Reasons to knit Skinny Brioche Scarves

PLBS Design thoughts, other updates.

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I released my latest design “Pretty Little Brioche Scarf” (PLBS) last Thursday.

💌 PLBS is available here on Ravelry and Payhip.

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Reasons to knit skinny brioche scarves

I am not sure is everyone will be interested in hearing what goes into a knitting design, but I am writing about some of my thoughts 💭 behind PLBS design this week. Please let me know what you think.

The idea for PLBS 🧣was formed when I wanted a simple project to suggest to knitters who have just learned brioche knitting.

Brioche is quite notorious for being very intimidating at the beginning. I have seen even some very experienced knitters shy away from this one. My experience with the technique was the same - it threw me off 🤯 for a while until I studied and practiced it well. My honest opinion is that it definitely takes a bit more time and perseverance on our parts to master but it is worthwhile.

My main goal for this design is to let knitters ease into brioche and focus, without having to worry about a lot of things.

• No complex tricky cast-ons. (Two color Italian CO , I am looking at you! 👀)

• It generally takes a while before one learns to fix mistakes in brioche confidently. Until then knitters rely on lifelines and frogging. 🐸 So a project with small number of stitches is very desirable.

• An easy-to-remember selvedge: so there is one less thing to worry about when you are struggling to get brioche stitching going smoothly. 🧶

• Increases and decreases ⬆ ⬇ in brioche are done in pairs of stitches and come with multiple steps. Also increases are relatively easier to wrap our heads around than the decreases.

• With this in mind, I picked a shape that allows lot of plain brioche knitting before having to do an increase or decrease. Also, you get to do just the increases (easy ones) for a while (about half the shawl) and then get ready for decreases.

• Gauge can be an elusive thing in any knitting project. 🫥 Especially in brioche things can be wild until you get used to the stitching. So we don’t worry too much about gauge in this one. As long as you like the fabric you are creating, you can keep knitting until you like the size of your piece. It comes with instructions for 3️⃣ sizes, but is very intuitive to adapt it to your wishes. 💗

• For good measure, I added a row tracker. I know a lot of knitters love to have one when things are a little shaky. 🤗

Apart from these goals, wearability of course, is a basic goal. I have designed quite a few different long and shallow shawls - Soar, Vivir, Synclines, Esse. I like how practical and portable these shawls are and work very well when the weather decides to change through the day.

For PLBS, brioche definitely adds to the squish factor and also looks graphic when worn around the neck.

I knit my PLBS in the Large size to add to my collection of long and narrow shawls. But the Small one can make a charming hand-knit gift. I might have to knit one myself sometime. 🧣😊

I am eager to hear from you about your brioche knitting experience and shawl preferences. 💗 Let me know!

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CRAFTDOODLING DESIGNS UPDATES

1. Some brilliant work by the students at my Brioche Stitch Patterns Class, last weekend. ✨💗

   

   Students’ work at Brioche stitch patterns class at Fillory Yarn

2. Manzil Socks is my next pattern that is currently getting tested. Please keep an eye out for updates.

3. If you are planning to do the Bay Area Yarn Crawl this month, please come and say Hello 👋 to me on Mar 22 at Fillory yarn between 1-4 pm.

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OTHER THINGS YOU MIGHT LIKE

Currently reading 📚 - Code Name Hélène - Ariel Lawson

Loved this piece here on substack 💗

Until next time,

Kavitha. ♡

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