Or most of one, anyway. :-)

Last month I showed you the first of multiple ridiculous swatches for a pair of Selbu-style mittens. (Ridiculous only because of their fine gauge. Swatching itself is never ridiculous.)

Based on those swatches, I finally chose to use 2.75mm needles, which gave a nice fabric and a gauge of about 10 stitches per inch. With gauge in hand, I was able to chart a design in Illustrator and (finally!) actually get knitting.

I’m really happy with the stitch patterns I’ve chosen, and how they’re coming together – in large part, thanks being able to shift patterns around and try out different variations in Illustrator. Honestly? I don't know how knitters designed these things without the help of similar online tools. Gobs and gobs of graph paper? Lots of experience designing on the needles?? Who knows!

That mitten project traveled with me to Stitches United in Atlanta, because I’m always foolishly optimistic about the amount of time I’ll have to knit while at a teaching gig. But because I’m realistic about the type of knitting I can do while traveling, I also brought a scarf project along.

 

It’s a simple, single-color, brioche scarf, using Hazel Knits Lively DK in Splish Splash and a single-color variation of the Herringbone pattern that appears in Nancy Marchant’s Knitting Fresh Brioche.

[Pro tip: Brioche grows slowly. Put a clip-on marker into the fabric – as shown above – each time you sit down to knit. That way, you can see that you are making progress!]

I’m absolutely loving the color of the yarn – such a deep, satisfying blue! And the stitch pattern was easy enough to memorize, making it ideal for travel knitting. I ought to have the scarf done in a few days – at which point it’ll become another sample for my Patterned Brioche class.

Remember that leading three days of brioche exploration at Camp Stitches Saddlebrook in October.

As much as possible, I want to make these “Adventures in Brioche” a self-directed adventure for everybody. New to brioche? You’ll get the hang of knitting brioche flat or in the round, with or without patterning, in one or more colors. Already familiar with brioche? This is your chance to try syncopation, or shaping in brioche.

Interested? Sign up now! Early bird pricing ends this Friday, June 14th.

October is going to be a busy month for me! Prior to Camp Stitches on the 18th through the 21st, I’ll be at the inaugural Stitches Salt Lake on the 2nd through the 5th. And between, I’m doing a trifecta closer to home:

• On the 9th, I’m speaking to the Fort Vancouver Knitters Guild in Vancouver, WA.
• On the 10th, I’m speaking to the Puddletown Knitters Guild in Portland, OR.
• On the 11th and 12th, I’m teaching at the Tigard Knitting Guild’s annual retreat in Beaverton, OR.

Are you going to be in the Portland area in October? Check out these guilds!

 

If you like the Stitch Maps page on Facebook, you’ll see tidbits – like the knitted moths – every week. Ditto a weekly Stitch Pattern of the Week. And you’ll see “Did You Know?” Tip of the Week posts, like these:

More precisely, I post tips when I can think of something to say. The problem is that I’ve been posting tips on Ravelry and matching summaries on Facebook for so long that I’ve started to run out of topics. (Really! See the index that irishlacenet created.) Which leads me to ask: what sort of tips would you want to see posted on Ravelry and Facebook? What aspects of using stitch maps (or the Stitch-Maps.com website) would you like to know more about?

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