I would like to use some twisted fiber arts evolution yarn for this - maybe Oracle, Wilderness, Le Cirque and/or Big Bad Wolf colourways. I am considering either combining (marling) either Muse or Tasty base yarn (fingering weight) with other colours, or going straight with either Rapt or Yummy bases which shouldn’t need to be marled with anything to achieve the required yarn weight. Oh the decisions!

Doing one side in Malabrigo either Rios, Dos Tierras or Twist, probably a single grey colour, would probably look good too …
Or Mad Tosh DK Twist
Or Miss Babs Yowza, Kaweah or Kunlun …

Or Hedgehog fibres or ….

The yarn used will have to be pill resistant, elastic and able to withstand a bit of wear and tear. So, plied rather than a singles yarn. Mostly some type of wool (extremely fine merino is my favourite). Something to add a bit of strength might include a little bit of nylon, but I would prefer something like silk for added strength - but not too much b/c elasticity is going to be much more important than drape in order for the garment to hold its shape. It also has to be completely non itchy!

I really don’t want the neck as high as shown in the pattern. Actually, I would ideally have a scoop neck, but I would need a proper go through the pattern b/f being able to plan that appropriately, so this first version will likely have a sort of short funnel neck. Likewise, I would love to have a sleeveless version, but without having been through the construction that might be too difficult to achieve so this is likely to end up with very short sleeves (but we will see)! I would love to make a longer length one at some point, but I am aiming for tunic to short dress length for now.

…………….
I bought some Colourmart yarns in neutral colours to use for one side and I am awaiting some Miss Babs Yowza for the other side. I have washed the Colourmart yarns b/f starting b/c I am unsure how they will behave. Using it already washed should give me a good idea of how it is going to behave.

Using a 5mm needle b/c it is what I have handy and also b/c the garment is somewhat oversized and also stretchy, so smaller shouldn’t be a problem.

I want the plain neutral gradient on the outside (foreground) and the flashes of colour in the background. I think this is the opposite to what Stephen has in his project.
Colour A = neutral
Colour B = splash

So, here we go …

Modifications
First Modification: only once through the set up and cowl neck rows then straight on to the yoke.

For the sleeves, I finished off without any further rounds after dividing for the body. This created cute little cap sleeves that will be perfect over a long sleeve top in winter. I striped each of the colours for three rounds of icord each, starting with the lightest B colour, then lightest A, mid B, mid A, darkest B, darkest A, then moving back through darkest B, mid A, mid B, lightest A, lightest B, then some lightest A again to finish. The icord doesn’t go all the way around the sleeves. It doesn’t need to and I didn’t want the bulkiness at the underarm. To achieve this, I counted three stitches across of the underarm cast on and picked up one stitch through there and knitted it, picked up another stitch through the second underarm cast on stitch and then knitted it and the stitch already on the needle, then picked up a stitch through the first underarm cast on stitch and knitted all three. The three stitches on the needle now form the icord stitches. I continued around the armhole, picking up a stitch through the next one held on waste yarn and then sliding the four stitches to the left needle, k2, k2tog tbl, pick up next st, etc. yarn ends carried through the icord. I attempted the reverse at the other end of the icord to sort of ease it into the underarm cast on stitches. I needed to do some weaving to close up some gaping of the stitches next to the armhole, but that’s ok.

I decided that the neckline needed some further definition, too, but I didn’t want it to be quite as standout or bulky as the armholes. To fix this problem, I decided on an icord of only two stitches and only used the three colourB yarns. These were, again, striped in three rows each, moving from lightest, through mid, to darkest, then back through mid to lightest again etc. I started near the back of the left shoulder and all yarns were carried in the icord.

The bind off at the bottom was done in the dark charcoal only.

No other modifications.

Notes
I marled in one strand of the cobweb weight silk and then a second strand partway down the yoke whilst using the ecru yarn. It was a nuisance. I didn’t use it with any other colour like I had thought I might.

I finished off one sleeve b/f finishing the body b/c how plain the top part of the garment was was bothering me. Much happier with some of the stronger colours up in that area.

After doing the first part of the change from ecru to mid grey, I decided that actually joining in the different Yowza colours via the joining method where you take one tail and loop it back on itself and (via a needle) thread it down the centre of the plies then thread the other tail through the loop created, then back on itself and down through its own plies was going to result in the most invisible result and would mean far fewer tails to weave in at the end. I think it is called a Russian join. I tried to ensure that the join occurred a few stitches past the BOR so that the tension in that area wasn’t affected. I couldn’t do a similar thing with the Colourmart yarns b/c the yarn fibre and construction wasn’t amenable to it. If the Colourmart yarn had been amenable to Russian joins I certainly would have done colour changes via Russian joins for it also.

Thoughts
This pattern is far, far, far easier than I thought it was going to be! I had only done a small amount of brioche b/f (along the edge of my Rice Bubbles Nudibranch shawl), so it was a bit intimidating to start off. In fact, I think the general construction and shaping are more simple than for a more traditional sweater/jumper/top/dress. Once I figured out the shaping method it was all easy … That’s not to say there are no mistakes in my tunic, though! Just a few places where my concentration must have slipped and I didn’t notice b/f finishing the garment. Annoying, but not the end of the world …

I’ve been thinking, and I’m not absolutely sure about this b/c I didn’t try it, but I think you might be able to do two colour brioche in the round without purling (for those who don’t like performing purl stitches). My idea is that if you go around as per usual for the brioche knit row, then turn the work and go around in the opposite direction for the same row in the other colour doing brioche knit instead of brioche purl, and continue to do the first rows in the original direction and the second rows in the opposite direction I think this would work!

I love my finished tunic! It is going to be like wearing a warm, squishy, soft, comfy blanket! Actually, I am a little bit worried that we might not get weather that is cold enough here, but we will find out in winter. This is b/c the double-sided fabric that is created by the brioche stitch is actually quite three dimensional with consequent air pockets. This is also why it is so soft and squishy to touch.

I must admit that I’m not so fond of the ripples that developed down the front. I realise that in large part they are due to the repeated increases along there. I’m hoping that hanging the garment will help them disappear as I am not intending to wash and block this b/f wearing. Washing and blocking should help, though. I’m also wondering whether it would have helped to not have any weaving in (doubled yarn) on the increase side of that curving line - of course, that would require all yarn changes to be done well away from that area.

I am wondering whether you could just cast on the number of stitches for the neck and go straight to the yoke instructions for a scoop neck - I’m pretty sure the stitch count at the end of the neck is the same as at the beginning of the neck.

Oh and I just wanted to add something about the yarn handling. I watched a couple of YouTube videos on brioche knitting to refresh my memory prior to starting to knit this. The ones I watched had the second colour (the one being brioche purled) sitting at the back of the knitting when not in use and being brought to the front (with or without being twisted with the other yarn) at the BOR when you start the round with it. I found that it is completely unnecessary to move where the yarn sits. It can just stay at the front of the knitting the whole time and the other yarn can stay at the back of the knitting the whole time. They don’t need to be twisted b/c they are caught together with every stitch.

Yarn
I hadn’t used either of the two types of yarn previously. It turned out that the Colourmart yarns were significantly bigger in diameter and more dense than the Yowza. This has meant that the surface that shows more of the Yowza (the wrong side) shows the vertical columns of sts as being narrower and having more room in b/w them than the other side. As it turns out, this doesn’t bother me at all in this garment. The Colourmart yarns might change a bit more with further washing (as any remaining machine oil comes out) but I am hoping not too much.

The Yowza is lovely! Definitely soft enough for me to wear next to skin and the colours are just beautiful.

The Colourmart is pretty good but I don’t think soft enough for next to skin wear for me. It is a bit hairy. It has an interesting “cottony” hand.

Leftovers
A ecru - 82g
Mid grey - 27g
Charcoal - 55g
B light - 146g
Mid - 113g
Dark - 140g

Pattern
Another brilliant pattern from Stephen West. Innovative and interesting with a very wearable finished product (as long as you use yarn that fits your own idea of wearable). I did find that it took me some time to figure out exactly what was meant by the increase instructions, but that was the only stumble I had with the pattern. Maybe others wouldn’t have the same problem.