Necessity is the mother of invention. I was frustrated by my box of tangled silver necklaces. Every time I wanted to wear one, I had to untangle the pile in my necklace box! Some problems can be solved by knitting, and this was a perfect opportunity.
Jelly Jewels are wall hangings designed to serve as a jewelry organizer.
They are knit in the round from the center out with fingering weight yarn, and feature assigned pooling petals on a stockinette stitch background. Choose a yarn that is dyed for assigned pooling, with an accent color run of about 8-10”/20-25 cm long. One skein of pooling yarn is enough for five or more pieces, depending on what size you make. I used a skein of Cadillac Sock, colorway April in Paris, from Garage Dyeworks.
I used these Cat Clip stitch markers to hold my necklaces. The stitch markers are from Twice Sheared Sheep in the large size (affiliate link). Cute, and the ears help hold the stitch markers in the fabric. More information on the pattern page for Jelly Jewels.
The pattern includes video tutorials for the center out cast on, and for the assigned pooling petal motif. There’s also a written tutorial for blocking and finishing your Jelly Jewels.
The pattern is available through Ravelry, and also through Payhip. Use coupon code TANGY for 15% off the pattern through November 10, 2025.
Why are these called Jelly Jewels? I knit these at the coast, and the jellyfish reminded me of my knitting. Pictured: Knitting and Twin Rocks in background, Moon jelly, Lion’s Mane jelly.
We were planning a trip to Japan for this month, but our plans fell through. You can read about that on DH’s blog here, if you’re curious. I had blocked out the back half of May for this trip, so we went to Plan B. Oregon Coast!
We stayed at a friend’s house near Pacific City. You can see Chief Kiawanda Rock from there. I know this rock as Haystack Rock, but there are three Haystack Rocks on the Oregon Coast. The most famous is in Cannon Beach up north from here. So calling this Chief Kiawanda Rock, at the end of Cape Kiwanda, makes sense!
I like the little sea arch kickstand on the north side.
I love beach walking; there are so many interesting things to see.
Look at all the colors in this sea foam.
This jellyfish is waiting for its ride home.
This Velella Velella (by the wind sailor) is too dried up to make it back to sea.
A couple steps can totally change your perspective.
Just like real life.
This area is known as the Three Capes Loop: Cape Kiwanda, Cape Lookout, and Cape Meares. We went to Cape Lookout on Wednesday and explored the South Trail (shorter, but lots of tree roots and challenging footing) and the Cape Trail (goes out to the end of the cape, longer but mostly easier footing). We didn’t have hiking poles with us, so we just did some of each. Lots of interesting flora! (This is the wet side of the Cascades and Coast Range, unlike last week’s dry side wildflower walk.)
Fairy BellsSalmonberry blossomsferns
We saw lots of trilliums that were past bloom, but there was one with just a bit left.
Trilliums are white when they bloom, purple after pollination, and this one was translucent, ready to disappear.
The views from the cape are spectacular.
looking south to Cape Kiwandalooking north to Cape Meares
On Thursday we went to Cape Meares to visit the lighthouse, a perfect rainy day activity. This lighthouse was in service from 1890 to 1963. It’s the shortest lighthouse on the Oregon Coast (on a tall cliff). We had a great tour of the light with a park volunteer; he loves lighthouses and it shows! He and his wife are living in an RV, traveling and volunteering when they’re not home in Boise.
Cape Meares lighthouseThree Arch Rocks, south of Cape Meares
And we even had one nice sunset.
We’re home again, and I’m knitting and designing and writing and…everything! It was nice to get away.
Oh! I did some knitting on this, but I’m not sure I love it. I think it needs more tonal and color contrast between the two yarns. What do you think? The pattern is all written and tech edited; I just need to knit a sample.
I’m teaching a weekend workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology August 10-11 on the Oregon Coast. The setting is lovely, nestled among the trees on a slice of land on Cascade Head near Lincoln City.
This knitting workshop offers several ways to make your plain knitting fancy! Drawing inspiration from nature, we’ll start with elongated fancy stitches that evoke the beauty of flowers, stars, butterflies, and bees.
Moving forward, we’ll delve into the art of color pooling, a hot technique that is the current darling of indie dyers.
To add a finishing touch, we’ll learn herringbone and other braids to elevate our knits to new heights. Join us for a creative journey where you’ll learn to infuse flair into your knitting, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Sound fun? Register here. The workshop fees are for the workshop only; you’ll need to book lodging of your choice. It’s a wonderful relaxing weekend away. I taught a brioche workshop here last year, see that post for a taste of the experience.
I’ve run away to the coast with friends. Apparently the unofficial first year for Crafty Moms was 2003 with kids and husbands, and the first year with just moms was 2004. This is the 21st year? Egad.
I have my knitting with me, but this is a great opportunity to explore some other fiber fun, too.
On the way to Rockaway, we stopped at Latimer Quilt & Textile Center in Tillamook to see the Homage to Audrey Moore, founder of the Damascus Fiber Arts School near Portland, Oregon.
Homage to Frida, Feeling Pink, Summer Days (Audrey Moore)
These are pieces from her series, The Ladies. They’re tapestry weavings on a Navajo style loom.
There are many pieces by Moore, and many pieces by her students. Reading their comments on their own pieces gave a good idea of her teaching style: Suggestions, comments, but she’d let you figure it out yourself. Perfect.
Besides the exhibit room (you can tell that it was a school auditorium at one point), there are two other large rooms. One is full of looms and other fiber fun, and the other is full of quilts and even more fiber fun. Some of it is for sale, and some are just for exhibit.
Loom RoomOn the loom
I found some beautiful hand painted roving for sale by Mary Torrey of Manzanita. It’s 75/25 BFL and silk.
Wait, I don’t spin! Why do I want roving? Well, I saw a reel on Instagram where someone was using a Lemonwood mini minder to hold her roving while spinning. I commented on it, and Veronica from Lemonwood offered to send me one. I love it. It’s so much more ergonomically friendly than throwing roving over your elbow and hoping to keep it out of the way of your spindle!
Heart Heart Heart Mini Minder
I love how the hearts look like knit stitches.
I think the Mini Minder is really meant for holding a cake of yarn so you can knit or crochet while you walk (or not); your yarn unwinds off the outside of the cake. I’m usually knitting 2 color brioche, so that wouldn’t work for me. For a one skein project, sure! Many of my assigned pooling projects would love this. And you can take it off the spindle at any time, too.
Thank you to Veronica for the Mini Minder. She offered it to me with no expectation of a review, positive or negative.
I thought I’d practice with old fluff on hand. The Mini Minder works great; it doesn’t unwind before it needs to. Clearly my cop winding skills could use some work; I got distracted and suddenly I was off. Oh well; this is practice, and my new roving awaits!
Cordsmith i-cord maker
I also took some time to play with the Cordsmith that I bought at VKLive NYC. If you need yards and yards of 3 stitch i-cord; this may be your jam. It’s a little fiddly to get started, and then it starts rolling along. Occasionally I accidentally drop a stitch off the needle, and have to figure out how to get it back in sequence. Practice is helping, for sure.
I don’t actually mind knitting i-cord on double pointed needles. Also, I’ve made i-cord on any number of stitches on dpns, 3, 4, 6… And my usual fake way to make a cord is to cast on a big whack of stitches, and bind off on the next row.
It was lovely when we arrived yesterday; Carole and I walked up to the jetty and were pleased to see sea stars, and a seal frolicking in the waves.
Sea stars and anemones and barnacles, oh my!Zoom in to see everything!
There are several bald eagles hanging out here. They like this post outside the house. Sorry for the blur; I can’t get close!
I hope you’re having a fiber fun weekend, too. And food. OMG so much food when we get this crew together! Delicious.
I had a fabulous weekend teaching a two-day brioche workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon Coast. The setting is lovely, nestled among the trees on a slice of land on Cascade Head near Lincoln City.
Brioche Entree
We started with one color brioche, a scarf in super bulky yarn (Brioche Entrée), just to get a feel for the sl1yo and brk stitches.
Brioche Pastiche
Then we moved on to 2-color in the round, setting up for Brioche Pastiche. I’ve revamped the pattern for plain brioche rib or leafy climbing vines, on either a hat or cowl. I like giving options.
Whale Watch hat and cowl
I also included the Whale Watch pattern, because it fits so nicely with the coastal theme. But Pastiche is a much gentler introduction to increases and decreases, so that’s what we actually worked on.
The weather was glorious all weekend, so we took our knitting outdoors!
Sitka Center features arts workshops all summer long. The other participants this weekend were creating beautiful things, hand building with clay.
Kristin showed me some of her beautiful work. I want to try this! Check out the catalog of classes for this summer here.
Cathy and I visited the Salmon River estuary after class on Saturday. That looks like a whale’s ribcage, but it’s really a tree.
That speck of a bird way out there may be a cormorant. It was fishing!Closer to the ocean, Cascade Head to the rightRoad’s End Point
I had time for a walk on the sand after my last class on Sunday. I headed south to the beach at Road’s End (north end of Lincoln City); that’s Road’s End Point in the distance. It was foggy on the beach, with blue skies inland.
Kelpwith barnacles!swiss cheese rock with shells
My stay at Sitka included the night after my workshop, so I’m writing from this sweet stairway nook on Monday morning. It’s drizzling now, and raindrops are hanging on the maple leaves outside my window. Perfect.
There’s so much art on campus; here are some things I saw while walking around.
near the office
And nature makes her own art, too. I love this lichen!
Bisquee wanted to come with me, but I had to say no. I needed to bring clothes.
In the home stretch…again
And I even had time to knit! More about that in another post. How was your weekend?
I’ve spent all of Friday working on getting the 21 patterns in Brioche Knit Love set up on Ravelry. I’m still not done! But I’m close. After I get that set, I can start sharing the projects on other social media, and my test knitters will be able to share, too.
But I’m not all that patient, so I’m going to go ahead and show you Seagull Flight. It’s a half-pi shawl, and lots of fun to knit. It’s actually pretty easy knitting, because I already did all the math for you. (Blue yarn is Huckleberry Knits Gradient in Echo, white yarn is MadelineTosh Twist Light in White Wash)
I was at the coast at the end of July with some friends, and Becky took these pictures for me. She was a trouper!
It was really fun to play in the breeze! Seagull Flight is one of my favorite patterns in Brioche Knit Love. I found out yesterday that pre-orders are going to ship just a bit early, so you’ll probably have your book before the actual publication date (October 19). Or you can wait and get it from your local yarn shop (ask if they’re going to carry it), so you can support your LYS!
photo by Angela Watts, Tekoa Rose Photography, modeled by my sister Sharon, for the book
My tentative schedule for book signings:
Saturday October 24, Yarn Folk, Ellensburg WA, 10 to 11 am
Saturday October 30, For Yarn’s Sake, Beaverton OR, 1 to 2:30 pm
My book manuscript is done! I turned it in on Sunday evening, before my Monday deadline. Woot!
Writing a manuscript for a knitting book is more than just writing prose. There are patterns (21, in this case), charts, keys for the charts, and photos for tutorials. Those extras don’t go *into* the manuscript; the writer just notes where those things belong, and then those things have to be stored somewhere for the person compiling the book to access them. Done!
I took a little time before that to go to the coast. I did some manuscript editing, knitting for a video class I’m doing (more on that later), music making (guitar, mandolin-playing friend, harmony singing), and lots of walking on the beach. Working from home means working from wherever you are.
It was cool and cloudy, for the most part. The hot inland air meets the cool coastal air, and we get clouds and fog.
I tried to find an intact sand dollar, but no luck. This one looks like a miniature volcano.
You can tell that the aforementioned seagulls have been feasting.
The sunsets were odd, dropping out from under the clouds for just a few minutes before sinking into the sea. But pretty, nonetheless.
Now I’m waiting for the copyeditor to get back to me. In the meantime, I’m working out a script for the video class I’m making. More on that in the next post.
The family was scheduled to go to the coast in September to celebrate my birthday, but wildfire smoke (and fire at the coast) meant we had to postpone. We finally did go last week…I like to joke that I celebrate my birthday all month, but this has been a two month birthday. Why not, 2020?
We’re still distancing from the kids; they’re a bubble and we’re a bubble. I rented the house I usually rent for Crafty Moms weekend. They had the downstairs unit and we had the upstairs. The house has 5 bedrooms/5 bathrooms and sleeps 16, and there were only 4 of us.
The weather cooperated beautifully, which meant we could have all our meals out on the deck. Otherwise, we would have been dining separately on two levels.
One rather large jellyfish
We had lots of beach walks and good conversation. (And my boots finally cracked and leaked. Sorry to see these go.)
Deep End Cowl
I finished the cowl version of Deep End. I love, love, love it. Pattern coming soon. I knit this with the leftovers from the first Deep End hat.
Don’t knit with the tail, really
I wanted to knit a shorter version (I have a short neck) so I cast on another, with leftovers from the pink Deep End hat. I noted that I should cut the tail so I wouldn’t knit with it. Well, you know what happened…of course.
I managed to make some progress before going home. And it was so warm on the last day, I could hang out with no sleeves at all. Pretty nice for almost November!
It was a perfect birthday celebration.
Twin Rocks at sunsetRockaway sunset
Carrying that peace forward as we await the results of Election Day here in the USA. Just breathe!
One more time! We had a spectacularly beautiful weekend on the Oregon Coast. Great weather, beautiful sunsets, camaraderie and crafts. I’ll put the scenic photos at the end. Yarn and other craftiness first!
Brioche and Bellini breakfast
I brought three knitting projects, but I only worked on one of them. I spent a day trying different ways to reverse the colors on the new section, and I’m finally happy with how it’s working out. It was a technical challenge.
Now it’s just a matter of finishing it! I may have to set it aside for a bit; another project has a deadline and needs to get underway.
Laurie was crocheting unicorns. So cute!
Sharyn brought supplies for block printing on tea towels. I brought some of my previous blocks, and carved a new flower block. I purchased these bags last year in Sisters during the Lantern Moon retreat, but hadn’t gotten around to printing them yet. Done!
This is pretty easy, and lots of fun. I see more of this in my future!
This was our 16th year at Rockaway Beach. The house looks right over the water so it’s perfect for any weather. But this year it was sunny all weekend.
Twin Rocks
This cloud bisects the sun
This one does, too
We stayed Friday afternoon through Monday morning. It would have been hard to go home on such a gorgeous day, so I didn’t! I had a free night expiring soon at Tolovana Inn in Cannon Beach, so Carole and I headed north for an overnight there. It was so warm that I bought a sundress and walked barefoot on the beach.
Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach
The afternoon low tide was perfect for tide pooling.
We only saw two sea stars; I hope they’re coming back.
The anemones look pretty healthy!
The moon was nearly full, and the early morning moonset was gorgeous to behold.
It clouded over as the day went on, but that made it easier to head home. It was a perfect weekend!
Bisquee missed me. A lot.
And today (Friday), we brought this guy home. He’s 2 years old. His shelter name was Frumpkin. That’s got to go. But I don’t know what to call him yet. Working on it…
Last week was Winter Whale Watch week at the Oregon Coast; gray whales are migrating down to Baja to their warmer winter waters. I went on a day trip with friends to try to catch a glimpse of them.
We ended up at Ecola State Park, which has gorgeous views. You can see Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach from here.
We didn’t see any whales/spouts, so I made this picture to commemorate the day.
Along the way, I had this very happy lap full of rainbow knitting. This is a project with Knitted Wit, due in late February. It’s her #glowupknittedwit rainbow mini skeins, paired with a skein of Oregon Sky. The base is Knitted Wit Fingering.
It was the perfect knit for a drizzly day. The project is done and currently blocking; I love how it turned out. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you soon.
Thanks for all your comments on the previous Barbie knits post. I was wondering just what kind of skating outfit was in that Knitting for Barbie canister, so I googled “knit 2 piece barbie skating outfit” and found this pattern page on Ravelry. It’s a 1962 pattern for a sweater and skinny pants. There’s a picture of the printed pattern, and more googling found a copy of the pattern posted on an old blogspot blog.
The instructions are extensive and quite bossy, with a header that says DO ONE STEP AT A TIME — DO NOT READ AHEAD and a footer that says DO NOT PUT YOUR WORK DOWN BEFORE YOU FINISH THE ROW YOU’RE WORKING ON. The pattern is aimed at beginners, with instructions for ribbing that include moving the yarn back and forth between the needles for knits and purls. I wonder how many of these outfits were knit, and how many were abandoned?
Maybe it wasn’t that hard. At least it was small; the cast on for the back is only 14 stitches.
My Aunt Rose taught me to knit when I was 14. My first knitting project was a pullover sweater knit in the round with baby blue worsted weight yarn, with twin cables up the front. What was your first project?
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 