Journal to a Muse

Bamboozled by Brioche.... no more !!

My darling daughter visited me on the featureless plains last month and brought the latest Interweave Knits... asking, innocently enough, "Hey, Mom, do you know how to do the brioche stitch?"
I didn't.
I said I could probably figure it out. I am the person whose first project was an Aran sweater for my HS boyfriend. (Never mind that my mother persuaded me to make it out of acrylic so that it'd wash better....my mother wasn't always the best influence... but if you've read many of my entries, you already know that.)
We got busy. I didn't figure it out while she was here.
But I thought, sure... I can do it and then explain it after she gets home. Hmph.
Interweave's explanation was three pages long and looked complicated. I checked out Knitter's Bible. Not so clear. I checked out 365 stitches a year. Not any better. So: I had three other pattern references that claimed to give the pattern, but each one was different and/or didn't make sense to me. I went on line. Now I had three brioche variants and and none of THOSE matched anything anywhere else.

So I went back to Interweave Knits, and slowed down. WAY down.
I have never run into a stitch before where doing it seems easy once you "get it", but explaining it seems impossible. It really IS like a k1 p1 rib... the trick is getting the yo either before or after the "rib" depending on whether you are working on the right or wrong side of the material.

Anyway, here's proof.




























It looks like a rib but isn't especially elastic. Once I trust myself to know which direction I'm going, I'll try the two-colored version or some increases or decreases.

I know it isn't lace, or 572 color intarsia... but I was SO pleased when the lightbulb (dim though it can be) went on in my head.

It will be a wonderful stash user.
I'm off to work on a secret project... in multiples. It's getting to be THAT time of year!