Tag: Brioche Knitting

Intro to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting at Midlands Wool Festival, 11th July 2026

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 both days of the festival!

Book directly with me via contact@kathandrewsdesigns.com.

Venue: Wolverhampton Racecourse

Dates: 11th 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)

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It’s (not at all) grim up north

The North East Wool Show in Newcastle was a lot of fun and Angel of the North got a fair bit of attention – certainly more than usual! Everyone we spoke to during the weekend was so friendly and enthusiastic about what we were doing, even if they weren’t knitters themselves. We had time for walks in the evening and learnt a fab new phrase: ‘nae bother’. We even stopped by the actual Angel of the North on the way home and were struck by how absolutely enormous it is, but unfortunately, due to the way everything was packed in the car, we weren’t able to photograph the shawl with its namesake – I will plan ahead better next year as I really hope to come and do this show again!

If you came and said hello or bought a pattern or a kit during the weekend – thank you! We really appreciate it and we hope you enjoy your knitting! Our stand was not quite as large as the Angel of the North, but it was fairly immense at 6m x 1m and we loved filling it up! There’s a bit of overlap in the pictures here, but hopefully it gives you an idea of the fab space we had.

My brioche workshop was good fun and I’ve been impressed to see on social media that some knitters have already finished their swatches and even started on the projects they bought. From little to no brioche experience to this in just under two hours is pretty cool!

This weekend sees us at a show much closer to home. The Pop-up Wool Show in Port Sunlight was my first ever yarn show as a vendor and it holds a special place in my heart as a result. This show is held in Hulme Hall on Saturday 16th August, 10-4, and tickets are £4 on the door or online.

I can hardly believe that it’s less than 5 weeks until Yarn Gathering! Our lovely vendors are going to have some wonderful things to share with you on Sunday September 14th. We are once more in the Daniel Owen Centre from 10-4 and entry is still free! As the show does not coincide with the Mold Food and Drink Festival this year, there will be lots of free parking available around the town.

I have a new design out in the world! The latest issue of The Knitter mag has a lace wrap in called Lorelai that I designed. I hadn’t realised it was being published this month, so it was a really nice surprise to see the pic on Instagram yesterday. Here’s their instagram shot (photo credit: @theshed_photostudio):

I used Jamieson’s of Shetland Ultra Lace for this which is a gorgeous laceweight ‘toothy’ wool that I haven’t used for a while, but adore. It’s a yarn with personality and holds a stitch pattern incredibly well.

The colour is reminding me that there are lots of raspberries at the bottom of the garden that need to be picked, so I’m off to do that.

Take care this week and do some stuff that makes you happy. And if you come to the Pop-up Wool Show, do say hello! K x

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Feedback

I’ve had some lovely feedback recently. Two instances were messages showing me finished knitted items made from my patterns and both knitters were very pleased with what they had created.

The Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl was this knitter’s first knitting in the round. He has said that I can share that he is 62 and has been knitting for 2 years, taught by his 91-year-old Mum and that knitting has helped with his PTSD. I think this is going to be lovely and cosy when autumn comes around.

Menai on was knitted and modelled by Enid and she loves it. She has done a fabulous job with her two-colour brioche knitting and I love how her yarn choices match so well with the rest of her outfit too!

It’s so good to get feedback from customers and I treasure it when they’ve enjoyed a pattern. It gives me a real buzz at a yarn show whenever someone says “I bought this pattern from you last year and I loved it/it was really easy to follow/I learnt something new and now I’m going to buy another pattern”. This is what my lovely wife calls “Know, like, trust”.

Often, in the world we find ourselves in, people are quick to let you know if something isn’t right for them, or they can’t make it work, but they can be less quick to let you know when you are doing it right. I know I can be just as guilty of this as anyone else, so it’s especially touching when folk do take the trouble to get in touch with a success or a thanks.

Occasionally people have even left reviews on Payhip when it’s something they’ve bought from there and that’s really valuable to me as this feedback is visible to anyone who looks at that product page and will hopefully encourage others to make the purchase. Some examples of these are in the featured photo at the top of the post.

There are even whole designs that only exist due to customer feedback!

Sugar Loaf came about when knitters were disappointed that Honeybun cardigan was only sized up to Age 8. Sugar Loaf is the adult version and is sized to fit UK4 to UK42.

Heart in my Hands and Little Orme were originally only mitt designs. The matching hat and cowl to complete each set came about after a couple of customers wanting them – and now the hats are more popular than the mitts!

You may know that I always respond to emails and if it is an email expressing difficulty or confusion with a pattern I aim to respond quickly. I know it’s horrible when you’re working on something and become stuck with it and know you can’t do anything until the person you’ve reached out to for help responds.

I know that not all designers provide pattern support, but I do. This help can involve explaining something in a different way in an email, sending sketches or videos to show a technique, either specially recorded or a link to a video already on my youtube channel. If I’ve recorded something specifically for someone I usually then pop it on my youtube channel as well, as they may not be the only person to need that bit of help.

Some folk are really clear about what they’re finding tricky, others are less so and it can take a couple of emails before I understand what they’re actually asking, but we usually get there. Mostly, the final email from a knitter will then say something like “Yes! I get it now, thank you.” Sometimes I get complete radio silence after what I think was the reply that would really solve their problem. On these occasions I just have to tell myself that this probably means they’re now knitting away merrily.

There is, of course, a limit to how much help I can give. Once, a knitter wanted me to rewrite a whole garment pattern to include only their size! I had to politely decline, but I did do the first line of the pattern for them, to show how they could do this for themselves.

The other lovely feedback I’ve had this week was related to the music side of my life, one indirect and one direct, but both heart-warming. A positive comment on Facebook about the great sound made by the community choir I lead (last week’s rehearsal was in the centre of the shopping precinct so it was very public!), and a personal thanks from the music teacher of someone I’m working with.

On another note, the broad beans are hanging in there, just. They didn’t like the heat wave, but perked up after some watering. We need to get them planted out soon, but I’m not sure how long they’ll last in the ‘bad lands’ of the veg patch. I think the slugs and snails will find them quickly. I think I’ll be picking gooseberries and blackcurrants this week as well. Crumble and jam making season again!

You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned the utter madness going on in the world. This isn’t because I don’t care, but because I don’t know where to begin and feel somewhat helpless in the face of it all. Small businesses are getting criticised on social media for continuing to sell and promote their products at this time, but, as others have said there, we still need to pay the bills and no-one is criticising the big companies for advertising!

So, I’ll continue to promote that Rhiannon Hap Shawl is launching on Friday as a single pattern (you can still buy the four issues of The Knitter it was originally published in).

And if you want a tasty introductory discount code for it, sign up to my newsletter before tomorrow at 8am (British Summer Time)!

That’s all from me for today. Until next week, take care, keep knitting and share some feedback with people! K x

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And I think to myself, what a Wonderwool World…

Wonderwool was fantastic! If you are on social media then you may have seen some of my posts from during the weekend already. If you came and had a chat, or bought a pattern or a kit, thank you so much! We enjoyed talking to so many people over the weekend and hearing about their knitting plans and ideas. I didn’t take lots of photos as it was very busy (yay!) and I was teaching on both days as well. Some of the highlights were:

Having a lovely big space to use and set up (and it being such a well-organised show that it makes this process easier). This space is 10′ x 14′ (approx 3m x 4.25m) and these photos were taken when we’d just finished setting up on the Friday afternoon, which is why there are the inevitable extra bags by the chair! I promise it was tidier when the show was open.

Seeing people’s projects that they had made (or were making) from my patterns. Below are three Tiffany shawls – one in Riverknits yarn, one in the knitter’s own hand-spun yarn, and one in Deby of Dyelution‘s own hand-dyed yarns, a Jo March scarf in the most glorious colours and a Meg March shawl knitted by Katie of Sealy MacWheely knitted in her own hand-dyed yarns modelled alongside me in mine!

I had fun teaching two groups of knitters how to knit a moebius and they all had success! There was even one intrepid soul who had never knitted before!!

These were from Saturday’s workshop (or Woolschool as Wonderwool Wales calls them!) My big teaching example moebius is the photo in the centre:

And these were from the Sunday group. Many in this group chose to make their headbands into a cosy cowl by knitting extra rounds. The first time knitter’s work is top left – isn’t it amazing?!

We got home safely, if a little tired on Sunday evening, and I spent much of yesterday analysing sales and checking inventory. I was delighted to discover that patterns for 44 different designs had been bought during the weekend (with a total of 168 patterns sold) – which is a big increase in variety on the 34 different designs bought in 2024. I had taken 56 different patterns with me and had worried it was way too much, but the visitors to the show obviously appreciated the range of choice! We didn’t run out of Nevern Throw as we had done last year, but we did run out of Tiffany!

In less than three week’s time it will be Buxton Wool Gathering on May 17-18th! This year we’ve gone for a slightly larger stand than before at 2m x 4m, and I’m hoping this helps folk get in to see things more easily. There are still spaces on the moebius workshop at Buxton which is on Sunday 10.30am-1pm. It’s a 2.5 hour workshop with all materials (yarn, needles and handouts) included, so good value at £40. There are five workshops happening each day, so there’s a lot to choose from and it’s such a lovely event.

The weekend after Buxton Wool Gathering, a new show, Yarnies at the Flaxmill is happening. Taking place on Saturday May 24th from 11am-5pm (note the slightly later timing from the majority of shows), this is happening at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, a location which has recently been acquired by English Heritage! Tickets are £5 either in advance or on the door, with under 16s and carers going free. There will be just under exhibitors (of which I am one) and should be a lovely day out. Do come and say hello if you visit this event!

The workshops I told you about last week at Sew Woolly in Cheadle are happening in May too – on Wednesday 28th. If you want to learn how to knit socks (this workshop is for cuff down socks) or how to knit lace, do get in touch with Elizabeth at the Sew Woolly shop! All yarn is included in the workshop fee.

August seems like a long way off at the moment, but I’m sure it will swing round really quickly. We’re exhibiting at the North East Wool Show for the first time which is exciting. It’s the furthest north we’ll have been for a yarn show yet! I will be teaching my Two-Colour Brioche workshop there on the Sunday. The show is held at Newcastle Racecourse on August 9-10th and my workshop is 12.30-2.30pm on the 10th. If you want to book a place, just email me and I can send you an invoice for the places you want. There are currently 6 more places available on the workshop.

As someone said at Wonderwool this weekend when they saw the flyers on the table for the different events we’re at: “You’re getting about a bit, aren’t you!”

Yarn Gathering will be happening again this year and Anne and I are in the midst of finalising who is coming to this year’s show. This year Yarn Gathering is not on the same weekend as the Mold Food and Drink Festival. Instead it will be taking place the weekend before, on Sunday September 14th. There will still be some shops and plenty of food outlets open in Mold that day and parking will be easier too! We will have more information about this year’s show very soon.

Alongside all these shows and workshops I am still designing! This morning I emailed a new pattern off to the magazine editor and I will be entrusting the sample (the actual knitted item) to the postal system later on. That part is always a little terrifying, so I often end up sending them by special delivery – after weeks or even months of work (and sometimes a design has been bubbling away in my head for years before it finally takes shape) the last thing you want is for the sample to get out in the post!

As I write today’s blog post I am looking out of the window at the back garden. The apple tree is in full blossom and looks beautiful and my lovely wife is tackling the vegetable plot, which has been neglected for several months, in readiness for some optimistic sowing of seeds. I do hope that this year’s plants aren’t all eaten before they get big enough to actually produce some food for us! That was what happened last year and it was a little disappointing. I have spotted that the currant bushes and gooseberries seem on track for bumper crops – they seem to have appreciated their prune!

It seems I’ve had a lot to tell you today! If you’ve read this far, thank you. I hope you have a good week that includes some things that make you happy and I’ll write again next week. Until then, take care, K x

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April Already

Menai is being launched as an individual pattern on Friday 4th April – sign up to the newsletter before then for an exclusive subscriber discount code!

It seems very appropriate that the launch of this design as an individual pattern happens in the spring as it is covered in growing leaf shapes!

With everything being quite busy lately, I completely missed that my latest design for Knit Now, Crenellate Shawl came out over a week ago! Knit Now Issue 179 is the one to look for.

Crenellate is a textured top down triangular shawl that uses just knit and purl stitches with yarn overs placed at the edges and centre spine for the shaping. It’s knitted using West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK which catches the light beautifully.

This photo shows the textured pattern really well. I took this shot while the shawl was blocking and drying so the colours are a little darker as the yarn is damp here.

The camellias are starting to look good as I had hoped. The pink one flowers before the red one with larger flowers. The red one certainly knows which side the sun hits it as that side is becoming covered in blooms and the other side is still very much green.

The daffodils and front borders are looking good too! The red cowslips always surprise me as I forget they are there. Do excuse the weeds and grass in the border – there hasn’t been any time for gardening this week.

Very soon I need to get the veg patches into use, which will mean deciding which veg we want to grow this year. There hasn’t been a lot of time to think about growing our own veg lately, but it would be nice to get that part of the garden up and running properly. Everything was a bit of a disappointment last year as most of the plants got eaten, so we’ll probably try for different crops this time.

There were some more long car journeys this week, down to the midlands to visit my Mum, then further down to Kent to help my lovely mother-in-law celebrate her birthday and then back home again. I tend to listen to unabridged audiobooks when I’m driving and I’ve been expanding my eras of historical fiction.

On the way down I listened to The Bookseller of Inverness by S. G. MacLean, set in the wake of the 1746 battle of Culloden, and on the way home I started listening to The Forbidden Queen by Anne O’Brien, telling the story of Katherine de Valois who becomes the wife of Henry V and mother of Henry VI. Both are hugely enjoyable and I recommend them, in whatever form you enjoy a book. Usually the historical fiction I listen to is Tudor or Elizabethan, so it’s nice to fill in some of the gaps on either side!

Anne at Yarn O’clock is busy getting ready for my trunk show there on April 12th! This window display is full of my designs!

Pictured are Into the Vortex, Nubble Slip Stitch Mitts, Llanberis, Twisted, Ice Diamond Mitts, What Do Points Make? and Calon Cariad. I’ll have paper copies of all these designs and many more with me on the day, and also lots more samples for you to see in person. I’ll be there all day from 10am -4pm and I hope folk will find time to pop in and say hello! The shop is on Earl Road in Mold and there is lots of parking in the town. As it’s being held on a Saturday, you’ll also be able to enjoy Mold’s street market.

I told you that I have two design commissions that I’m working on. One is a lace pattern that needed to have a small rejig in terms of size to make it a little narrower, but since then it’s been coming on a treat. I’m nearly at the end of the fifth pattern repeat of seven. Once all seven are complete, there’s just the final part of the chart to work and the top border and it’s done bar the blocking.

I’m using Jamieson’s of Shetland Ultra Lace for this design and I’m really enjoying it. It’s a yarn with a lot of personality and is able to withstand being pulled out and re-knitted quite happily, despite being a laceweight yarn. It’s the same yarn I used for the original three colour version of Maid Marion, my Pi shawl. If you come to my workshop on lace knitting next month (May 28th) at Sew Woolly in Cheadle, you’ll be using this yarn too! I’ll tell you more about my workshops there next week.

Until then, take care and remember to sign up for the newsletter if you’d like a discount for Menai! K x

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Mixing It Up

This has been a very varied week, despite spending quite a lot of time on my own. I even made biscuits, though there are none left and no photographic evidence was taken.

Knitting wise, I have been working on four designs! One, Elinor Hap Shawl, has now been updated with an improved layout and a correction of stitch counts. There will be a further update later in the year once the new sample is ready for photographs.

Another design, Menai, will be launched as an individual pattern next week on April 4th, having been originally published last October in The Knitter magazine. We took advantage of yesterday’s sunshine to take some new photos and I am pleased with how they have come out. It’s a brioche cowl that almost behaves like a mini-poncho and there are some fun decreases to create the leaves and leaf-bud shapes.

I have kept the layout and language consistent with my other brioche designs, so you will see rows labelled as “Row 1 LC (RS):”, followed by “Row 1 DC (RS):” where LC stands for light colour yarn and DC for dark colour yarn, rather than “Row 1 (RS): Using yarn A…” followed by “Row 1 (RS): Using yarn B…” which was the magazine’s house style for brioche.

It’s knitted flat, partly because the alpaca yarn I was using started to make the fabric twist when I tried knitting it in the round, and partly because it’s easier to block properly! The method I use for drawing a blocking schematic varies wildly: sometimes I draw it in a computer programme, and at other times, such as here, I take a very different approach: I print out a photograph of the work while its pinned and blocking, tape it to the window with a plain piece of paper over the top and use that as a free lightbox to trace the outline! To this I can add measurements!

There will be a time limited subscriber discount when Menai is launched for digital copies of the pattern, so if that appeals to you, make sure you sign up to my newsletter before the end of March!

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I will have Menai (both the sample and printed copies of the pattern) with me at the Trunk Show at Yarn O’clock on April 12th. The shop is open 10-4 and I will be there all day with lots of my printed patterns and samples and Anne who runs the shop will be able to show you all the fabulous yarn she has that would be appropriate for the different patterns.

The two other designs I have been working on are new designs that will be published later this year, both single colour items, but very different in yarn weight, technique and finished item! I can’t wait to share them with you.

As well as doing lots of knitting and pattern writing/tweaking, I have been doing quite a bit of singing this week. It was the Spring Market in our town on Saturday and the community choir I lead, Shelby’s Singers, sang for a full hour with songs from Pink, Steps, Les Miserable and Joseph to name just four! The church choir I sing in also had a great rehearsal in the week as we are preparing for performances of Fauré’s Requiem and Allegri’s Miserere just before Easter.

And, surprise surprise, I spent a couple of hours at the garage during the past week (knitting of course) while they checked out my un-opening door. And yes, they did agree after that investigation that it does have wrong with it what I said it did when I booked it in, and they will be ordering the part. I had been foolish enough to think that, having told them the problem had also occurred on a different door nearly 18 months ago and what had been needed, that the part would already have been there and the fault fixed that day, but I was wrong. They needed to check it out for themselves first. Which I suppose is fair enough, but it does mean another wait for it to be fixed.

Then this afternoon, I spent a lovely couple of hours in the company of some ex-colleagues working through a cryptic crossword as we had used to do in the staff room. To be fair I wasn’t a regular member of crossword corner then as I couldn’t often get out of the department during day, but I had always enjoyed the times I did and today was wonderful. Laughter, sharing news, a little reminiscing, but not a lot, and a lot of brain work wrangling our way through the cryptic clues. I will definitely be meeting with them again.

I am looking forward to seeing more of the camellia flowers opening up on the bushes in the back garden – I am hoping they will look quite good by next week and intend to take some photos to share with you. I still need to finish some of the winter cutting back, but I have at least finished the fruit bushes.

I am also looking forward to cooking dinner for my lovely wife this evening, so I had better stop now!

What will you do this week that makes you smile? K x

Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting at North East Wool Show, 10th Aug 2025

I am really pleased to be teaching at the North East Wool Show in Newcastle this year!

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. You need to be able to cast on, knit and purl confidently and be able to follow a written pattern. Yarn and handouts are included. Bring 5mm circular needles (60-80cm) and a pen or pencil. Circular needles are essential for two-colour brioche knitting, even when knitting flat.

The workshop is run by Kath of Kath Andrews Designs who is an experienced knitter, designer and tutor.

To book a place, email me direct: contact@kathandrewsdesigns.com.

COST: This workshop costs £30.

SOLD OUT

 

Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting at EAYF, 15th March 2025

I am delighted to be teaching at East Anglia Yarn Festival (EAYF) this year!

Learn this amazing knitting technique to create a wonderfully squishy fabric that looks great (and different) on each side. We’ll cover the basics of the two-colour brioche stitch and the terminology used. We’ll also explore a brioche increase and two simple decreases to create geometric shapes in your brioche swatch.

This class is suitable for intermediate (or experienced) knitters. You need to be able to confidently cast on, cast off, knit, purl, and work yarn overs. Some experience with knitted decreases and the ability to follow a pattern is also very useful.

Yarn and handouts are provided to all, and scissors and tapestry needles will be available to borrow.
Knitters will need to bring a circular 5mm knitting needle (60-80cm long) with them – to work this technique the needles must be circular even though we are knitting flat. If they do not have this, I will have some they can purchase at the start of the workshop. They should also bring a pen or pencil for making notes.

REMEMBER to access your class you must have a marketplace ticket valid for the day your class is running.

If the entrance time slot that you need to be able to access your class is sold out, please purchase the next available time slot for that day and still arrive in time for your class, volunteers at the door will check your class details and allow you early entry if necessary. All classes take place during show open times on 15th and 16th March 2025.

Please note the start AND finish time of your class if you are booking multiple classes. We cannot refund classes due to errors in booking, please make sure that the classes you are booking do not overlap or clash.

Please arrive in time to walk to your classroom from the entrance of the arena. The arena is approximately 100m long and the two classrooms are located on the right hand wall as you enter the marketplace. We will have volunteers in high visibility jackets helping to direct you to your classrooms.

All class bookings are non-refundable and cannot be exchanged.

Workshop ticket is £36. The workshop will be held in Classroom 2.

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Good Afternoon

I’ve caught up with the frogging I had to do last week and everything is now ticking along nicely with the new design. I should finish the main section of it fairly soon and add the second colour in.

I don’t think I have shown you the finished DK version of Into the Vortex, so here it is!

It still needs to be blocked and it will behave itself much better for photographs once that has been done.

Last Tuesday evening’s Zoom workshop worked very well and the knitters who attended made excellent progress having not tried brioche knitting before. I was really impressed with them and they had a lot of fun too!

I’m teaching the same workshop (Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Knitting) at Bakewell Wool Gathering this Saturday, 1.30-3.30pm. There are still spaces on the workshop if you’d like to attend – you can book in advance or ask on the day if there are still spaces available. You just need to bring 5mm circular needles (minimum 60cm long) with you.

If you already know how to work the basic brioche knit stitch and would like to extend your brioche knitting skills, I would encourage you to sign up for the Next Steps in Two-Colour Brioche Knitting Zoom Workshop on Tuesday October 22nd, 7-9pm, where we are going to work on this swatch:

The community choir (Shelby’s Singers) I lead sang in our town on Saturday afternoon as part of a free music festival. We had an hour’s slot, with the expectation to sing for 45 minutes. That’s a lot of songs! We did 13 songs, finishing with the song that has become ‘ours’ – ‘This is Me’ from The Greatest Showman. We change the final line to ‘This is Us’ and that has been added to the choir hoodies that arrived just in time for the performance!

So, this is us:

Prynhawn Da was published in Knit Now in May and I have now released it as an individual pattern on my website, Payhip and Ravelry. Prynhawn Da is Welsh for ‘good afternoon’, hence the title of today’s blog post! The coasters and placemats are not only pretty in themselves, but they are also a great introduction to Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Pi Shawl construction:

That’s everything from me today. I hope you have a good week and get a chance to do something you enjoy. K x

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Go Back To Go Forward

The Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) used to say (and probably still does) that fast knitters make big mistakes more quickly. She’s right!

This is what I knitted last week:

Except these are balls of wool, not knitting, so what happened? Sue said “Oh no!” when she saw me frogging this earlier on (frogging – as in you remove the knitting from the needles and ‘rip it, rip it’ out). However, my response to her was a very calm, “Don’t worry, it will be better”.

It had been bugging me that the repeated pattern in this design started alternately on a right side and then a wrong side row. Also that the number of stitches before the actual pattern began kept increasing. That meant I couldn’t condense the pattern and every row had to be written out, which, when it’s for a magazine and every page used matters, is a potential problem.

Lying in bed I wondered whether removing one plain row before the repeat section began would solve both issues I was having, so this morning I went to my charting programme and drew it out and guess what? It works! Five or more pages reduced to two and a half and the pattern becomes easier to follow as well. But it did mean I needed to undo all that yarn you see in the pic above.

Sometimes you have to go back before you can go forward.

This evening I am teaching my Introduction to Two-Colour Brioche Workshop via Zoom. There are some major benefits to this: no one has to travel, you can attend from wherever you are as long as you have a reliable internet connection and my camera set-up means that everyone can see what I’m doing at the same time as though I were right next to them. It does mean that I can’t take someone’s knitting and fix it for them, but as long as they can hold it up to their camera I should be able to explain what they need to do differently to make it work. If you already know the basic brioche stitches and want to expand your brioche knitting skills, why not book on the Next Steps in Two-Colour Brioche Knitting Zoom Workshop? It’s on Tuesday 22nd October, 7-9pm (British Summer Time, which is GMT+1).

I had a lovely surprise on Thursday. I knew that my brioche cowl, named Menai, was due to be on the cover of the new issue (Issue 207) of The Knitter magazine, but I hadn’t realised they were also starting my four-part knit-along lace hap shawl Rhiannon in the same issue!

I was asked recently what my favourite fibre to knit with is and the answer was wool (from sheep). That may be because I’m so much more familiar with wool than other animal fibres, but the more you use them, the more you learn!

Both Menai and Rhiannon use alpaca yarn, which I was less familiar with before creating these designs. Rhiannon, the lace hap (square) shawl uses Cascade Yarns Alpaca Lace, which is 100% Alpaca. It was so soft to work with and created such a fluid fabric that I wasn’t sure if the blocking would hold the shapes of the lace stitches clearly, but it did and it blocked out beautifully. I used my hap stretcher to block it, propped up by the radiator.

Menai uses an Alpaca Sock yarn from UK Alpaca, and includes 25% nylon with the alpaca. Again the fabric flowed like water, which is one of the reasons I added the collar to the cowl, as otherwise it simply sat on the shoulders, which isn’t what you want a cowl to do really! Had it been worked in wool, it would have stood up on its own and would have looked completely different, but I’m glad it worked out the way it did with the alpaca as I really like the shape of the finished item which is part cowl and part mini poncho.

*As well as these two designs in issue 207, the County Shawl that I designed for James McIntosh’s Donegal 4ply yarn is in “The Knitter loves…” section!

It’s a great issue, full to brim with gorgeous accessories and some garments as well, from a range of brilliant designers, so if you are a knitter I heartily recommend you get a copy if you can.

I’m going to leave it there for today, get my desk set up for the workshop, and start re-knitting that lovely blue yarn (It’s West Yorkshire Spinners Elements DK).

Have a good week and do some stuff that makes you happy. Kx