Tag: Brioche Knitting

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Tide’s Out!

Tickets are now on sale for the North West Winter Wool Festival 2027! And that means my show design is also available. When you purchase an advance ticket for the show you get a download code (it works on both Ravelry and Payhip) so you can download a copy of the show pattern for free! What a bargain!

Tide’s Out is a single skein 4ply shawl pattern with a lovely lace border reminiscent of the patterns that the receding tide leaves in the sand. The variegated sample shown here was knitted using LottieKnits Little Bird Sock (360m/100g) and the gradient/fade sample was knitted using a brown fade set from The Knitting Goddess (400m/100g in 20g mini skeins) – this yarn is now discontinued.

I am very pleased to be able to report that last weekend went well! When I was looking at my diary recently and trying to work out how I would squeeze two events in different places into one weekend when I was organising the second one and needed to set up for it on the same day as the first, I wasn’t entirely convinced I would manage – but we did!

Saturday was Ewe & Ply‘s 10th birthday and I was so honoured to be invited to go and ‘showcase my talents’ that I was determined to be able to fit it in. Becca, Teri and their staff are so friendly and welcoming as were the other four small businesses who were there. Most of us were set up at the end of St Mary’s Parade just outside the shop, which was the ideal spot as I would have to leave early.

Lots of people came to say hello and celebrate Ewe & Ply’s journey from the market stall in Shrewsbury to a large shop and another shop in Oswestry. I had a bit of a challenge with the fact that St Mary’s Parade in Shrewsbury is at the top of quite a steep hill and the car parks are all at the bottom, but once I got my breath back I was able to chat to people!

I left there at 2.30 and managed to get to Mold just before 4pm to set up the venue for Yarn Gathering. We spent an hour marking out everyone’s spaces on the floor with masking tape, putting up signs and bunting and moving lots of tables and chairs around. I was very grateful to have Sue and Anne helping with this!

Then on Sunday morning the alarm went off at 5.15 and we were at the venue by 7.10. Outside posters were put up before the venue was unlocked and then we were able to get most of my stand set up before the rest of the vendors started to arrive from 8am. Many thanks to Sue, Anne and Joshua for being incredibly helpful with getting folk unloaded and moving boxes to the correct stand space. Especially for going up and down those stairs so much!

Everyone’s stands looked lovely and there was a good range of crafts on display – knitting, crochet, weaving (both modern and iron age!), embroideries, hand spun yarn, hand dyed yarn (both naturally dyed and chemically dyed) and fibre to spin your own yarn, award-winning locks from fleece, needle 3D felted sheep and 2D landscapes, info from Tecstiliau about the courses they run and kits they sell and plenty of other items.

People started to arrive just before 10am and there was a steady stream of visitors throughout the day, with a lull during the traditional British lunchtime and towards the end of the day. It was lovely to see familiar faces returning to support the event as well as people who had heard about us on social media for the first time this year. Our collective efforts online must have done some good!

One of the lovely things about in-person events is when someone brings their finished project (or project in progress) to show me. At Yarn Gathering I saw a lovely completed but not yet blocked Twisted cowl and a fabulous Tiffany shawl as well as the first two parts of a Branwen shawl that I forgot to photograph. I love seeing what people have knitted from my designs!

Everyone seemed to have a good day and then, just like that, it was over, and we had an empty and tidy venue by 5pm! That was thanks to all the vendors for being so efficient in their packing up and also to Sue, Anne and Joshua for tirelessly fetching and carrying items back to vendors’ vehicles.

This week I am preparing for Yarndale this coming weekend and checking all the numbers for my final deadline design and I hope to get it sent off this week before we head north.

We are back on the Lairage side of the auction mart this year in M23-24 (a double stand!) and I am fully intending to remember to bring my tights with me this time – I forgot last year which led to a very early morning dash to Asda so I didn’t freeze.

Because we are having a double stand here for the first time – the stand is even a little bigger than our Wonderwool space! – I can bring lots of patterns (60 designs!) and there will be room for people to browse. We will be next to the amazing Jo.Knit.Sew too, so we know already that there will be lots of laughs during the weekend.

I have even been able to do some knitting that I can show you! The left front of the short version of Leaf & Vine was cast off last night and the right front begun. It’s quite a quick knit when you’re making the shorter version!

With all these events and deadlines, as you might imagine, I haven’t exactly been pulling my weight on the housework or gardening front, but I did help with trimming the hedge last week and got some impressive scratches when deadheading the big rose bush in the front garden. After this coming week life should become more balanced! The rest of 2026 contains three more shows, a workshop for the Montgomery Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and, hopefully, a workshop day at Ewe Felty Thing.

What have you been up to in the past week? I’m looking forward to telling you all about Yarndale next Tuesday. K x

Intro to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting at Yarndale, Sunday 27th September 2026 – SOLD OUT

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.

Skills required: Cast-on, cast-off, knit & purl.

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Drawing a Line

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

Intro to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting at Stafford Wool Gathering, 17th October 2026

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.

Places currently available: 4

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Getting Things Done

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

Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting at The Wool Monty, 14th June 2026 – SOLD OUT

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.

Book your place here.

Venue: The Wool Monty, Magna, S60 1FD

Dates: 14th June, 10.30am-12.30pm

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)

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Don’t Stop Me Now

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!

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Third Time Lucky

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

Intro to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting at North East Wool Show, 9th Aug 2026 – SOLD OUT

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)

Workshop spaces currently available: 0

Intro to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting at Midlands Wool Festival, 12th July 2026

I will be teaching the workshop on both days of the festival!

Book directly with me via contact@kathandrewsdesigns.com.

Venue: Wolverhampton Racecourse

Dates: 12th July, 1.30pm-3.30pm

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)

Workshop spaces currently available: 3