Impressionist Kaleidescope Blanket. I had mentioned this to my Log Cabin Knitting class at the virtual Knit Camp at the Coast last month, and now you can download the pattern!
I have one more pattern coming in the Twelve Weeks of Gifting series; I’ll let you know when it goes live. Have fun!
First off, my Holiday Stockings pattern from Knit Picks has been free for one week (I think through Monday, tomorrow), during their 12 weeks of gifting event. You can find the pattern here. (Sorry for the late notice; I was waiting for one more Knit Picks related thing to include in this post, but it hasn’t happened yet. Rather than have you miss the pattern, I’m posting without it.) Sixty-eight days ‘til Christmas!
I designed this pattern for them a few years ago, and it has done so well for them that they bought it from me outright, rather than returning it to me at the end of its exclusivity period. Win-win!
These are knit with bulky yarn, so they’re big and they’re quick. Lots of room in there. They’re very similar to my Snowflake Christmas Stocking, which is knit with worsted, and has many more motif options for the cuff.
(there’s a bird motif, too, not shown here)
Also fun, here’s a YouTube link to the Facebook Live Zoom interview I did with Knit Picks this summer! It feels like a very long time ago.
Half the Knit Sky is a half pi shawlette, based on a time lapse photo of the night sky. Shown above in Knit Circus Sparkle Gradient, The Knit Sky, and Knit Circus Trampoline, Mistress of Myself.
Photo by Nikita Maykov
This easy knit uses only one color per row. Slip stitches create the colorwork star trail stripes, and the Star Stitch rows are a pop of fun. A bit of lace near the end sends you into orbit! The half-pi construction keeps your patterning simple with only occasional changes in stitch count.
Shown here in Knit Picks Hawthorne Kettle Dye, Delphinium, and Knit Picks Hawthorne Speckle, Blueberry Speckle.
The pattern is easily adjustable to the yardage you have. It requires two 100g skeins of fingering weight yarn.
Half the Knit Sky pattern is available through Ravelry, and it’s 10% off through July 14, no coupon code needed. If you’re a newsletter subscriber, check your email for your special offer. If Ravelry’s recent website renovation renders the site unusable for you, please email me or leave a comment here, and I can send you an invoice through PayPal instead. It’s a little slower, but it works.
I’m planning a KAL for this design, to be through this blog, Instagram, and Ravelry. Whatever works best for you! Please use #halftheknitsky to participate on Instagram, or this thread on Ravelry to participate there. Comment on this post, or any later posts about Half the Knit Sky, to participate through the blog.
I’m very pleased with this design, and hope you love it, too. Come knit with me!
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 