Category: News

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.

Introducing my newest brioche pattern, Coffee at the Grand!  This new knitting pattern is available on both Ravelry and in my online shop here at knitgraffiti.com!  Follow the links there to check out the pattern and see loads more photos.  I am offering an introductory discount as well: use coupon code COFFEE at checkout to receive 15% off the pattern through tonight at midnight CT.

She only loved the espresso at the Grand Hotel, and frequently spent her evenings there, drinking coffee in her favorite cocktail dress :: An elegant rectangular stole with chevron stripes, tweedy texture, and pom tassels, inspired by early 20th century fashion. All knit using a combination of one-color, two-color, and three-color brioche.

This stole was completely inspired by the amazing ladies of Lattes and Llamas, and their love for coffee. The colors of the yarn we chose together for this design remind me of the beauty found in the film, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, created by one of my favorite film-makers, Wes Anderson. I picture a lady of leisure wearing this stole around her shoulders over her favorite cocktail dress for an evening of Coffee at the Grand. If you’re curious or have any other questions about this pattern, head on over to Ravelry to see all of my notes!

This was a very exciting collaboration with Lattes and Llamas, two dyers that I’ve been following since before I started designing knitwear!  They are actually one of the main reasons I got into knitting….like obsessively!  I came across their Geek-A-Long, and thought it was just hilarious.  I tried double knitting and thought that was pretty cool. So when they approached me to create a design using one of their new yarn bases, I jumped right in!  Interlude yarn is just gorgeous, a blend of Cashmere, Silk, and Bluefaced Leicester.  It was begging to become something luxurious and decadent.  I had been researching different brioche knitting textures recently, and was wanting to try three-color brioche!  So we chose these three colors together: Palpatine, In Omnia Paratus, and Little Princess, to work with.  I will admit, they are a bit out of my normal comfort zone.  But as soon as I started working with them, I was delighted with the result!

If you are wondering how to choose your own colors for the stole, choose three colors of different tones for the best result: one light, one medium, and one dark! If you are wondering if your yarn will work, take a black and white photo of the yarn and compare! I highly recommend choosing three solid, semi-solid, or tonal colors for this shawl. Three-color brioche creates a gorgeous texture, but could be lost with a variegated or speckled yarn.

And finally, the icing on the cake: the Pom Tassels.  Something was missing to me after I blocked out the stole.  It needed a little pizazz to really finish it off.  But I wanted to do something a little different than just a normal tassel.  I scoured the interwebs for something interesting, and came across these fun Pom Tassels!!  If you want to add them to your project, I have included a 2-page photo tutorial in the pattern on how exactly I made mine.  I used a mixture of yarns, and did some fun experiments.  And luckily there is enough leftover yarn to create them!

All of the different stitch patterns used create an entirely reversible fabric!!  This last photo shows the Contrast Side, which looks equally interesting.

I hope you enjoy my newest pattern!!  This was so fun to create, and is even more fun to wear.  Now I need a date night so I can wear it out in public….or not!  Who says I can’t wear it to the grocery store, eh?  😉

Thank you so much for following along in my journey, and feel free to leave comments with any questions! xx Lesley.

Stellaire shawl is now available on Ravelry and knitgraffiti.com!!  I am so excited to finally release this pattern, and am offering an introductory discount: receive 20% off using coupon code STELLA both on Ravelry and knitgraffiti.com!  This offer will go through Monday, December 18, 2017, just in time to grab some amazing kits by La Bien Aimée (LBA)!! They will be posting 2 different kits on Monday evening, one in the exact color ways you see here, and one in a more romantic color palette.  I will send out a reminder via Instagram and my blog when they go live!

Yes, La Bien Aimée yarns are some of my favorites. I have designed with them before, if you remember my High Rise shawl, as well as my Parlour shawl.  I’m actually wearing my High Rise shawl around my shoulders right now!  Aimée has created some beautiful fade kits, and I knew I wanted to design a simple, easy-to-wear brioche lace shawl using her Stella fade paired with her Magellan fade.  Her Interstellar color way is one of my absolute favorites!

I knew I wanted to create a new shawl design that would be very approachable to brioche newbies who maybe wanted to venture beyond even two-color brioche.  So I designed this shawl to start with two-color garter stitch, which creates an amazing texture, and the perfect canvas for blending yarns.  Not only does this pattern fade from light to dark colors, it is also a pattern fade – fading from two-color garter stitch slowly to two-color brioche lace. It’s a great way to dip your toe into brioche lace, if you’re wanting to give it a try!

This shawl is a very generous size, and uses 4 skeins of fingering / sock weight yarn.  I used LBA’s Merino Singles, which are just so delightful.  There are so many possibilities with this shawl, you can fade the exact way that I wrote the pattern, or you can create a stash-buster version and use my color-blending technique to fade in more colors!  Or don’t even fade at all, it will look so beautiful!!  I chose 4 colors that were very close to each other, so that the color blending was subtle.  But color with a higher contrast will still work!

Be sure to read more details about the construction and how to choose your colors on the pattern page, here!

This sample is now on its way to La Bien Aimée in Paris, and I will be knitting myself a new sample in bright colors, pinks and oranges!!  I cannot wait to start, this is such a soothing knit.  It’s perfect for knitting around the holidays while you’re spending time with family and friends, and want to be working on something that doesn’t require too much attention.

If you’re still feeling a bit nervous to dive into brioche lace, my Craftsy class, Modern Brioche Lace, is available at a fantastic price right now!!  And you can always get the class at 50% off if you follow the link from the Classes and Events page my website.

Thank you for following along, and happy briocheing, friends!!