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!
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.
I ordered the green yarn to go with Black Orchid. What did I knit?
A giant swatch, apparently. Top down is easier to figure, because you choose the neck size, and then increase until you want to be done. This was knit from the bottom up because I wanted the motifs to face this way. I cast on too many stitches, and the finished cowl was too loose, too long, too…everything. Sometimes you *should* listen to that little voice that says STOP! I didn’t block this, because I didn’t want to set the yarn into ramen-style kinks. I knew it was headed for the frog pond!
I cast on with the remaining yarn to confirm my new choices. This may look the same to you, but it’s infinitely better. Not so loosey-goosey, and a more reasonable number of stitches so it won’t be so long/tall by the time I finish decreasing. With this bottom-up construction, the rounds have been getting shorter as I go. I frogged the first cowl when I ran out of yarn, and now I’m nearly done with this second one.
I made a video tutorial for the assigned pooling motif yesterday. It’s slightly different than the one for Fired Up. I’ll put up a test knit call soon, but I want an FO pic first.
I loved designing and knitting Fired Up. I knew exactly what the yarn wanted to be, as soon as it was placed in my hand. I’d been thinking about this assigned pooling motif for months. In fact, I had already been planning a brioche/assigned pooling piece with it!
I started working with this color combo back in December while in Hawaii. When I ordered it, I thought the pooling yarn was black, with a pink and yellow color pop. Gray would be great with black.
But it turns out that Black Orchid is really a very dark purple. I didn’t like it with the gray; it gave me a cold jangly feeling. I tried it with white too, just because I had some, but the white wanted to be the star of the show. Light colors pop, right? And the Black Orchid should be the real star of the show here.
This orchid color was gorgeous, and I hoped it would work.
I loved it. (It was brighter in person.) This was the edging, with the purple orchid as the featured color, and syncopated flowers from the Black Orchid. The rest of the piece would feature Black Orchid with the leaf motif. But it was confusing to knit, because the colors were so similar. If it was confusing for me as the designer to knit, it would only be worse for the knitter. Back to the drawing board.
I looked at Keith’s (the dyer’s) inspiration photo for the Black Orchid colorway…what about that vivid green? I had some leftover Bellina from my Peekaboo Cowl, so I knit up a little swatch.
Posted onApril 14, 2025|Comments Off on Log Cabin Knitting winner, classes
And the winner is Helen Brisson! I’m emailing you so you can register for class. Congratulations!
If you didn’t win, you can still come to this online class. Register at the Vogue Knitting Live website; class is Saturday April 26. Edited to add: Flash! Use coupon code APRIL20 for 20% off remaining classes for this event.
I’m teaching three classes via three venues that weekend. I’m teaching brioche + pooling in-person at For Yarn’s Sake in Beaverton on Sunday, April 27. Class is for knitters who can knit brioche rib. We’ll cover the increases and decreases, syncopation, and assigned pooling in class. Fun!
And I’m kicking off that teaching weekend with Brioche Beginnings for Modern Daily Knitting online. Class is on Friday, April 25; you can register here.
Busy busy! These are my last classes for spring. May is…unsettled. Juggling lots of stuff in real life…
But I’m still knitting! Current project on the needles in Black Orchid and an unnamed green from Yarn Snob. I love this color combo.
Comments Off on Log Cabin Knitting winner, classes
I finished the knitting on this entrelac piece, but I haven’t decided if I want to seam the ends for a loop cowl, or keep it as a shortish scarf. The light and airy fabric doesn’t want to be a single loop, so I’d have to make sure it’s long enough to be a double loop. Or I could leave it as a shortish scarf, held with a shawl/scarf pin. I think that would show more of the little squares, which is the whole point of this piece! So I may have just talked myself into a scarf. Onward!
I’m still on my brioche + pooling kick. Yarn Snob’s Black Orchid is so pretty! I chose Silver Fox to go with it, but after I started knitting the two together, I’m not so sure about the combo. The black is really more like a deep dark purple, and the gray feels “cold” next to it. It doesn’t help that I haven’t actually seen my knitting in daylight! But I think I’d like it better with Winter (cream) to warm it up a little. I’ll have to take one more look in the morning before frogging. I do have Winter waiting in the wings.
In the meantime, I also have this yarn from A Chick That Knitz; it’s Hibernation, with a choice of either Caramel or Silver Fox (yes, another Silver Fox!) to go with it. I’m starting with Caramel, but as you can see, everything is up in the air until the swatching is done.
Are you gift knitting for the holidays? I’m shopping my samples; that takes a lot of pressure off!
The Peekaboo Cowl is a 2 color brioche cowl, knit in the round. It features assigned pooling/algorithmic knitting motifs that peek between the brioche ribs. The pattern includes a video tutorial for the Peekaboo motif.
Peekaboo is reversible; the motif looks completely different on the inside. You can wear it with a bit of both sides showing, for maximum fun. I do!
Choose 2 skeins of fingering weight yarn, one of which should be dyed for assigned pooling. You can make the cowl close to the neck, longer for double looping, or anywhere in between. I knit a short cowl because I wanted a quick project!
The Peekaboo Cowl pattern is on sale 15% off through October 29, 2024 with coupon code PEEKING. The pattern is available through Ravelry, link here. This pattern is also available through Payhip, link here. You can use the coupon code on either site.
This pattern has been professionally tech edited. Thanks also to test knitters Ann Berg, Carolyn Crisp, Diane Kay Gelder, Rhea Kohlman, and Diane O’Brien. Thanks to Keith Leonard/Yarn Snob for the beautiful yarn for the design.
I’m working on more brioche plus pooling…can’t stop, won’t stop!
Remember this? It was worth frogging, re-skeining, soaking, rewinding.
I’ve been dreaming all year about a way to combine brioche and assigned pooling/algorithmic knitting in a way that pleases me. I’ve done a lot of knitting and frogging along the way.
I love this color pooling yarn from Yarn Snob/Knits All Done; the green/purple is Bellina, which is named for an orchid. I wanted to make it sing! Bisquee thinks it looks good, too. Do you see peacock feathers? Flames?
Trailing Leaves
I had first used some of this yarn to design Trailing Leaves (coming soon!). It’s lovely, but you can’t see the pooled stitches, so Trailing Leaves will be just brioche. And no, I didn’t frog this cowl!
I frogged this one, that I knit with the remaining yarn. And I’m glad I did.
Side note: Test knitting for Trailing Leaves is wrapping up, and I’m planning to publish it next week. I have a wonderful group of test knitters; we’ve had a great time working on this. I’ve knit two more samples along with them. Stay tuned!
Side craft: I saw Romi Hill do this on Instagram, so I wanted to try it.
Crafty pouf time!
You know those bath poufs for scrubbing? They’re made of a long tube of nylon net, which is pretty much the same as a very long yarn sleeve. I had a pink one at home, but decided that I wanted a more neutral color. This pale green was as close as I could get to neutral. I snipped the string that held the center together, and was rewarded with 3.5 yards (3.2 meters) of usable tube.
Yarn sleeves!
I like mine to be about 5.5 to 6 inches long; they shorten up when stretched. I’ll get at least 20 sleeves from this inexpensive (less than $2) pouf. I’m finding that these are a little looser/wider than the commercial ones, but they’ll do. (Edit: Romi says that steaming them can make them a little narrower/tighter.) Why do I like these sleeves? They keep the ball tidy, no yarn unwinding from the outside of my center pull ball.
Knit Picks Chroma in Bare and Drawing Room
Do you prefer a center pull ball/cake, or working from the outside? I usually like center pull. But I’m knitting one of my projects with Knit Picks Chroma, and it’s easier to knit from the outside of those balls, no sleeve needed.
This monogamous knitter just said “one of my projects,” haha! I kind of have two right now. They’re related; the green one is an brioche and assigned pooling project but I made an math error in my decrease rate, whoops! It was bottom up, so while I was re-figuring, I also decided to make it top down. And to save the yarn from many more froggings while I work things out (it’s holding up amazingly well through several different design ideas), I decided to do a non-pooled version with the Chroma.
I’ve just frogged the green project, so I really do have only one project on my needles!
Bellini Bubbles is a triangular shawlette, knit on the bias from the point to the wide end. It features assigned pooling and bubbly eyelets.
Bellini Bubbles is knit with a single skein of fingering weight yarn that is dyed for assigned pooling. You can also extend the size with another skein of yarn, if you like a bigger shawl.
I knit mine with Yarn Snob’s Bellina colorway, which inspired this design’s name.
This pattern is available on Ravelry, link here, and also on Payhip, link here. Use coupon code BELLA for 15% off on either platform.
Thanks to tech editor Jen Lucas, test knitters Ann Berg, Carolyn Crisp, Alaina Foster, Sarah Gallegos, Ann Harting, Jacqueline Lydston, Lenore MacLeod, Ellen Peters, Jamie Peterson, Kristin Smith, Crystal W., and model Sharon Hsu.
Special thanks to Keith Leonard of Yarn Snob/Knits All Done for this beautiful yarn to design with!
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 