Going for Brioche

When I first heard of Ravelry, I thought I didn't need it. I could see what people were knitting? That's what blogs and knitting groups are for, I said.

Only, as time went on, more and more blogs and more and more people in my knitting groups were talking about... Ravelry. I caved, I signed up (timing is everything: by the time I took the plunge there were over 20,000 people in line ahead of me), I got in, eventually, I love it. I waste spend all kinds of time surfing the forums, seeing what people are up to.

Since I was working on a double-knit project at the time, one of my first moves was to join the double-knitting group. There are people out there doing amazing things, and I wanted to learn more. Not too long afterward someone dropped by and asked about brioche stitch: was it the same as double knitting? Well, no, was the answer, although it's related. I looked up brioche rib in the Big Book of Knitting, where it's called double Shaker knitting, and I had to try the two-color version. Next thing I knew I was making a scarf for Taz's teacher, and then an afghan square, and then another one.


I really love this stitch: it's like corrugated rib, only it's squishy and elastic like a real rib, and each side is the inverse of the other. There's even a site devoted just to brioche.

A hat will be next, followed by... mittens? Maybe even a sweater? Only time will tell.

Ravelry has made my knitting life even less predictable, and I'm duly grateful. (And the line is much shorter now. As far as I can tell pretty much every knitter I know got in long before I did and, as noted above, refused to shut up about it; but if you've somehow remained innocent until now, you should really sign up. And if you're already in and we haven't run across each other, I'm FuchsiaLucia: stop by and say howdy.)