Swatching

I swatched with the recommended needle and I got perfect gauge on the first try! This is the time to get comfortable with the Shaker Rib stitch, as it will be the stitch through the whole pattern. If you are new to brioche style knitting, I would recommend trying some of the increases and decreases in your swatch too.

With my swatch washed, blocked, and on gauge I cast on.

Casting On

I read through the Collar Extension section before starting and because I knew that I would be picking up stitches in the cast-on edge, I opted to do a basic knitted cast on. The pattern calls for you preferred method of cast on, so choose whatever you like. I like the ease of seeing stitches with the basic cast on, but long tail, backwards loop, etc. would all work fine.

Note: If you are using a non-superwash yarn like Shelter and Tones, you can use the the ‘felted join’ method to join a new ball of yarn throughout your project. You may hear us refer to it as ‘spit-splicing’. By spit-splicing my yarn, I only needed to weave in the cast on, bind off and underarm join tails.

Collar Extension

The collar extension is shaped with short rows, because they are worked in rib, they are easy to hide. The method used in the pattern is a variation of a German Short Row, just modified for the rib. To get a visual of what the turning stitch looks like, you can watch the video from Brooklyn Tweed on German Short Rows. Note that the example they use is for stockinette. https://brooklyntweed.com/pages/how-to-knit-german-short-rows-video-tutorial

This is a dark image, but it gives you an idea of the shape you should have after finishing Rows 1-20 of the Short Row Shaping.