The technique I’ll be showing you here is for flat-knitted pieces, but it’s easily converted to patterns knit in the round, and I’ll explain how at the end. Also, I will refer to the two colours as the main colour (MC) and the complementary colour (CC). In the photos, the MC is green and the CC is purple.

Taking the technique further

After you’ve completed your inaugural brioche stitch scarf (or maybe just a swatch), you’ll probably want to try some more advanced techniques.

I mentioned at the beginning of this article that it’s also possible to do brioche stitch in the round. To do this, you must cast on an even number of stitches (instead of the uneven number as when you knit flat) and join them in the round on double-pointed or circular needles. After the set-up rounds, you then only work step 4, and forgo the selvage stitches. This Two-Color Brioche Hat by Yana Ivey shows off this technique quite nicely, and also shows how you can do decreases with brioche stitch.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, it’s also possible to do much more intricate designs, as can be seen in Nancy Marchant’s Rodekool, a cute little keyhole scarf. Here she uses increases and decreases to create something like “brioche lace”, and the contrasting yarn colours make the design really pop. She also uses the “separate but connected layers” quality of brioche stitch to create the keyhole. It’s a very interesting construction! This pattern also shows how amazing brioche stitch can look with yarns that have long colour variations.

I do hope you try out this very fun technique, and if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

It’s a beautiful day in late spring, and you decide to take advantage of the lovely weather to do some knitting on the patio of a trendy cafe. You’re in such a hurry to get out of your stifling apartment, that you quickly grab the nearest knitting work-in-progress, stuff it in your purse, and head out the door. You settle into your favourite outdoor spot and start happily knitting away when all of a sudden, you drop a stitch! Of course, you’re using a gorgeous, but slippery, silk-bamboo blend and the dropped stitch falls down several rows. You quickly catch the dropped stitch with one of your earrings to prevent it from falling further, but what to do now? Your crochet hook, which you would have normally used to quickly fix the problem, is safely stowed away in your notions bag all the way back home. You don’t want to cut your wonderful afternoon of outdoor crafting short, but you can’t continue until this pesky dropped stitch is fixed! What ever will you do?

Has this ever happened to you? Do you have nightmares about this sort of thing happening to you in the future? If so, the following handy tip will be perfect for you!

I made this pattern with a lace and bobble panel up the center front, to give it a bit of luxury. The silk and merino blend makes these gloves quite warm, even in spite of the eyelets in the lace. You can get the pattern here, if you want to make a pair for yourself. Happy crafting!

We have stopped accepting entries for the contest, but it’s still not too late to vote for your favourites and win a free copy of Stitch ‘n Bitch: Superstar Knitting!

We’re huge fans of the Stitch ‘n’ Bitch books (see Ilana’s review of the latest book in the series). It’s just unbelievable how much of an influence Stitch ‘n Bitch has made in the crafting world—I think every knitter I know has either taught themselves to knit from one of the SnB books, or at least owns one. So as an homage, and to celebrate the recent release of the latest book, we’re holding another photo contest!

How to Enter

Just fill out the form below and send us a photo of something you made from any Stitch ‘n Bitch book. It can be a recent project, or something you made a while ago. And it doesn’t have to be something that slavishly follows one of the patterns—if you were inspired by one of the patterns but made some modifications, it’s all good!

How it Works

We will be accepting submissions for one month, starting now until February 28, 2011. At that point, we will allow visitors to vote on their favorite photos for one month, until March 31, 2011. Just like in the Nintendo Craft Contest, we will pick our favorite three entries from the top ten as voted by you. The three lucky winners will win a free copy of “Stitch ‘n Bitch Superstar Knitting: Go Beyond the Basics”! Super big thanks to Workman Publishing, who has agreed to donate the books and mail them out to the winners!

A heads-up about the privacy policy: Normally, we would never share your personal information with anyone. In this case, however, since Workman Publishing will be the one actually shipping out the prizes, if you win we will have to share your mailing address with them. If you’re OK with that, please enter the contest!

I think that her latest book in the series, Superstar Knitting, is now my favourite (and, as you can see above, is quite thick, even compared to her usual fare). It’s really like two books in one: the first part is all techniques and tips, while the second part is chock-full of interesting and attractive patterns. True to the theme of the book, the patterns in Superstar Knitting are much more complex (and therefore better, in my mind) than in her previous books.

The first part of the book talks about different advanced knitting techniques, with everything from colourwork to lace, to cables, to knitting with beads. She goes into a lot of detail, really explaining how the techniques work as well as explaining how to accomplish them. She also usually gives many methods of completing a certain technique, even when she’ll readily admit that one method is not her favourite, so that someone new to the technique can pick the method that works the best for them.

Sections I particularly enjoyed were her lucid explanation of how lace works, her numerous methods for steeking (a technique that still terrifies me a little), and the different embroidery stitches used to embellish your finished project. I must admit, however, that the chapter I’ll likely refer to most often is the one entitled “Stitch Witchery”, where Stoller explains pretty much every increase, decrease, cast-on, bind-off and grafting technique. I can’t think of any technique that I’ve always wanted to learn that isn’t at least mentioned in this book.

There is also a 50-page section on how to create your own pattern. Stoller guides you through the steps of figuring out the shape of a garment and translating this to stitch counts, and focuses primarily on designing the four basic types of sweater: drop shoulder, raglan, circular yoke and set-in sleeves. It was nice to see how each of these sweater types works, but it would also have been nice to learn how to design garments that aren’t sweaters.

Finally, the patterns! At 41 original designs, this book is probably worth the patterns alone (especially at $17.95 U.S.). They’re divided into sections according to technique (simple colourwork and textured knitting, intarsia and stranded colourwork, cables and bobbles, lace, and beads and embroidery), and there were certainly patterns in each section that have been added to my to-make list.

This sweater is called “Button It!” by Rain O’Brien. It’s the perfect solution for when you have half a dozen intarsia designs that you want to put on a sweater, but don’t have time to knit that many sweaters. Charts for four different animal designs are provided, but of course, you can always add your own designs to the mix. In addition, when the kid outgrows his or her sweater, you can just knit it in a larger size and keep the same patches.

What attracted me to this pattern was how the colour combination really made the cables pop. I just love the idea of combining colourwork and cables, and this hat pattern, appropriately named “Colorful Cable Hat” by Sally Wilcox is the perfect small project to start with.

This sweater is the height of elegance. The pattern is called “Lattice” and was designed by Melissa Wehrle. The ribbed waist is very flattering, and the cabled top pulls the eye upward. And of course, that little keyhole in the sleeve is absolutely adorable.

It may just be that the model is so adorable, but when I first saw these gloves, I thought they were completely irresistible! The pattern is called “Beatrice Gloves” and was designed by Catherine Shields. It’s actually a fairly straightforward glove pattern except on the back of the hand where a combination of lace and beadwork make this neat chevron pattern. I’m also in love with the colour of that yarn, Rowan Scottish Tweed 4-ply in Thistle.

I must say that I’m thoroughly enjoying this book! The patterns are fantastic, and the instructional section is full of handy techniques. Stoller is still touring with this book since late October, and has one last stop in Philadelphia, PA on February 24th. She’ll be at the Philadelphia Free Library at 7:30pm for a talk/signing, so if you’re in the area, you should check it out! Also, to see pictures of all the designs in this book, check out the Knit Happens website (scroll to the very bottom of the page).

The instructions come in one size, at a finished waist circumference of 40 inches. That should comfortably fit anyone with a waist size of 36–38 inches. If you happen to have different proportions, no worries. A plain knitting chart is also included that you can use in conjunction with almost any sweater pattern of your choice. If you need a bigger size than the chart will accommodate, just repeat the sky and rocks on the sides. A great place to find knitting patterns is Knitty. They have lovely patterns for women, men, and children, and they’re all free so it’s a great place to start. If you find a pattern using a gauge of around 26-28 stitches = 4 inches, you should be able to use the KnitPicks Pallette yarn in the materials list. Otherwise, you’ll have to find yarn of a different weight to use.

Download the Pattern

Mario Sweater Vest Pattern (16057)
You’ll need Acrobat PDF Reader, which you can download here: Download Acrobat Reader

Update

We forgot to include a color key with the chart! If you’re having problems figuring out which color goes where, download this: Mario Sweatervest Color Key (2799).

Over 100 comments were posted in response to the original post in just five days, so I’m keeping my end of the deal by making a pattern. I’ll try to post it within a week or so. Sign up for the newsletter in the sidebar, and I’ll let you know right away when the pattern is available.

I’m starting the pattern right away, so stay tuned!

Getting a Custom Colour of Yarn

I found the best selection of colours of yarn at KnitPicks, which has almost every colour you could imagine. Almost.

I looked everywhere, and couldn’t find the bright green that I needed for the pipe and small bush, so I ordered an extra skein of white and dyed it with chartreuse acid dye to get the colour I needed. All that to knit a pipe and a small bush! But I think the result was well worth it.

Front

Back

Making the Sweater

I just made up the armhole and neckline shaping as I went along, and held up the half-finished sweater in front of my hubby to make sure the shaping was working. I left live stitches on the shoulders on stitch holders while I finished the rest of the sweater, so that they could be grafted together at the end for a seamless finish, and then picked up stitches along the armhole and neckline edges with a circular needle to knit the ribbed trimming.

The design wraps seamlessly around the sweater from front to back. I originally knit the row of rocks (or are they bricks?) around the bottom of the sweater using a Fair Isle technique, but the whole thing ended up bunching up to about half it’s intended width. So in the end, I cut that section out, knit 16 rows of plain brown, seamlessly grafted the two sections back together again and then embroidered the pink and black lines that make up the pattern of bricks using a stitch that mimics knit stitches.