This is going to be my vacation knitting. I’m going to start the first 3 sections to get the scarf setup. I am also going to do brioche rib instead of rib. I really like how brioche rib “stands up”. Traditional 1x1 rib contracts, while the brioche rib doesn’t contract as much so it stands up to the other knitting around it, displaying the rib nicely.

Summary

• I’m using brioche rib instead of 1x1 rib for the ribbed sections. I am knitting 12 rows of brioche rib, or 6 repeats as follows:

  Row 1a (RS): KFB, (SlYO, BRK) * , (SlYO, K1)after the first section repeat. This row ends with a BRK on the initial row and ends with a SlYO, K1 on subsequent repeats. It doesn’t really matter -- just continue in pattern. It only matters that the A rows start with a KFB.
  Row 1b (WS): P1, (BRK, SlYO) * , K1
  Row 2a (RS): KFB, (BRK, SLYO) * , K1
  Row 2b (WS): P1, (BRK, SLYO) * , K2
  BO row (WS): Finish off this row in straight rib to transition to the next section, ending with a KFB. (Don’t forget this last KFB, as it sets you up correctly to start the lace netting section.</b>

• If your brioche isn’t following the the pattern above, don’t worry. I ran into this problem on some repeats. The only thing you need to do is start the a rows with a KFB and end them with at least a K1; start the b rows with a P1 and end them with at least a K1 (sometimes you will have 2 knit stitches at the end). Once you have started your brioche, just continue in pattern, no matter how the stitches fall. The bind off row should end with an even number of stitches so that you end the first netting row with a K2TOG.

• I’m defining a repeat as 1 repeat of netting section, 1 repeat of garter section and 1 repeat of ribbed section.

• Blocked Size: Across back of shawl: 100”; deepest point of shawl: 15”

• I pretty much used up the entire skein - 18” remains.

• I used the standard bind off for the in-shawl bind offs (essentially, K2, Sl stitch 1 over stitch 2, K1, repeat from to), K or P per the pattern directions.

• I used Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off for the final bind off.

• The colorway is the club colorway that is now generally available. A note of caution: This colorway is highly variable. Mine is the darkest I’ve seen. Some are brighter, some are whiter, some are greener, some are bluer. They are all nice, but if you are after the exact look, you are better off buying the yarn in person.

Journal

2014-01-04: Start scarf. Complete first 2 sections. Figured out how to knit my brioche rows. Complete 8 rows of brioche rib (I need 12 rows).

2014-02-22: Complete second repeat.

2014-02-26: Complete third repeat.

2014-02-27: Complete fourth repeat.

2014-03-04: Complete fifth repeat.

2014-03-06: Complete sixth repeat. I dropped a lifeline on the bind off row, because I don’t have enough yarn for the netting section. I’m going to knit it to see if I can get far enough for it to look good. If not, I’ll rip back to the the lifeline and finish the bind off.

I managed to get 6 rows of netting plus a bind off with Jenny’s Stretchy Bind Off - about 1/2 a yard left.

Next Time

• Possibly add a garter section in between the ribbed and netting section.

• Change the netting to a 2 sided netting pattern to get rid of the strong diagonals.

• Reduce the number of brioche rib rows to 8 or 9 so that I have enough yarn for the final netting section (or just have more yarn).

• Reduce the number of repeats to 5. This shawl blocks to 100” x 15”. That is really long for me. Removing one repeat would help and would insure I have enough yarn to end with a full netting section.

First Time

• brioche in a finished object.