Brioche Stitch~Knitting

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

I have enlisted my mother to knit various items for my fiancee' and I. The use of Brioche Stitch is confusing to my mom. HELP?!?

Thanks,

Paul B. Boulden Jr.

[KarinTimour]

Re: Brioche Stitch~Knitting

Dear Paul:

Brioche stitch is an extremely common knitting stitch in our period, and once you get the hang of it, it's pretty simple and fast. In knitting instructions, there are often a certain number of rows that repeat in a certain order to produce the pattern. Some complicated patterns may have up to 40 or 50 rows, each different that you have to knit in order to get the pattern you want.

Brioche stitch is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. It only has two types of rows -- Row 1, which is the foundation row, you do only once and you never knit it again. Row 2 and every row after it are all knit the same way, which is what produces the characteristic "ribbing look" of brioche stitch.

From Barbara Walker's "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns" (ISBN 0-684-17314). Please note that this book has a lot of knitting patterns (as in to produce particular patterns in the texture of what you are knitting), but not all of them are period correct for our time period. It also does not have any instructions for "how to make a hat, sweater, etc."

Start with an even number of stitches.

Row one: Yarn over, slip one, knit one, repeat these three steps all across the row.
Row two: Yarn over, slip one, knit two together (these are the slip stitch and the yarn over of Row one). Repeat across the entire row.
Repeat row two for the length of the section where you want brioche pattern.

Hope that's helpful,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Camp Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com

[col90]

Re: Brioche Stitch~Knitting

Oops...except, be careful...the yarn doesn't come over the needle, but between (yarn to front).....then when you slip, you slip as if you were going to purl, and the yarn is still in front of that when you knit the next two together.....hmmm...in some ways, this is so much easier to show than to explain.....and be careful; if you drop one of these it is a pain to fix it without it showing. But I agree with Karin...a fun stitch (one of my favorites), and rather hypnotic when you get it going.


Colleen

Row one: Yarn over, slip one, knit one, repeat these three steps all across the row.
Row two: Yarn over, slip one, knit two together (these are the slip stitch and the yarn over of Row one). Repeat across the entire row.
Repeat row two for the length of the section where you want brioche pattern.

Hope that's helpful,
Karin Timour
Period Knitting -- Socks, Camp Hats, Balaclavas
Atlantic Guard Soldiers' Aid Society
Email: Ktimour@aol.com[/QUOTE]

[Spinster]

Re: Brioche Stitch~Knitting

[QUOTE=col90] ....and be careful; if you drop one of these it is a pain to fix it without it showing. But I agree with Karin...a fun stitch (one of my favorites), and rather hypnotic when you get it going.
Colleen


Yep, droping a stitch or a needle in English Brioche, or miscounting something is one of the more nightmareish things in knitting. After teaching the stitch to about 40 folks in Beginer Knitting #2 last fall, I finally got to the point I could fix their mistakes. For someone new at it, its normally better to rip the whole thing out and start over--its such a fast stitch, that's a reasonable alternative.

For Continental style knitters (left hand feed), its even faster, for the yarn overs and knit togethers happen as one motion.

An interesting variation is to use two colors--doing a row forward and back, then switch colors for the next rows forward and back, being careful to carry the threads up the side in a consistent manner. The results are not a simple horizontal stripe, but an unexpected pattern that makes folks think you are really smart.

Then there is german brioche, which does, say, 10 rows of the English style, and then switches to 10 rows of a pattern that is a reverse image of the first. Makes a honeycomb pattern and makes my head hurt :tounge_sm --every time I say I won't do another one, and every time some soldier boy talks me into it.