Cool snap for cosy yarns

We had a lovely cool snap last week that inspired me to pull out some of my cosy yarns and try some new things I’ve had on my list for a while. Enter two-colour brioche knitting.

Hideously ugly but so much fun!

This grabbed me the first time I saw it. Gorgeous patterns in vertical stripes of fluffy, squishy fabric. I’ve had so much fun with the colours even though I am absolutely terrible at it! I couldn’t find a left-handed video for this, but I did find a good few left-handed knitting basics: CyberSeams Left-Handed Basics Playlist. Hopefully I will get good enough as it cools down to make a video as well as something other than horrific swatches.

Here's my list of brioche basics:

yoS1: Always slip purlwise with yarn in front - gives the magic yo and leaves yarn A at the front of the row

Basically, stitch shawled stitches, slip single stitches
   brK - Brioche knit: knit the stitch with opposite colour shawl as one stitch
   brP - Brioche purl: purl the stitch with the opposite colour shawl as one stitch
As the pattern comes it its easy to tell which is which, but concentrate for the first few rows

Increase - brK-yo-brK brioche knit the same stitch twice, but put a yarn over in the middle. Like K1fb, but knit both through the front to avoid odd colour crossover. Pbk: Purl through the back of the yo to avoid lacy hole, if its a problem.

Decrease Right: brS1-K2tog-psso: slip shawled stitch knitwise, knit shawled and single stitch together, psso

Decrease Left : brS1-K1-psso-psbk-psno-psbk: slip shawled stitch knitwise, knit single stitch, psso, pass stitch back to right needle purlwise, pass next shawled stitch over, pass stitch back to left needle purlwise.

Really keep track of exactly where your yarn over is. If it gets dropped or otherwise messed around, the odd yarn crossovers happen and you often can't tell until it comes out in pattern. 

Swatch Pattern - What I was trying to do with the yellow (yarn A) and purple (yarn B) number.

Setup
Cast on 17st w/ chinese waitress in yarn B
0b: *K1 yoS1* … K1 (repeat sections in *asterisks* as many times as needed before the last stitch or as many times as noted)

Start w yarn A - these rows 1 and 2 are the basic brioche rib

1a: S1 *brK yoS1* … S1 slide back to start of needle to purl yarn B
1b: P1 *yoS1 brP* … yoS1 P1 reverse work
2a: S1 *brP yoS1* … S1 slide back to start of needle to knit yarn B
2b: K1 *yoS1 brK* … yoS1 K1 reverse

From here, all of the interesting things happen on the knit side of yarn A (odd # a), only one inc or dec per set, trying to keep it simple. Just keep track of where you’re at.

3a: S1 brK yoS1 brKf-yo-brKb yoS1 *brK yoS1* … S1 slide (inc at col 2)
3b: P1 yoS1 brP yoS1 Pbk1 yoS1 *brP yoS1* … P1 rev
4a: S1 *brP yoS1* … S1 slide
4b: K1 *yoS1 brK* … yoS1 K1 rev

5a: S1 *brK yoS1*x4 brS1-K1-psso-psbk-psno-psbk *yoS1 brK*… S1 slide (dec left at col 4-5)
5b: P1 yoS1 *brP yoS1* … P1 rev
6a: S1 *brP yoS1* … S1 slide
6b: K1 *yoS1 brK* … yoS1 K1 rev

7a: S1 *brK yoS1*x6 brKf-yo-brKb yoS1 brK yoS1 S1 slide (inc at col 7)
7b: P1 *yoS1 brP*x6 yoS1 Pbk1 yoS1 brP yoS1 P1 rev
8a: S1 *brP yoS1* … S1 slide
8b: K1 *yoS1 brK* … yoS1 K1 rev

9a: S1 *brK yoS1*x4 brS1-K2tog-psso *yoS1 brK*… S1 slide (dec right at col 4-5)
9b: P1 yoS1 *brP yoS1* … P1 rev
10a: S1 *brP yoS1* … S1 slide
10b: K1 *yoS1 brK* … yoS1 K1 rev

Repeat rows 3-10, finish with set 1-2

To bind off, complete 1 row in pattern with yarn B, but without the yo  (so K1 *brK P1* … K1) then bind off loosely in pattern.

These are a couple of the brioche videos I've been working from, unfortunately they are right-handed, sorry!

    Explanation and basics with Knitting Expat

    Basics, Increases, Decreases with Sosu

Even though everything looks terrible now, I'm definitely going to stick with it. It's fun to work, feels so lovely and fluffy and squishy, and I can see so much potential for designs and colour combinations for winter pieces. In the meantime, it's warmed back up, so it's probably going back in the box for a while.