Brioche, not just for breakfast anymore

Which came first the pastry or the knitting technique?

Interestingly enough, the word "brioche" maybe derived from French slang for "mistake". Brioche is a French pastry that is light and slightly puffy.

By (knitting) definition, "Brioche produces a lofty, ridged fabric that resembles knit 1, purl 1 rib. Brioche knitting belongs to a family of stitches that rely on slipped stitches worked in conjunction with yarnovers. On one row, a stitch is slipped, and at the same time, the yarn is carried over the needle to create a yarnover. On the next row, the slipped stitch and its adjacent yarnover are worked together."

Fingering Brioche Bandana Cowl

I teach an ongoing Brioche Knitting class at Westport Yarns. Many of the women have started together and are moving up the Brioche "food chain", choosing projects with increasingly challenging techniques. In my opinion, Brioche is not a difficult technique to do, it's hard to fix mistakes.

Kaede is working on two-color Brioche, flat, in the scarf above (knit with stash), 

by TalenaWinters Flickr

and the Revolution Toque in the round in Plymouth Worsted Merino Superwash (Worsted: 100% Merino, 218 yards).

Susan has been knitting Polyjuice Potion hats, 

in Berroco Millefiori (Aran: 50% Wool, 50% Acrylic, 186 yards) and Sweetgeorgia Superwash Worsted (Aran: 100% Merino, 200 yards).

 Robbie is knitting Love Ewe Baby in Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles (Fingering: 100% Merino, 400 yards).

Diane is newer to the group and is working on her first single color brioche project, Straightaway, also in Sweetgeorgia Superwash Worsted.

If you're interested in joining this class to learn this technique, call Westport Yarns at 203-454-4300.

There maybe Brioche pastry too.