Age: Under 16’s are welcome if attending with an accompanying adult.
Take your brioche knitting to the next level with this follow‑on workshop designed for those who already understand the basics of two‑colour brioche. Led by knitwear designer Kath Andrews, you’ll build confidence working with increases and decreases to create beautiful geometric and curved shapes in your brioche fabric.
You’ll learn two key increases and three essential decreases, many of which appear in a wide range of brioche patterns — making this an excellent stepping stone to more advanced projects. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have created a richly textured geometric swatch using all the techniques covered.
What you’ll learn
Two brioche increases
Three commonly used brioche decreases
How shaping creates geometric and curved motifs
How to recognise and follow brioche shaping in patterns
Skills required
Ideal for knitters who can:
Cast on and cast off
Knit and purl confidently
Work basic two‑colour brioche stitch (Perfect follow‑up to our introductory brioche workshop.)
What to bring
5mm circular needles (60–80cm)
Circular needles are essential for two‑colour brioche, even when working flat
DK yarn in two contrasting colours:
One light
One dark
A lockable stitch marker
Handouts are provided, and suitable yarn and needles are available to purchase in the shop.
Explore the beautifully squishy world of two‑colour brioche knitting with knitwear designer Kath Andrews. This workshop will guide you through the fundamentals of brioche, from mastering the basic two‑colour stitch to understanding the unique terminology used in this deeply textured technique.
You’ll also learn how to work a brioche increase and two simple decreases, allowing you to create striking geometric shapes in your practice swatch.
What you’ll learn
Foundations of the two‑colour brioche stitch
Key brioche terminology
How to work a brioche increase
Two essential brioche decreases for shaping
Skills required
Participants should be confident with:
Casting on
Knitting and purling
Following a written pattern
What to bring
5mm circular needles (60–80cm)
Circular needles are essential for two‑colour brioche, even when working flat
DK yarn in two contrasting colours:
One light
One dark
Handouts are provided, and suitable yarn and needles are available to purchase in the shop.
Learn this amazing technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric. We’ll cover the basic two colour brioche stitch, the terminology, a brioche increase and two different decreases.
Learn this amazing technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric. We’ll cover the basic two colour brioche stitch, the terminology, a brioche increase and two different decreases.
Book a place on the Yarndale website. You will also need a ticket for entry to the show on Sunday.
Venue: Yarndale, Skipton Auction Mart
Dates: 27th September, 10.30am-12.30pm
Cost: £42, including handouts and yarn.
Bring with you: 5mm circular knitting needles (60-80cm long). Needles must be circular for brioche knitting, though we will be knitting flat, not in the round.
Making Tracks was launched last week as an individual pattern as the rights returned to me six months after it was first published in The Knitter magazine. I have to admit that a heatwave (and one that was the UK’s hottest May on record) was probably not the best time to launch a cabled jumper, because although the pattern pages have had lots of views, no-one was in a jumper knitting mood and no copies have yet been sold!
Mind you, with the sudden change back to ‘more appropriate’ weather for the time of year – along with thunder storms and some very heavy showers – you never know! It’s cool enough now to start knitting a jumper and it would certainly be ready to wear by autumn.
I have been blocking something that I cannot show you – you’ll get to see it in October – but I’m pleased with how it’s come out and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you. I’ve just taken the pins out and left it to relax on the blocking mats as I want to see how much it pulls back in when no longer under tension.
I’ve already been promising myself (and customers at yarn shows) that I would knit a sample of the short version of Leaf & Vine and I cast on this week. Because the short version still has quite deep armholes, I’m already halfway through the length of the body before I do the sleeve cast-on! Having been knitting longer garments recently, this seems really short, but I must remember that the length will grow when the lace is blocked and the overall measurements are good. I’m knitting it using a lovely light 4 ply yarn that I bought from Jo at Second City Yarns. It’s an undyed yarn in light grey.
I’ve been getting everything ready for our next show, which is The Wool Monty. This is held at Magna in Sheffield and is famous for being super inclusive. We received our lanyards, set-up info (including directions on how to get to the room I’m teaching in on Sunday morning!) and a copy of the show brochure through the post yesterday and I think it’s going to be an impressive event.
I’ve sorted out the kits, so I can bring a good range of kits in one big box, rather than bring absolutely everything in two! I’ve decided on the pattern inventory and printed anything that was needed, and I know that everything we are bringing will fit in the car. I’ve even ironed the black cotton double sheet that goes on the table. Now all I need to do is sort the sample bags out, so that the new patterns are in them and any samples of designs not going with us aren’t!
The weekend after The Wool Monty I am due to be teaching at Ewe Felty Thing once more. The last workshop (on Steeking) had to be postponed as not enough people had booked to make it viable for the shop to run, so I’m really hoping that some lovely knitters will want to expand their brioche knitting skills and/or learned how to use the stacked stitches technique, which is exemplified in the designs of Xandy Peters. If either of these workshops sound like fun to you – please do book a place and come along! There’s cake, drinks, biscuits and laughs as well as lots of knitting and top tips.
Here are just two designs you could knit with these techniques:
Meg March
On the left is Meg March Shawl designed by me, and on the right is Fox Paws designed by Xandy Peters. Pictured is the scarf I knitted using this pattern (photographed before I wove the ends in!).
Brioche designs can be either very geometric or organic in their lines, but the key feature is how the main colour creates lines that can draw shapes. You’re using two colours, but one colour at a time, working each row once with the main colour (the light colour here), then once again with the background colour (the dark colour here).
Stacked stitches is a fabulous technique where, again, you only use only colour at a time. No stranding or bobbins of little colours, just a whole row of one colour that take wonderful twists and turns by working increases and decreases on top of each other – hence the ‘stacked’ in the name!
It’s struck me that all the pictures I’ve shared with you today have clear lines in the designs, just formed in different ways; through cables, lace, brioche and stacked stitches. It never ceases to amaze me how versatile knitting is and how we can create beautiful and detailed fabrics with just yarn and needles!
That’s all from me today. I’m hoping that I’ll have some photos of my grey 4 ply What Do Points Make? to share with you next week. I didn’t want to get ‘official’ pics taken until I’d refreshed the blue of my hair, but that is now done, so we are good to go (in between the rain showers!).
Take care and have a good week. I hope you get to do something you enjoy. K x
Learn this amazing knitting technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric. We’ll cover the basics of the two-colour brioche stitch and the terminology. We’ll also explore a brioche increase and two simple decreases to create geometric shapes in your brioche swatch.
Don’t forget to book your ticket for the show as well!
Tutor: Kath Andrews
Date: Saturday 17th October
Time: 1.00pm – 3.00pm
Length of Workshop: 2 hours
Cost: £30
Level of Experience: Intermediate
Suitable for Age: 16 plus
Included: Yarn and handouts.
Need to bring: 5mm circular needles, pen or pencil.
I’ve actually done quite a lot of knitting this week! The sample of Bryn I showed you last week knitted in Weku Yarn Bukom DK is glorious – these colours are Golden Yellow and Royal Purple and this yarn is now available on Weku Yarn‘s website! The purple is a lot more vibrant in real life than it looks here in the photo.
I’ve also tried out a new colour combination for Twisted (which would also work really well for Bryn) which is Lime and Blue in Town Ends Yarns Poldale DK. I had slightly less than 25g of each of these colours and completed the cowl successfully!
In trying to get ahead of myself for Wonderwool I’ve also been putting my kit boxes together. I like the boxes rather than the tins, although they are trickier to open once they’ve been closed!
Those piles of boxes are stacked six high and there are two more piles around the corner!
In more DK knitting I’ve also made progress on my DK version of Into the Vortex. I love how different the slip stitch patterns look in the different yarns.
I’m not yet sure how much more I’ll be able to do as I want to ensure I only use 100g of the Riverknits DK Chimera. I’m also not 100% sure how much purple I used (West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece) as I had a number of part balls in the basket and I’m not sure I picked up the same one each time… I’ll have to weigh it! I’ve realised this is the only shawl I’ve designed with this shape and I think it’s one I want to explore again – maybe swirling the other way next time!
My 4-ply grey sample of What Do Points Make? is also growing. I’m very much enjoying this yarn and I’m looking forward to how the finished item will look once blocked.
Someone kindly messaged me the other day as well to let me know there was a st count error in size 1 at the bottom of the first column on page 4. It should read : “Rep Rows 7-10 twice more, then rep Rows 7-9 once more. 53 (71, 89, 107) sts” (not 55 sts). After the bottom of that column the st count is then correct. It’s been updated on all the digital formats available and I’ve let buyers of the digital pattern know about the update where possible.
Last week I said that my next job was to update the events section of my website and that has been done too – there are lots more yarn shows and workshops showing now! I’m teaching at Ewe Felty Thing on Saturday and, while the two-colour brioche workshop is sold out, there are still some spaces on the stranded knitting one (10.30-12.30, £45 including tea/coffee/cake and of course your workshop handouts). Contact the shop if you’d like to attend!
I’m going to keep today’s post short as there are lots of things I want to get done before my lovely wife gets back from nearly a week away, so Happy Easter to those who celebrate it and I hope you all get to do something that makes you happy this week. K x
Learn this amazing technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric. We’ll cover the basic two colour brioche stitch, the terminology, a brioche increase and two different decreases.
I will be teaching the workshop on Sunday 14th June.
Bring with you: 5mm circular knitting needles (60-80cm long). Needles must be circular for brioche knitting, though we will be knitting flat, not in the round.
Skills required: Cast-on, cast-off, knit & purl.
You will also need a ticket for wool festival for the day you are attending the workshop (buy a ticket here)
We got home from the East Anglia Yarn Festival yesterday, successfully completing the third yarn show of the year. As always at EAYF it was a lot of fun, and we saw some old friends who we only see at this show, both visitors and other vendors. This included Victoria who I first met in person at EAYF in 2024 after knowing each other on social media beforehand and have been delighted to catch up with each year since. This year she brought her completed Am Byth hat to show me – knitted in a yarn containing camel fibre, it was super soft and silky and a very different beast fabric-wise to the original sample in WYS Croft DK – which is on display just behind her head!
One visitor wore her Meg March Shawl on the Saturday, to great admiration – and then returned on the Sunday wearing her Tiffany shawl!
If you’re on social media you may well have seen these pics already (apologies for the overlap!), but I know that several readers of this blog aren’t, and I didn’t want them to miss out!
I was most impressed by the knitting and greatly honoured too that she was wearing my shawl designs on both days of the show, especially as this was a show where Stephen West was present (sharing the same space two weekends on the trot!? Goodness!) and so there were a huge number of Stephen West shawls in attendance as folk queued for selfies. I was also highly delighted that he admired my Meg March Shawl and asked if I’d designed it on Sunday morning before opening when the vendors get a chance to wander around and chat with each other. I heard him say to Eddie of Madrigal Yarns while they were behind me that people at the show just had ‘mad technical skills’ and then realised they were talking about my shawl, so of course we had to chat!
Sue and I shared the most outrageously gorgeous vegan cinnamon bun on Saturday morning from Swirl of Norwich, who did very good business, selling out of most of their buns both days.
Since we got home we’ve been busy, catching up on the house and washing, and I’ve been weaving in the ends of the design commission that has a deadline of this coming Friday. Final checks of everything were completed this morning, the sample has been posted and the pattern and ‘all associated files’ – charts and schematic – have been emailed! Completed, done and dusted well before the deadline. I’m very pleased – I just hope they like it!
Now I’ve emailed the pattern I really need to sort out my desk. It hasn’t quite got to archeological strata levels, but it’s not far off – large working drawings, printed schematics, draft print outs of the pattern, inter-spliced with other paperwork. I know where everything is, but I also know that my brain will function more smoothly on the next things when it’s all tidied away.
The next things for me are to update the website with workshops and shows that are coming up and to start putting kits together in the new boxes ready for Wonderwool. I know there are technically four and a half weeks until Wonderwool, but that time will go by fast. We have nine more shows this year, six or seven of which I am teaching at (yay!), so there is a fair bit to update!
I’m also looking forward to my next workshops which are in less than two weeks at Ewe Felty Thing. I’ll be teaching an Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting and Stranded Knitting there on April 4th. The brioche workshop has sold out, but there are spaces on the stranded knitting workshop (10.30-12.30, 4th April)!
Closer to home, there are just 10 days left before Anne closes Yarn O’clock for good! Everything is now 20% off, so now would be a very good time to make a final visit (or two) while you still have the chance! I still can’t quite believe that very soon she’s not going to be there as she’s just celebrated the shop’s 10th birthday. However, all good things must come to an end one day and this particular ‘one day’ is April 4th. Don’t miss your chance.
I’ve also been knitting this.
It’s a Bryn Brioche Cowl, in a new-to-me (and new-to-everyone as it made its debut at East Anglia Yarn Festival!) yarn from Weku Yarn. If you watched Game of Wool, that’s Lydia’s and her sister Hannah’s company. Watch this space.
Until next week, take care and I hope you get a chance to do some stuff that makes you happy. Goodness knows we all need that! K x
P.S. If you don’t know the Queen song ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, I highly recommend a listen!
I started working on a hat design yesterday and cast on what I had calculated to be the correct number of stitches for the medium size. After about four rounds on the brim it was looking very small (admittedly it was on a 40cm circular needle, but it looked barely larger than a sock cuff), so I ripped it out, changed my numbers about and cast on again with more stitches. This seemed better. I finished the brim, changed needle size and worked two and a half repeats of the pattern on the main part of the hat. Wishing to check again, this time I put the stitches onto a rubber cord/stitch keeper. These are brilliant as they are hollow so you just poke the end of the needle inside the cord then slide the stitches off the needle onto the cord, enabling you to try on your knitting as you go. I tried the hat on. It felt good. But my head is 58cm, a large rather than a medium (which is up to 56cm), so I got Sue to try it on (her head is 54cm). Too loose.
So I ripped it out, returned the numbers to what I had originally started with and began again. Third time lucky! I can’t show it to you as it’s going to be published next year, but do know that when a hat design by me comes out next, there has been a lot of consideration on the sizing! The yarn in the main post pic is from the cast-on edge as I decided that it had been through enough having been cast on twice already. For some reason yarn used in a cast-on tends to get a little bit more ‘rough around the edges’ and stick to itself when being ripped out more than once than yarn used in the actual knitting does. There’s probably a scientific explanation for it.
The moral of this story is perhaps two-fold. I should have trusted the maths I did in the first place that gave me the original numbers to cast on, which were in fact right even though it looked too small all squashed up on the needle. Also, it’s never too late to admit something isn’t working and do something to fix it.
The reason for my initially doubting my numbers is a thing called negative ease. Most knitting that we wear has positive ease, that is, the fabric measures more than the body part it’s going to cover. However, with certain hat styles (and a few other things) you need negative ease – the fabric needs to be smaller than your head, at least on the brim. This makes the fabric stretch and grip your head while you’re wearing it so it doesn’t fall off!
This week I have been updating my website with more workshops and yarn shows that are happening next year! I am teaching a lot of brioche workshops in various places, including the North West Winter Wool Show on February 14th where there are just 2 places left! Other places I will be teaching my Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting class next year include the Midlands Wool Festival in July (bookings are open) and the North East Wool Show in August (bookings open in the new year) and there will be more!
I am also teaching moebius knitting at The North West Winter Wool Festival on Sunday Feb 15th and there are plenty of places available on that. It’s a great technique and includes a sized up version of the headband we make in the workshop so you can knit moebius cowls.
Mum loved the knitted gnome I made for her. She has named it Gnu.
That’s all from me today. I’m off to do my neck stretches which I have sadly neglected for the past week and knit some more hat! Take care, and I hope you get a chance to do stuff that makes you happy this week. K x
Learn this amazing technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric. We’ll cover the basic two colour brioche stitch, the terminology, a brioche increase and two different decreases.
Book directly with me via contact@kathandrewsdesigns.com.
Venue: Newcastle Racecourse
Dates: Sunday 9th August, 1.45pm-3.45pm
Cost: £30, including handouts and yarn.
Bring with you: 5mm circular knitting needles (60-80cm long). Needles must be circular for brioche knitting, though we will be knitting flat, not in the round.
Skills required: Cast-on, cast-off, knit & purl.
You will also need a ticket for wool festival for the day you are attending the workshop (buy a ticket here)
