Brioche Knitting- A Review

I was cruising around on Ravelry a few weeks ago, when I ran across a request for reviewers for a new knitting tutorial video called Beginner and Intermediate Brioche Knitting.  I was immediately intrigued.

You see I am a self-taught knitter and as far as I knew, there were only two stitches in knitting; the knit and the purl.  And everything results from a combination of those two stitches.  And suddenly- I see that maybe knitting isn’t that black and white.

So I contacted Liat Gat, the author and told her that I’d love a chance to review it.  And then I went to the store to get some new yarn so that I could duplicate the awesomeness of the two color brioche stitch.

Not that I really needed new yarn- but in my opinion, any excuse is a good one to peruse the yarn aisles, covet the fancy wool blends and pet every single one of them.  

Brioche Knitting does involve knitting and purling, but there is a yarn-over involved, and a “brioche knit” and “brioche purl” that need to be learned in order to achieve the fabulous, stretchy, reversible knit.  Yep, I said reversible!  What a great stitch for making scarves! 

I have to tell you that the videos and instructions that Liat provides are awesome.  She patiently explains the stitches to you as she knits in front of you, both in Continental and American so that you can see it done either way.   Frankly, I believe the video is the best way to learn these new stitches as you can actually see how it is done, as Liat walks you through it.

You will learn:

How to count your rows and stitches properly in brioche stitch
How to measure your gauge for brioche
How to create invisible and stretchy cast-ons and bind-offs
How to choose the right size needles for brioche
How to block brioche knitting
How to select the right yarn for brioche
How to hide your ends invisibly on two-color brioche
How to decrease in the round using two colors
How to take out mistakes in brioche
How to create different effects by selecting unusual yarn combinations.
How to work brioche in the round on Magic Loop

I had a lot of fun with the video book and learned a whole ton in the process.  Liat’s style of teaching is very detailed and easy to follow along.  I sat in front of my computer screen and had an expert knitter teach me a new technique!  And I could sit there and learn in my pajamas and she never even raised an eyebrow!

Be sure to go check out Liat’s website, Knit Freedom, where she offers this video E-book along with many others.  Her site is also full of wonderful information on knitting techniques and even some free patterns!  It’s a good place to bookmark if you are a knitter or knitter wanna be.

Now, I’m off to knit.  Somebody will be getting a brioche scarf for Christmas.  That is if I decide that I can part with it.