Brioche stitch

The undersleeves are coming along. I have lost count of how many times I ripped out the pattern part on the cuff - 10? 12? - but now I'm working away on the main part of the sleeve. Which doesn't explain why I took a detour to learn the brioche stitch.

I was searching through period knitting patterns on Google books and kept running across the brioche stitch. It didn't sound all that hard - throw the yarn to the front, slip one, knit 2 together, repeat to the end. Repeat for the 2nd row. It took me most of the evening to reach the "aha!" moment and figure out how to do it. It is used in many garments for warmth with flexibility.

The problem is that it sounds like you would be decreasing all along - and if there was a yarn over to keep the number of stitches equal, it should make little picot holes. Off to modern instructions to decipher the period ones! But, every set of modern instructions I could find involved knitting with an even number of stitches; the period instructions are very clear that you must work with a multiple of 3 stitches. The modern instructions also have you purling on the 2nd row, while the period ones repeat the 1st row. I finally hit paydirt with a video on Youtube on "flat brioche stitch." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIz2qDj9rdE



Being able to watch the yarn as it is manipulated for the knit 2 together answered my questions and I was finally able to accomplish the stitch! Problem is, I have nothing planned to make with the brioche stitch, at least at this time. There are plenty of options, just nothing I have currently on my agenda. A bit of knowledge to store away!

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