Tag Archives: brioche

Koigu Collector’s Club: Red Brick House.

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The Koigu Collector’s Club continues! Each month, we’ll receive 21 skeins of KPPPM in a limited edition color dyed especially for a select group of local yarn stores that carry Koigu. KPPPM is a fingering weight superwash merino, hand-dyed in vibrant colors by mother/daughter team Maie and Taiu Landra on their farm outside of Toronto, Canada.

Koigu KPPPM:

  • fingering weight
  • hand dyed, variegated
  • 100% superwash merino wool
  • 175 yards/50 g
  • $15.50 each

This month’s limited edition shade is Red Brick House, a warm variegated mix of coral, salmon, brown and beige.

I’ve paired up Red Brick House with shades of Brooklyn Tweed Loft, thinking of Andrea Mowry’s “Harlow” hat. It’s a great introduction to 2-color brioche, and an opportunity to mix different colors and textures of yarn.

“Harlow,” by Andrea Mowry, photo © Andrea Mowry

Koigu’s smooth, worsted spun texture and color variation contrasts against Loft, which is rustic woolen spun and heathered.

Here are even more color combinations for “Harlow,” turning back to older Collector’s Club colorways that are still on our shelves.

Look for Koigu KPPPM and Brooklyn Tweed Loft in the fingering weight section here at our shop, along with many others! We’re here from 11am – 5:30pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays; masks required for entry.

Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide No. 21: Brioche.

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The twenty first installment of the Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide series is here!

MDK’s series of Field Guides are pocket-sized booklets focused on a particular theme, knitting technique, or designer. This newest Field Guide is an introduction to brioche, featuring designs by master of the technique, Nancy Marchant – let’s take a look inside!

Brioche is a dimensional stitch pattern often worked in two colors, which creates a bouncy, reversible fabric. Marchant’s “Cushiest Cowl” is a perfect introduction to the basics of 2-color brioche, and the patterns that follow build on these skills.

Most of these patterns call for MDK’s new yarn, which we don’t have on our shelves, though our worsted weight section is full of lovely substitutes. Think Brooklyn Tweed Tones, Shelter or Ranch 02, Kelbourne Woolens Germantown, and Malabrigo Rios.

MDK Field Guides are $15.95 each; order online for local pickup or shipping, or come by to shop in person – we’re open from 11am – 5:30 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays!

New colors in Brooklyn Tweed Dapple!

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Dapple is Brooklyn Tweed’s first departure from wool, a DK weight blend of organic cotton and merino that’s been a hit here at our shop. We’re delighted to report that two new colors just arrived!

Brooklyn Tweed Dapple:

  • DK weight
  • woolen-spun, tonally dyed
  • 60% merino wool, 40% organic cotton
  • 165 yards/50 g
  • $15.25 each

Dapple is tonally dyed, meaning skeins in the same colorway differ from one another even in the same dye lot. Some are lighter, some are darker, some almost look marled! This isn’t immediately apparent when looking at one skein of Dapple at a time, so I’ve laid out big groups in a few colorways to give a better sense of the variety. You can see each color laid out this way on our first Dapple blog post, and lots of pattern ideas on our second.

 

Here’s a new pattern idea for Dapple – Susanna Kaartinen’s “Saurel,” a brioche shawl in 3 colors.

To knit “Saurel” with Dapple, you’ll need 3 skeins of Main Color (MC), 1 skein of Color 1 (C1), and 2 skeins of Color 2 (C2).

I had fun putting together the combinations pictured below, but there are so many more possibilities!

 

 

These bundles of 6 are $76.50; the pattern is sold separately for $8.

Order Dapple online for local pickup or USPS Priority Mail Shipping – thanks again for your support and understanding as we remain closed to walk-ins!

Andorra + Tweed Silk Cloud.

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We recently replenished our supply of Kelbourne Woolens Andorra, a bouncy sport weight blend of merino and highland wool with a dash of mohair.

Kelbourne Woolens Andorra:

  • sport weight
  • 60% merino wool, 20% highland wool, 20% mohair
  • 185 yards/50 g
  • $12 each

Not long ago, I put together some color combinations for a knitter interested in combining Andorra with a lace weight mohair for Jacqueline Cieslak’s “Water Born” headwrap. I noticed that the Andorra color palette lined up beautifully with Shibui Tweed Silk Cloud, matching in places or providing a bit of contrast and interest in others.

Shibui Tweed Silk Cloud:

What else to make with these delightful pairs? Check out PetiteKnit’s “Anker’s Hat,” Isabell Kraemer’s “Leni” hat, or Emily Luis’s “Frida” headband.

Anxious to get some mohair on your needles? Order online for local pickup or shipping! We’ll be closed on January 1, but are otherwise here for orders and pickups between 11:00 am – 3:00 pm, Tuesdays – Saturdays.

Hello again, Isager Highland Wool.

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A recent special order brought in a couple of new shades of Isager Highland Wool, reminding us of just how much we love this yarn.

Isager Highland:

  • light fingering weight
  • solid and heathered colors
  • 100% Highland wool
  • 301 yards/50 g
  • $10 each

Some years ago, I made Carol Feller’s “Carpino” holding Highland Wool together with Shibui Silk Cloud, which brought a lustrous, fuzzy luxury to the fabric. It left me wanting to work with Highland Wool again, in a context where its rustic simplicity could shine.

With that in mind, here are a few two-color patterns that make beautiful use of Highland Wool, and some color combinations to get you started!

  • “Pinwheel Mitts,” by Ella Austin – fingerless mitts in stranded colorwork
  • “Sento,” by Olga Buraya-Kefelian – triangular shawl in two-color brioche
  • “Alula,” by Clare Lakewood – triangular shawl in stripes/slip stitch pattern

If any of these patterns or colorways capture your imagination, order online for local pickup or shipping! We’re also happy to answer questions, to be your eyes and hands as you create other color combinations – we know it’s tricky to select colors without being able to come into the shop yourself, and they can look so different in photos than they do in person. Thanks for working with us during our temporary closure!

Back in stock: Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply/Sport.

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Our big fall order from Fyberspates came in last week, and one of the yarns we restocked in a big way is Scrumptious 4ply/Sport.

Scrumptious 4ply/Sport is a soft, shimmering yarn, made of 55% superwash merino and 45% silk. It’s a bit heavy for a fingering, and a bit light for a sport, hence its fractured name. In our shop, you’ll find it in the sport weight section, but don’t rule it out if your pattern calls for fingering weight yarn; look carefully at the pattern gauge and check to see if it falls in the suggested gauge range of Scrumptious 4ply/Sport – between 24 and 28 stitches over 4 inches.

I recently completed a shop sample in Scrumptious 4ply/Sport, Purl Soho’s “Two-Color Cotton Cowl.” Though I knit it on the recommended needle size, I didn’t get the recommended gauge, so it’s a smaller circumference than the pattern intends. Still, it’s a fabric I like, and still long enough to wrap once or twice around one’s neck, so in this case, not getting gauge worked out perfectly. It was my first time doing two-color brioche, which was much less difficult than I imagined, and I’d definitely recommend it as an introduction to the technique.

With all these colors back on our shelves, there are lots of great color pairings to be had. Come by the shop to pick up a couple of skeins of Scrumptious 4ply/Sport for a cowl of your own!

Brioche and lace: two new books.

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It’s been a busy couple of weeks for new books! Here are two of the latest publications from Interweave, each one focused on a single technique.

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Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark’s Brioche Chic offers 22 garment and accessory patterns for men and women, all of which include brioche knitting.

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Brioche is a lofty, stretchy fabric that can look like plush ribbing in its simplest form, and like twisting, multicolored cables or lace when modified or combined with other techniques.

DSCN3593My favorite in this collection: “Chevron Deep-V Pullover,” knit in Fibre Company Acadia.

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If you’ve never tried brioche, this book is a great place to start, and its sure to keep you interested long after you’ve mastered the basics of the technique.

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Everyday Lace, by Heather Zoppetti, is all about incorporating lace patterns into wearable, non-fussy garments. Inside, you’ll find patterns for sweaters of all shapes: tunics, vests, shrugs, pullovers, cardigans, and some accessories, too.

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I spotted a few garments in familiar yarns. The “Kirkwood Vest” above is knit in Malabrigo Silky Merino, and the “Bellemont Cardigan” below is knit in Swans Island Organic Merino Worsted.

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Come by the shop to find inspiration in a book or two, and plan your next project!

 

Rodekool brioche scarf.

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Recently, one of our teachers dropped off a knit sample at the shop, a scarf to show what she’ll teach in her upcoming “Brioche Neck Scarf” class.

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Amy’s class will show how to work brioche, a knitting technique that creates two interwoven layers of fabric at once. It can be worked in a single color or in two colors, which yields a reversible garment like this scarf, “Rodekool,” a free pattern by brioche mastermind Nancy Marchant.

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Amy knit her Rodekool (“red cabbage” in Dutch) scarf using Isager Highland, a fingering weight wool. Marchant’s pattern recommends using one skein of Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, knitting from both ends of the self-striping yarn at once, but that can create confusion when learning a new technique. For ease of knitting and clarity of pattern, Amy recommends working the Rodekool in two solid colors, and reports that the Isager Highland was lovely to work with.

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Come by the shop to see this incredible garment for yourself. Meanwhile, you can read more about the upcoming “Brioche Neck Scarf” class on our website, and sign up there to learn this fascinating technique with Amy. We also have copies of Nancy Marchant’s Knitting Brioche, a comprehensive compendium of all things brioche. See you at the shop!