The Brioche Stitch

For years I have tried to teach myself how to knit the brioche stitch and have failed until recently. Part of the problem for me has been the specialized abbreviations/terminology that goes along with this special stitch:

brk (brioche knit – also known as a bark) = knit the stitch that was slipped in the previous row together with its yarn over.

brp (brioche purl – also known as a burp) = purl the stitch that was slipped in the previous row together with its yarn over.

There are many other abbreviations, but for now this gives you a snippet of the new vocabulary.

Here is a look at a single colour brioche swatch.

Photo from newstitchaday.com

You might be thinking, "Well, this looks just like a big one by one rib. I would fully agree, except when you touch the fabric, it is quite different. Ribbing can be inelastic and stiff which is why it is used at the bottom of sweaters and cuffs. Brioche creates a stretchy, lofty and squishy fabric, meaning is drapes well.

Brioche really shines when a second colour is introduced. The more contrast between the two colours the more beautifully the design shows through. And to top it off the ridges reverse on the wrong side.

Credit for photo to newstitchaday.com

Photo from Happy Knitter YouTube

This summer I took a class in-person from StevenB and Eva learning the basic stitch. I started and then finished after the class a two colour cowl. It is easier to see your mistakes in two colour than just one so these teachers had us start with that technique.

The right side

The reverse side

There is one problem with brioche knitting that even experienced brioche knitters seem to struggle to address. Should you make a mistake, it is often very, very hard to correct with any other technique than tinking or frogging. Since I am human and just learning, this cowl was begun four times. In the end, however, I was quite pleased with my brioche knitting.

All this is a prelude to being able to knit this shawl.

Photo credit to Lesley Ann Robinson

It is called Dandelion Fields by Lesley Ann Robinson. The dandelions at the top of the shawl are just a bud and then open up to full bloom in the middle, with the bottom edge showing the dandelion going to seed. Eva, one-half the team who taught the class, had made this shawl and I fell for it hard.

Nancy Marchant is the grand wizard of brioche knitting. In North America she may be best known for teaching the brioche stitch to Stephen West. (He by the way has taken off with it.) Nancy, who lives in Amsterdam, has a class on Craftsy that I recently purchased. I am about one-quarter through it, expecting by the end to learn how to do the necessary increases and decreases to make this shawl. It might take some time, but it is on my list of knits to make in 2018.

Two Updates:
First, the floors are done on schedule. Paul suggested we invite lots of people over to see that indeed we can clean.
Second, I found the needle chewing culprit: Mara. Paul and I thought it was more than likely Mike. The poor boy was falsely accused. Mara seeks out my needles even when I am in the room with her.

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms. (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while. But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf . I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you? It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank. (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo. Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left. Easy to find, right! Sure but what about the remaining 4

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