Trying Brioche One More Time

Sometimes when you give a technique one more chance to win you over, it’s the charm.

I’m just back from a weekend knitting retreat in Sudbury, On called Sticks, String and Stewardship. I was the speaker at their first retreat and have gone back nearly every year since. This was number 12. Everyone pays to come and then several of us volunteer to teach. So I taught one class (Portuguese Purling) and took two more.

The technique that has bogged me down is the very popular Brioche stitch. I’ve been through it 3 times now and when I’m in class I can do it by following the instructions blindly. It is a technique that did not endear itself to me. I thought I was going to give it a miss altogether. I mean, 3 times is enough right?

But Sheila was giving a basic brioche class at this retreat and I thought, OK, ONE MORE TIME. Somehow this time it worked for me. It was only the knit stitch and maybe that makes the difference. Not tooooo much information. I thought this was a good video if you are unfamiliar with this technique: How to Knit the Brioche Stitch

This is my second sample and as you can see Sheila and I didn’t stop there. After the class we continued to explore increases and decreases and had a whole lot of fun figuring that out together. I think that will be her class next year.

On my first sample I found a split stitch several rows below so I dropped the knitted stitch down and tried to hook it back up to the top. I totally mucked it up but that’s OK because a little bit of it worked and I was pretty happy with that. After all that’s what classes are for, making mistakes, ripping it out, trying again and learning, learning, learning. I am going to have to do that again and again until I have it down. Then … I will truly enjoy Brioche.

What I really learned is what I need to know in order to enjoy a technique. I need to understand how it works. Once I know how it works I can start to play with it. That had eluded me before.

How about you? What do you have to know to enjoy knitting a technique? What technique still has you boggled?

Deb

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Author: debgemmellmods

I'm a Knitter. The capital K means every day, everywhere. I'm co-owner of Cabin Fever with my sister Lyn. We have published over 100 patterns and 11 books. I'm also working on a new set of patterns for Any Gauge knitting. Dive into your stash and cast on for a Top Down sweater that fits, or an accessory to use up those odd balls of yarn. View all posts by debgemmellmods