I had just finished creating my beautiful Nimbus Drift shawl and I needed a chill, relaxing project to knit. Since I’d just knit a shawl, I was looking for something different and decided to make a blanket using more of my yarn leftovers! Keep reading for my experience knitting and a pattern for the Honeycomb Brioche Blanket:
YARN
I laid out all of my leftovers in a rainbow order. With this Honeycomb Brioche Blanket, I would be holding my yarn double throughout to create a DK weight. I like holding yarn double because it creates a nice plush texture, it helps to marl the colors/yarn transitions, and it uses up a lot of yarn quickly which is perfect for stash busting.
The yarn bases I had were: fingering sock yarns, lace weight mohair, lace weight suri, and sport weight suri/merino. Most of my yarns are tonal/solid colors, with some variegated. Many of these yarns were at least 50g so I had a lot to work with for this project.
I felt like I had been using these same colors again and again in multiple projects, but still having leftovers. So I was excited to use up all of these skeins in one final project, and then look at some different color palettes when I’m ready to shop for another project.
HONEYCOMB BRIOCHE
I first learned how to knit the honeycomb brioche stitch when I knit the Favo Sweater. This sweater was so beautiful and a fun challenge to knit. The honeycomb brioche was a little tricky for me because you needed to k1b (knit one below) and it was a little hard to read your work for the first few rows.
I fell in love with the honeycomb brioche texture and the double layers that I incorporated in into the sleeves of my Rainbow Penguono Sweater. By that time, I felt like I was really understanding this stitch and enjoying it.
But then I knit the Honey Clutch (and later the Honey Purse), and that pattern had swatching instructions for honeycomb brioche that were different than the way I had learned the stitch. Instead of k1b, you could separate the brioche stitch into a knit and slip stitch. I thought it was really cool that a different way of knitting could achieve the same results.
Then I worked on the Treelight Shawl which also created honeycomb brioche in this different way. I learned a lot from that shawl and how easy it can be to transition between all types of brioche.
All of this honeycomb brioche over the years helped me to get comfortable with the different methods to achieve this stitch. I still think this is my favorite knitting stitch of all time because of the plush springy texture and the look. So I knew that this would be the perfect stitch to knit for my chill blanket project.
RAINBOW HONEYCOMB BRIOCHE BLANKET
Cast On
When I knit my Rainbow Trinity Blanket, I cast on 154 stitches. That blanket looks beautiful and I love using it as a lap blanket when I’m sitting at my desk. But with this Honeycomb Brioche Blanket, I wanted it to be wider, so I cast on 204 stitches.
I used an I-cord cast on again since I like that look as the blanket edge. I used my US 8 Chiaogoo needles on a 50″ cable, holding my yarn double. I cast on until I felt my blanket would be wide enough.
Then I picked up and knit along the I-cord, and finally 3 stitches along the cast on edge. This gave me 210 total stitches to work with (3 sts from cast on edge, 204 pu+k stitches, and three live i-cord stitches).
Marling + Color Strategy
I knit this blanket with yarn held double. If I was using a mohair, I held it double along with another yarn (so three total strands). I mostly held a single color double, pulling from the outside and inside of a center-pull ball. But I would cut one of the strands and hold together with a new color to help marl the transition.
I worked my way through a rainbow, changing colors as they ran out. If a color ran out in the middle of a row or on a WS, it didn’t really matter because the honeycomb brioche hides the transition. I just left long tails and moved them to the WS so I could weave in the ends once the blanket was done.
Blanket Length
I wanted this blanket to be longer than it was wide; with proportions of a normal blanket/throw. But as I knit, I realized that it was going to take a lot more yarn to get to a length like that. I went through my stash and pulled out a couple full skeins that I’ve been holding on to for over a year and wound them up incorporate into this blanket.
I like having a small stash because I can shop from my shelves and cast on most things I want. But on the other hand, hanging onto skeins for years but still buying new yarn because I don’t “have what I need” for a new project feels bad for me. So I was happy to use some of my older skeins and put them to use in this beautiful blanket.
I knit a ROYGBP rainbow before moving into a pink to white ending. When I felt like the length was right, I decided to bind off. This blanket was the perfect relaxed knit for me. I loved using my rainbow of colors and unwinding while knitting my favorite stitch.
Honeycomb Brioche Stitch Help
I remember knitting honeycomb brioche in those first few projects and it was difficult to read my work. I remember not feeling confident I could fix a mistake if it happened. But with this method of knitting of honeycomb brioche, I had no mistakes. But I also felt confident that I could tink back if something was weird. I think it was the k1b that was tripping me up in the past.
Here’s a few pictures of how I knit this stitch without the k1b to help explain the pattern at the the end of this post:
Right Side: 1) knit, 2) knit the single stitch underneath its yarn-over, and 3) slip the yarn-over purl-wise
Wrong Side: 1) sl1yo (bring yarn forward and slip stitch purl-wise; then the yarn at the front creates the yarn-over when brk/k the next stitch), and 2) brk1 (knit the single stitch + its yarn-over together)
Blocking
My blanket was beautiful right off the needles, but it had some shaping issues. Some areas where I had used two strands of sport weight yarn were clearly a different gauge and causing a bulge along the edge. Overall, the blanket was looking like a wonky square, but it felt really nice and squishy! I took some time to partially weave in the ends, but I left some length on the ends so I could make adjustments after blocking.
I blocked the blanket to help me get the shaping how I wanted. I used the pre-soak + rinse and spin programs with cold water on my washer to wash my blanket. I included a few squirts of soap and a color catcher. While it was washing, I set up my three sets of blocking mats. I was nervous that my blanket might have some felting, but it had none.
I pulled the blanket out and gently stretched it out on my blocking mats to get the shape I wanted. I started along the length side and used the grid lines on the blocking mats to create a straight edge. I used my rainbow blockers and t-pins to fix the blanket position. I focused on keeping the color stripes straight and lining up the edges.
Finishing
Prior to blocking, my blanket measured ~52.5″ l x 56″ w. And after blocking, my blanket measures 76″ l x 46″ w. Blocking really helped to give me the length I was looking for in my rainbow honeycomb brioche blanket. Once the blanket was dry, I finished weaving and trimming the ends.
I had a lot of fun working on this blanket and knitting my favorite stitch. I hope this blanket inspires you. Here’s what I did to create this blanket:
HONEYCOMB BRIOCHE BLANKET PATTERN
HONEYCOMB BRIOCHE BLANKET
MATERIALS
US 8 (5mm) needles, 50″ cable
fingering and lace weight leftover yarns/scraps
SIZE
Finished Dimensions: 46″ wide x 76″ long
NOTE: yarn held double throughout
- k – knit
- sl1yo – bring yarn to front, slip next stitch
- brk – brioche knit (knit the stitch together with its yarn-over)
- slwyib – slip stitch purl-wise with the working yarn in back
- slwyif – slip stitch purl-wise with the working yarn in front
- yo – yarn over
- st – stitch
- m – marker
- pm – place marker
- sm – slip marker
- rm – remove marker
- togtbl – together, through the back loop
PATTERN
Cast on 3 stitches
*Slip 3 stitches back to left hand needle, k3; repeat from * 204 more times.
Pick up and knit through both legs along the icord edge 204 times, then pick up and knit 3 stitches from the cast on edge. (210 stitches)
SETUP ROW (WS): K3, pm, k1, *sl1yo, k1* to the last 4 stitches, k1, pm, sl3wyif.PATTERN REPEAT
ROW 1 (RS): K3, sm, k1, *k2, sl1wyib (the yo stitch)* to 1st before m, k1, sm, sl3wyif.
ROW 2 (WS): K3, sm, k1 *brk1, sl1yo* to 1st before m, k1, sm, sl3wyif.
ROW 3 (RS): K3, sm, k1, *k1, sl1wyib (the yo stitch), k1* to 1st before m, k1, sm, sl3wyif.
ROW 4 (WS): K3, sm, k1 *sl1yo, brk1* to 1st before m, k1, sm, sl3wyif.Repeat rows 1-4 until work measures 52.5” or until desired length, ending after Row 4.
BIND OFF
Next Row (RS): K3, rm, k2, (brk1, k1) to m, rm, k3.Next Row (WS): *K2, k2togtbl, sl3 sts onto left needle; repeat from * until six total sts remain.
Graft 6 stitches together using Kitchener stitch.BLOCK + WEAVE IN ENDS
I hope this post was helpful and encourages you to create something fun! Check out my Ravelry page to see my other projects and what I’m working on next.
