Brioche Rib Scarf Pattern Now Available!

I have been playing around with the Brioche Stitch for several years now.  In fact, you can check out these  blog posts from 2011, when I began my explorations:

http://www.thefiberbug.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-new-technique-brioche-stitch.html
http://www.thefiberbug.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-explorations-in-brioche-knitting.html

The scarves I made using this technique were similar, with some variations.  At a recent meeting of the Tigard Knitting Guild , I taught a mini class on the Brioche Rib technique, with the instructions for the basic scarf for my handout.  I thought I would post the material as a free pattern in my Ravelry shop and my Craftsy shop, for anyone who might be interested.  The pattern creates a cushy, warm scarf from chunky yarn, in one or two colors.  The scarf begins and ends with brioche rib in a single color, and if you like, you can join a second color after you have knitted the initial border.  The two-color rib is somewhat like a corrugated rib,  but thicker and more "ribby".  One color is predominant on one side, and the other color is predominant on the other side of the knitting.

This 4-page pattern download is a photo tutorial which will give you the basics of the Brioche Rib stitch in one or two colors.  If you would like to make a narrower or wider scarf, cast on an odd number of stitches to whatever width you like.  I hope you enjoy the pattern! 

Visit Mountain Mist's Craftsy Pattern Store »

More Explorations in Brioche Knitting

I am woefully behind in writing posts for this blog.  The new year has brought some new challenges for me, as well as a couple of bouts of a particularly nasty bug.  All this has not stopped me from knitting, however,  I have used my "down time" to try a couple of new brioche techniques.  After my first project, a two-color brioche scarf, I decided to do some more scarves to explore the technique further.

The two sides of the scarf

My second brioche scarf was made in a similar manner to the first (see previous post), with the main yarn on one side a solid pink, and the main yarn on the other side a variegated mix of greens, pink, and purples.  This time, however, instead of using a selvedge stitch on each edge, as I did in the first scarf, I worked the brioche stitch all the way to the edge on each side.  I'm not completely sure why, but I like this edge a little better than the selvedge stitch one. 

See the green stripes against the pink background?

I also tried switching the yarns to make a stripe of the opposite color, about 4 inches from each end.  This was not difficult to do...one just works the stitches on each side with the other side's color for as long as one wishes. 

My third scarf was also worked with two yarns: this time, a dark brown for one side, and a variegated pink and brown for the other.  The thing that makes this scarf different is that I switched from brioche to double knitting at regular intervals.  This creates narrow, double-knitted slots in the scarf.  Basically, to transition from brioche to double knitting, stop wrapping the yarn around the needle between stitches, and position it so that it stays out of the way when you slip the stitch of the opposite color.  This way, you will end up with two layers of stockinette stitch fabric, one color on one side of the scarf and the other color on the other side.

This scarf not only has a unique shape, but it also has the potential to be used as a "pass-through" scarf.  See the photos for some creative ways this scarf can be worn!

I am currently working on a baby blanket in brioche stitch, again using two-color brioche.  I have still barely brushed the surface of Nancy Marchant's book, Knitting Brioche:  The Essential Guide to Brioche Stitch. 

Watch for these scarves to appear in my Etsy shop!

New Year, New Technique: The Brioche Stitch

My husband deftly caught the hint I dropped, and got me a new knitting book for Christmas:  Knitting Brioche, The Essential Guide to Brioche Stitch.  I have been wanting this book for a while, and was so pleased to get it!  I have looked over Brioche Stitch patterns before, but haven't really played around with the technique.  So, as soon as things settled down after New Year's, I picked up needles and yarn, and began knitting a two-color brioche stitch scarf.  I like this technique:  it creates a thick, cushy, warm, reversible scarf, with mostly Color A on one side, and mostly Color B on the other.

Brioche Stitch is knitted in a rather unorthodox way, compared to most knitting.  Yarnovers are combined with decreases on every other stitch across each row, and the rest of the stitches are slipped.  On any row, one only works half the stitches, and the remaining stitches are worked on the next row (if you have knitted a double-knitted tube on two straight needles, it's kind of like that). 

This technique goes more slowly than standard knitting, and it also uses more yarn; but it produces a special fabric.  I particularly like the effect when using one solid yarn and one variegated yarn, as in this scarf.

I was very impressed with the thoroughness of Nancy Marchant's book.  She gives detailed, photo-illustrated instructions for the basic brioche technique, including cast-ons and bind-offs that work well with the method, increases and decreases, crossing stitches for cabled effects, and a separate section on working with more than one color in brioche.  Then the fun begins:  A wonderful Stitchionary (55 pages!), showing all kinds of brioche effects.  The book also includes a chapter on the design elements of brioche knitting, and 25 projects to make using brioche techniques.

The technique takes some practice to perfect, but I learned fairly quickly how to do the basic technique.  I'm looking forward to trying some of the more complex stitch patterns in the book!