I'm Sensing the Start of a New Obsession

I have had brushes with brioche knitting in the past (remember those infinity cowls?), but I've never done anything in brioche that had to fit or that had shaping. While I was at SSK, I attended a breakout session on brioche with AmyBeth and realized that I was making it out to be much more complicated in my head than it actual was, so I decided to start out relatively simple with a hat -- and a simple hat at that. It turns out that it was tons of fun to knit and the only complicated part (the crown shaping) really was more fiddly than hard once I understood the directions.

Slightly blurry photo thanks to 7-year-old photographer

Pattern: Rainbrioche by Katrin Schubert, larger size
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Cozy (100% superwash merino) in Smooth Sailing, Sunny Skies (MC) and Shortcuts and Mushrooms (CC)
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) Addi Rockets, magic loop
Started/Completed: August 3/August 9
Mods: used the same CC throughout

This pattern had caught my eye when it was released several months ago, and I bought it recently when I had a PayPal balance burning a hole in my (virtual) pocket. I already had a couple of Katrin's brioche hat patterns in my library from when she offered them for free for a limited time, but they are a bit more complicated and I didn't think my skills were quite up to that level just yet. This pattern seemed like just enough of a challenge to get my feet wet, so to speak, and build my brioche confidence.

As to the pattern itself, it is relatively simple if you already understand the basics of brioche. Most of the hat is made up of sections of simple two-color brioche separated by sections of working with one color and slipping stitches of the other. The pattern calls for you to change your contrast color after each of those sections, but I continued to use the same CC throughout. The only slightly tricky part of the hat comes when you get to the crown decreases, when there are decreases that turn five stitches into one. It took me a couple of attempts to get it right (there are two ways of doing it described in the pattern), but once I got it, it was more fiddly than difficult.

I've got plenty of yarn leftover to knit another one for Rainbow, with the colors reversed. She said the fit of this one is good for her, though it's a bit long, so I may just eliminate one of the vertical repeats. She's also requested a pompom on hers (are you at all surprised?), which I'll be happy to do provided there's enough yarn leftover.

My vacation is coming up quickly, and I've decided on the projects to take. I'll be packing my Driftwood Tee, with the hope of finishing up the front and perhaps even seaming and doing the neckline finishing while I'm away, and I've started a new pair of vanilla socks in some self-patterning ONline sock yarn that I picked up at Knitsburgh Yarn Shop last weekend.

I'm going to stick another skein of sock yarn in my bag just in case, but I think I should have no trouble hitting my 10K Stash Dash goal if I can finish up the tee and a pair of socks while we're away. Stash Dash officially ends the day after we get back, so I do have a bit of a grace period if I need it, but I'm hoping all I have to do is weigh my FOs and post final pictures and numbers. Fingers crossed!