Brioche knitting is an excellent technique to have in your knitting skills toolkit. Fabric knit in the brioche technique has a lot of stretch to it, which makes the stitch great for any garment that needs a forgiving negative ease. The drape of a brioche knit likes to hug curves and works beautifully across a range of sizes — though it can be tricky to measure gauge for, which we'll cover in Parts 2 and 3 of this series.
A Brief History of Brioche Knitting
Like most knitting techniques, the exact origins of brioche are unknown, but it's believed to have come from the Middle East, since many early (1800s) knitting books refer to it as Moorish knitting. What we now call brioche was originally popular for making cushions. The name comes from the French word for a type of soft, layered bun — a fitting name for a technique that stacks the pieces of each row on top of each other to build a ribbed look.
Take a look at a swatch of two-color brioche fabric, shown below, knit in Mary Maxim Prism for the August Blog Exclusive. Prism is a roving yarn, so it may look a little fuzzy — that's just a characteristic of the yarn, not a mistake. In the swatch, it looks like each row is knit in two colors. What appears to be one row is actually two: in the brioche set-up row, only every other stitch is knit.
The stitch that you want to appear as a purl is worked as a (yo, sl 1P) — yarn over, then slip a stitch purlwise. The stitch you want to appear as a knit in the set-up row is simply knit. Here's why: in the row after the set-up row, you'll (k2tog) — knit the yarn over and the slipped purl stitch together. In the row after that, you'll (yo, sl 1P) the stitches that were knit in the previous row, and knit together (k2tog) the stitches that were yarned over and slip-stitched purlwise in the row before that.
What You'll Need to Practice the Basics
To knit a one-color brioche flat swatch, cast on 11 stitches. We're using a super bulky, size 6 yarn here because it's wonderful for showing off the stitch definition. If you'd like different color options, this Red Heart bulky acrylic yarn comes in gorgeous color combinations that work well for practicing.
Step 1: Set Up Your Rib
Start by working a few rows in a k1, p1 rib so you can clearly see how the brioche set-up row is worked, and how much more elastic the fabric becomes once you switch over. Remember, k1p1 rib is the stretchiest of the basic ribs.
Because this swatch is cast on with an odd number of stitches, the first row of your rib will begin and end with a k1. The second row will begin and end with a p1. Work an even number of rib rows total, so that you finish on a row that sets you up cleanly for the brioche set-up row — in our example, we worked 4 rows of rib before beginning.
Step 2: Work the Brioche Set-Up Row
Set-Up Row: K1, *yo, sl 1P, k1; repeat from * to end.
Remember that the (yo, sl 1P) pair counts as one stitch, so you should still have 11 stitches on your needle when you count that way. If you'd rather count the yarn over as its own stitch, you'll have 16 stitches total on the needle, including the yarn overs.
Step 3: Knit the Basic Brioche Rows
Throughout brioche knitting, yarn overs (yo) are not counted as a separate stitch. These yarn overs are what give brioche fabric its elasticity.
Row 1: Sl 1P with yarn in front, yo, k2tog, *yo, sl 1P, k2tog; repeat from * to end.
[In-article image] Alt text: "Brioche swatch after working Row 1 of the basic brioche pattern"
Row 2: K2tog, *yo, sl 1P, k2tog; repeat from * to end.
Repeat Rows 1 and 2 to build up your swatch — after a few repeats, you'll start to see the signature stacked, ribbed texture take shape.
Prefer to follow along visually? Check out our step-by-step video guide to easy brioche knitting: watch on YouTube.
The Four Ways to Brioche, According to Nancy Marchant
A number of designers deserve credit for simplifying brioche, and at the forefront of them is Nancy Marchant. Marchant developed a comprehensive stitch guide and charting system that lets designers around the world write brioche patterns clearly, across languages. She identified four ways to brioche:
- K2tog, yo, sl 1P
- P2tog, yo, sl 1P
- K1, k1 below
- P1, p1 below
There are only a couple of “brioche rules,” and, as always, there are exceptions. When knitting brioche, all slip stitches should be purlwise unless a pattern says otherwise. Every (yo, sl 1P) pair counts as one stitch — think of the brioche bun as stacked, with the yarn over sitting on top of the slip stitch. Because the stitches are stacked this way, two worked rows equal one counted row. For more on the technique, we recommend reading Nancy Marchant's writing and following along with our brioche tutorials.
What's Next in This Series
Next, we'll work the Striped Brioche Baby Blanket, knit in one-color brioche on the flat. Follow along in Part 2 of this series.
You'll be able to knit the blanket from the Baby Blanket Pattern or with the Brioche Baby Blanket kit, using 36″ circular needles, size 9 (5.5 mm).
Later in the series, we'll publish our August Blog Exclusive: a Two-Color Brioche Cowl worked in the round with Mary Maxim Mellowspun in Dark Grey and Mary Maxim Prism in Rainbow, on 32″ circular needles, size 4 (3.5 mm). It's common to size down your needles for brioche to accommodate the technique, so if you're familiar with these yarns, don't be surprised that our needle sizes here are smaller than usual. You can find that project in Part 3 of this series once it's live.
We have more tutorials, yarn reviews, and guest posts in the works, so stay tuned — and be sure to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for previews.
