Blissful Brioche

Nope, not the bread, though you will wreck your diet just by looking at this Google search.

Please, just a taste?

Brioche knitting is a technique that creates a squishy double-sided fabric.  I've dabbled in it before to create a simple infinity scarf with a variegated yarn and a more complex cabled scarf based off of the Reversible Cabled Brioche Stitch Scarf pattern by Saralyn Harvey.  Brioche has its own rhythm, slightly different from the flow of regular knitting, and I found it very therapeutic.

But I wanted to step it up a knotch.  I kept seeing all these patterns for brioche knitting in two colors, like this wonderful hat:

Photo courtesy of the Ravelry 

That hat, the Pinwheel Beret by Nancy Marchant, blew me away.  It's so pretty, and the color combinations are endless, and I WANT one!  But the pattern is almost written in a different language.  I had no idea what a "bark" was or how to execute a "burp," so I thought this technique was beyond my reach.

Until, of course, I signed up for a Two-Color Brioche class as Vogue Knitting Live.  And who do you think taught it?  The very same designer, Nancy Marchant!  

I have to admit, I was a little bit disappointed with the class.  It cost a lot of money, and we spent the vast majority of the class trying to learn what she calls the "Italian Cast On," which was not an essential skill but a nice-to-know.  It felt like a waste of time to learn that one picky little trick instead of what we were actually supposed to be focusing on.  

Nevertheless, I did learn what a burp is (brioche purl stitch), how to read a brioche pattern, and how to work with two colors in this fabulous stitch.  Check out my perfectly imperfect beginner's swatch:

Isn't she lovely?

If you look closely, you can see my mangled stitches on the third or so row up.  Other than that and the poor color choices (they were just a couple scrap balls I had leftover), I think it turned out marvelously!  I'll put that in my success column.

If you want to learn more about this brilliant technique, check out Nancy's website, www.briochestitch.com.  She has tutorials and explanations for working the stitch with one or two colors, all the accompanying tips and tricks, and free patterns!  Her book, Knitting Brioche, is also beautiful, and I'm dying to get my hands on it, especially now that I know what I'm doing.