Learning brioche knitting

One of my challenges for 2019 was to learn brioche knitting. I found this video from the Unapologetic Knitter quite helpful, and watched several times with many pauses until I got the technique.

The pattern I decided on is Bulky Brioche Raglan by Ann Budd way back in Interweave Knits 2005. I bought the yarn for it (Jarol Sweet Briar Chunky) way back on my librarian knitters outing to Norwich in 2014. I’m rather ashamed that it’s taken me this long to knit it up, having bought the yarn specifically for this pattern, but then remembered that I was pregnant within a few months of that outing which rather changed my knitting output!

It seemed to take a long time to get the hang of brioche but once I got it it was fine. I’m not sure whether I enjoy it yet. It seems fiddly compared to ‘normal knitting’ although I like the soft squishy fabric it produces. To be fair this may partly be because it’s chunky weight so already thick and squishy anyway!

After a while I realised I’d gone wrong when I started the next ball, and the ribbing has gone a bit offset. After much cogitation and a week when I didn’t knit it at all, I ended up frogging right back to the beginning!

Frustrating, but it did remind me of what it was like in my early days of knitting when I couldn’t “read” knit and purl stitches and got very phased by anything out of the ordinary.

I don’t think it will take me long to knit it up again though – being chunky it grows quite quickly! It would be nice to get it finished whilst the weather is still cold enough to wear a chunky jumper…