I would love to introduce you to the brioche cardigan of my dreams!!! La Briohème is a bohemian open cardigan with drop sleeves, long brioche cuffs, a cozy brioche collar, and a large brioche hem as the focal point. This thick, cozy cardigan is meant to be worn with 2 – 4” / 5 – 10 cm of positive ease, a perfect fit over your favorite dress for a night out or even layered over a nice collared shirt for those chilly work days. You can find this pattern both on Ravelry and knitgraffiti.com!  I am offering a celebratory discount: receive 20% off using coupon code HEM at checkout!  This offer will end on Monday, October 22, 2018.

I thought of this cardigan idea earlier this year, and REALLY wanted it to be my Rhinebeck sweater. I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out!  I will be going to Rhinebeck (aka the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival) for the FIRST TIME this year, I am so so so so excited!! I am planning to wear this cardigan both Saturday and Sunday, so please keep a lookout for me and say hi!!

I am sort of obsessed with this chevron brioche pattern right now, and have used it in a few of my other designs.  As soon as I lay my hands on La Bien Aimée’s Merino Aran yarn, I knew it was destined to be this cardigan!  The Winterfell color way is so deep, it’s almost indigo blue.  And paired with the speckled beauty of Rose Quartz for the Main Color of the brioche accents, it just POPS!!! Brioche creates such a luxuriously warm fabric, so I wanted to keep the accents to the places where you need it the most: the waist and bottom, the collar around the neck, and the wrists.  The gigantic brioche hem (brioche hem = Briohème…get it??) is placed to accent the tiniest part of your waist, giving an Empire waistline effect.  The scalloped edge that the brioche lace stitch pattern creates is the cherry on top for me.  It is a feminine look to complete any outfit, dressed up or down.  If you would like to use the same yarn for your own La Briohème, La Bien Aimée has a few color choices of Merino Aran available for pre-order on their website, here!  Please note that these are not kits, but individual skeins.  I have listed the yarn amounts on the pattern pages if you would like to know.

Here is a closer look at the back of the collar, which is knit in two pieces and them seamed together at the back of the neck.  I know, I said SEAM!  There is very little seaming at all in this pattern, actually.  I do love a bit of seaming to add stability to a garment, such as at the top of the shoulders.  And drop sleeves are just my favorite.  But most of this garment is knit seamlessly and modularly, starting with the brioche hem, which is knit sideways!  After completing, stitches are picked up along the top of the hem to make up the body. This is knit in plain stockinette up to the armholes, which are then separated and the Fronts and Back are knit separately up to the shoulders. A Three-Needle Bind off is used to seam the shoulders to give extra stability and a clean look. The sleeves are also mainly stockinette stitch, up to the decorative brioche cuff. For a finishing touch, stitches are picked up along the hem, the edges of the body and the back neck to add a brioche collar. So there ya go, that gives you an idea of the construction.

If you’d like to see more photos, please be sure to visit the pattern pages on both Ravelry and knitgraffiti.com.

Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy my newest pattern!!  Hope to see you this weekend at Rhinebeck!  xx

 

 

Introducing my newest shawl pattern, Just Like Honey!!  This pattern has long been in the works, and it feels so amazing to finally be able to share it with you all.  I am offering an introductory discount, use coupon code HONEY at checkout both on Ravelry and knitgraffiti.com for a 15% discount!  This offer will end on Thursday, May 10, 2018 at midnight CT.

This shawl pattern was created in collaboration with Jess of Shop La Mercerie and Carol of Swift Yarns, and I wanted to create something that would represent all three of us together in one design. Just Like Honey, we all stick together and build each other up in this community, and so I chose two different honeycomb stitch patterns for these wonderful ladies: Diamond Honeycomb for Jess and Two-Color Honeycomb Brioche for Carol, and I developed the Two-Color Brioche lattice pattern for the center panel. I am so incredibly proud to be a part of this wonderful knitting and fiber community.

A limited number of exclusive kits will be available through Shop La Mercerie starting at 9am PST!

In each kit you will receive the following:

• A digital download code for the pattern
• 4 skeins of Swift Yarns Tough Love Sock, with 3 different color options to choose from (including what I used in my original sample shown here)
• Busy Happy Hands honey hand salve
• Honeycomb stitch markers, and a bee place keeper
• Project bag with an adorable bee stamp

This pattern holds a very special place in my heart. Since joining this fiber community over 3 years ago, I have been constantly impressed by the love and support shown by all of the people involved.  It’s just incredible to me.  I stumbled upon Shop La Mercerie about a year ago, and fell in love with Jess’ aesthetic. I purchased a couple of sewing patterns from her, and we immediately started emailing and chatting, it made me so happy!  I saw that she had a few knitting patterns, and tons of gorgeous yarn.  So I knew she was the kind of person I wanted to collaborate with!  We started brainstorming and this shawl design was born.  Jess had started carrying Swift Yarns in her shop, which was a new-to-me indie dyer!! We had tons of fun choosing the colors for my sample, as well as for the other 2 kit options!

 

The stitch patterns used in this shawl were all new to me, and they might be new to you as well.  It took a bit of swatching and trial and error, but once I got the hang of them, I couldn’t put this shawl down.  Because these are new techniques, there aren’t very many resources out there to help you.  SO!!  I have put together some video tutorials, and have linked them in the pattern, as well as here in this blog post.  The stitch pattern techniques are as follows:

Two-Color Double Brioche: https://youtu.be/XlailKh30Fk

Two-Color Honeycomb Brioche: https://youtu.be/ObKGDPAnFio

Diamond Honeycomb (not my own tutorial, but a great one): https://bit.ly/2v565nE

Hopefully with these resources, you will feel confident enough to cast on this shawl, and challenge yourself!!  I have become a bit obsessed with Double Brioche, and will have some new patterns in the future using this fascinating technique.  🙂

If you’d like to join us, I’m hosting a Knit-A-Long for this shawl in my Ravelry group, here! I want to provide a safe space for people to knit together, and receive any help they might want or need!!

Thank you for following along, and I hope you enjoy my newest pattern!  xx Lesley.

Introducing my newest brioche shawl pattern, Indigo Wings!  You can find this pattern on Ravelry and knitgraffiti.com, and please enjoy a 15% discount using coupon code WINGS through Sunday, April 22, 2018 at midnight CT!

Indigo Wings is a lightweight half-ellipse shawl with a feather-like lace fanning out to a beautifully simple texture, all knit using the two-color brioche stitch.

Brooklyn Tweed Vale yarn is as light as a feather, and I was inspired to create a wing-like shawl with a stitch pattern resembling feathers. The texture created by the moss brioche stitch in the center of the shawl is incredible, and extremely relaxing to knit. Use 2 contrasting colors for a statement shawl, or 2 colors of similar shades for a subtle shawl perfect for the transition to warmer weather.

Indigo Wings is a half-ellipse shawl, knit from the top of the neck down to the border. The feather-like brioche lace stitches adorn the edges of the shawl, and fan out as the shawl grows. All of the shawl shaping is created within the two-color brioche moss stitch. 4 stitches are increased every Main Side, Main Color row within the moss stitch, and continue to do so through the border. This textural brioche stitch is so relaxing to knit. I call it the “Garter Stitch” of two-color brioche, because you are simply “brk-ing” all stitches. I wear this shawl with the top edge at the base of my neck, the small half-ellipse shape fits so perfectly there, and the rest of the shawl around my shoulders and arms.

I hope you enjoy my newest brioche shawl pattern, and happy knitting!!  xx

I am so excited to finally share with you my Rain Falls shawl pattern!  You can find it both on Ravelry and knitgraffiti.com!  I am running an introductory offer: receive a 15% discount using coupon code RAIN through Sunday, April 1st at midnight CT!  Place the pattern into your cart, and enter the code to receive the discount.

This shawl has quite the story.  I actually never intended to publish the pattern at all!  But I’m so happy that I was able to share it with you because it was such a comfort to me during a difficult time.  It all goes back to last August when we found out that Hurricane Harvey was making its way to us down here in Corpus Christi, Texas.  We had only recently moved here, and knew that hurricanes were pretty common.  I don’t think we thought one would come so soon!  My oldest son had just started Kindergarten, so things were already a bit crazy around here!  After all of our preparations were made, there was the waiting.  We had decided not to evacuate, since we live quite far from the bay.  Our area is on the edge of town, and elevated, so we rarely get flooded. I needed a distraction, something that could keep my hands busy but also able to focus on my children and comfort them during a scary time.  Like many of you I’m sure, I have baskets and bins full of beautiful leftover fingering weight yarn!!  Tiny little balls of gorgeousness that I can’t bear to throw away.  Well, this was the perfect project for them.  I just started grabbing all of my favorites and arranging them on my sofa.

Before casting on, I actually did a little research into shawl shaping, to create a shawl in a vortex shape!  The final result is closer to an asymmetrical shawl knit on the bias, but the shaping used is a bit different than a traditional shawl shaped this way.  I didn’t end up using all of this yarn.  I didn’t want it to look like a rainbow, more like how the sky looks when a storm is on the way.  Fading from pinks to dark gray, with some blue and purple in the middle.

Originally, it was going to be all two-color brioche!!  But as I kept knitting it, I felt myself wanting to change stitch patterns as well as colors.  So I made this a texture AND color play shawl!  It starts with two-color brioche, then moves to two-color garter stitch, then a small section of two-color seed stitch, and finally ending with a heavy marled garter stitch border. Even after the hurricane was gone and we had moved on, I continued to pick up this shawl when I needed a brain break.  Getting a little bit done here and there, it eventually was finished!!  I have written the pattern exactly as I knit my own sample, but with the color blending completely up to you.  Included in the pattern is the simple formula that I used to blend my own colors, as well as a graphic schematic that you can color on and play with ideas.  I truly hope this can be a fun pattern for you!  Let your imagination go wild, grab your leftover yarns!  Or even just two colors!  One of my test knitters used just two colors for the entire shawl, and it really made the textures of the different stitch patterns shine.  If you’d like to see all of the different yarns and colors that I used in my shawl, be sure to visit my own project page on Ravelry, here.

Thank you for following along, and I hope you enjoy my newest pattern! xx Lesley.