Zaunkönig

I love brioche knitting because it creates a wonderfully fluffy fabric. In two colors it can  also get gorgeous geometric patterns. I especially love the stitch used here because it creates a gorgeous lattice or fence effect. And that effect is where the name comes from – Zaunkönig (the German name of the eurasian wren) literally means king of the fence. Here, it has been used to create a mixture of a cowl and a poncho.

The color combination is far out of my comfort zone - and was coincidental. I had ordered a lovely royal blue lace weight yarn from Wollmeise and needed something as a contrast color. Because of Covid, I only went once into one local yarn store (and that was in high summer when incidents were low and everybody worked with open doors and windows) and had to decide there and then with "only" the yarn that was there to choose from. I guess without that "pressure" I wouldn't have bought the Wasabi green. Now - that I've knitted this piece (and started another project with the same yarns - see Ravelry project page here) - I absolutely love the color combination and I am quite happy that I was "forced" (by myself if at all) to buy this yarn. 

The pattern PDF is available on

• Ravelry
• Loveknitting 
• Payhip

It is 8 pages long and contains:

• row-by-row knitting instructions for this piece in one size (height 43 cm, circumference top 58 cm, circumference bottom edge 116 cm, you can change the circumference by chanigng the number of stitches to cast on, but if you follow the pattern the piece will we twice as wide at the bottom than at the top)
• charts
• photo tutorials of the brioche stitches that you need to knit this cowl
• brkX - the brioche stitch that gives the lattice effect
• brk2inc - a brioche increase by 2 stitches (in a brk-row)
• brp2inc - a brioche increase by 2 stitches (in a brp-row)

To knit this, you need the following materials

• a total of about 800 metres of Lace weight yarn in two colours
  I used two solid colors 
• the dark blue is Wollmeise Lace (colourway "Kornblume")
• the bright green is Holst Garn Titicaca (colourway "Wasabi")
• 3mm circular knitting needles

Slightly Slanted Fingerless Gloves

I like fingerless gloves – and I like knitting  them a bit different from the standard loom-style construction. This usually leads to special patterns that are particularly attractive when used with  some self-striping yarn. Plus it may lead to mitts, where you only have to weave in  two ends per mitt – one of my personal obsessions :)  

This is the case with these fingerless gloves. They are knitted in one piece – starting with a garter stitch ribbing knitted sideways and continued with a main part that is knitted (slightly) on the bias. The upper ribbing is also in garter stitch to level the bias, and finally the thumb part is added. These gloves are (nearly) knitted in knit stitch only –  the only exception are a few increases and decreases for the thumb gusset and k1p1-ribbing at the thumb.

You can buy the pattern PDF via

• Ravelry
• Loveknitting 
• Payhip

The pattern PDF is 10 pages long and contains

• a schematic how the mitts are constructed
• written row-by-row instructions for knitting these fingerless gloves in one size  – including 9 in-process photos of the gloves in different stages
• explanations how to adapt the pattern to other sizes
• short photo tutorials of the following techniques: 
• provisional cast-on and how to undo it, 
• three-needle bind-off, 
• picking up and knitting stitches from the slanted edge of your knitting, 
• picking up stitches from gaps (e.g. necessary after changes in direction)

Size

The mitts are 19 cm high and have a circumference of 17 cm at the wrist edge and of 16 cm at the fingers

To knit this pattern the following techniques are used

• provisional CO and undoing it
• three needle BO
• picking up stitches from the edge of a knitted piece
• picking up stitches from a gap (e.g. when doing a thumb gusset)

For all these techniques/skills, the pattern PDF contains photo tutorials. 

Materials

The following materials are necessary to knit these fingerless gloves:

• about 35 grams of fingering weight yarn, I used 
• Lang Yarn Twin Soxx, colorway 909 (title photo) - here's a link to the yarn's Ravelry page
• Lana Grossa Meilenweit Konfetti, colorway 2508 (other photos) - link to the yarn's Ravelry page 
• 3mm needles, for fingerless gloves such as these, I tend to switch between dpns and circulars, but it's possible to use either of them
• one surplus knitting needle (in a similar size, preferably also 3mm) 
• a stitch holder for the thumb stitches (scrap yarn works well, too)
• 5 stitch markers - one of them removable
• scrap yarn and a crochet hook (about 3mm) for the provisional COs
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends