Knitting Fresh Brioche: Creating Two-Color Twists & Turns

First off, I should probably say that I consider myself an advanced beginner when it comes to knitting. I have tried many types of knitting with success, so when I saw this book I thought..."I can handle that!" I had never heard of brioche knitting, but when I saw the picture on the cover of this book I knew this was the book I had to buy. Now that I have this book and have read it and tried some stitches, I realize that I probably should have started with Nancy Marchant's first book, Knitting Brioche: The Essential Guide to the Brioche Stitch. That being said, I was still able to learn everything I needed from this book.

Things you ought to know:
Brioche is different from "normal" knitting, but you will need to have mastered the standard knitting stitches to understand the more complex brioche knitting. This book consists of 3 major parts. Part one is how to brioche knit. It includes the special cast on, the new types of stitches, increases, decreases, fixing errors, special cast off methods, and how to read brioche charts. Part 2 is a dictionary of brioche stitches. Part 3 is a small collection of scarf patterns. It also includes some information on how to modify patterns for things like one color brioche and circular brioche. This book barely touches on one color brioche, so if that is where you want to start I would definitely get her other book instead. Each pattern includes both line by line directions and charts. The last thing you ought to know is that gauge and yarn weight are unimportant for most of these patterns, which I love!

Pros of the book:
The stitch patterns in this book are very complex, but expertly explained. The pictures show every aspect of the stitches without leaving you guessing how she got from one step to another. Each stich that is demonstrated is pictured in both American and continental style (which I find helpful since my teenage daughter knits in a different style then I do). The stitch dictionary is filled with stitches that you can't find anywhere else. I also found the knowledge imparted in this book clear enough to assist anyone that wanted to make up their own stitch patterns. The pictures and examples are gorgeous. She always lets you know what type of yarn she used, what sized needles, what size her projects are, how many she cast on in her sample pieces, etc. She also does not try to convince you that her yarns are the only ones that will work for her projects. Last but not least, brioche is pretty cool and there aren't many other places out there to learn it.

Cons:
Even though I gave this book a 5 star rating, there are a couple of minor problems which I hope they will fix in the next edition to book. First of all, I really wish the binding on this book were different. The patterns are complex enough that I am referring back to it often and I really wish it were bound in a way where it would stay open (like a spiral binding.) Second. I wish the charts were a little more contrasting so they would turn out more crisp when I copy them. This wouldn't really be an issue if they resolved issue number one. I don't consider either of these enough of a problem to knock it down a star. I could easily take it to a print shop and have them spiral bind it for me. There only other issue to mention is the lack of an errata. I am guessing that will come later. It isn't unusual for such a new book to have some errors and I have already found one. In the pattern "Icicle" they forgot to print the instructions for the set up rows in the line by line instructions. This wasn't a big deal since it was in the chart and set up rows are pretty much the same anyway, but I will admit I was a little confused at first... wondering if for some reason this pattern was able to skip those otherwise essential rows. Once again, I will not take a star off for this since it is most likely just a matter of time until the errata becomes available.

All in all, this book was excellent. After some practice and a few sample swatches, I have been able to get the hang of brioche knitting and am ready to start making the gorgeous shall on the cover.

Years ago, I paid for a private lesson to learn how to knit basic two color brioche and walked away with empty pockets with no results. I took Nancy's brioche knitting class on Craftsy and made two scarves in a month. I loved it so much that I had to get this book to keep myself in practice. Brioche knitting is fun and addictive. The stitch patterns shown in this book are stunning and I found myself saying to my husband that Nancy Marchant is the Alice Starmore of Brioche knitting. He said, "That is high praise." He loves the book too and everyone has made requests already.. There is not one thing in this book that I do not want to do. The patterns and stitch designs are so nice. You can't help but be inspired. This one is a keeper!

Yes, there are projects in this book. But it's so much more than that! Nancy not only gives you beautiful patterns to knit, she also gives you a fabulous foundation for brioche knitting that will allow you to completely understand the way that brioche fabric is made so that you can create your own brioche patterns. I love this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to either learn basic brioche knitting or master it. As an added benefit, Nancy Marchant and Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark both teach Craftsy classes on brioche knitting. So if you buy this book (or any other brioche knitting tome) and find yourself baffled, head over and take a class on it! Start with Nancy's class if you knit English or Mercedes's class if you knit continental. I found that Nancy's brioche knitting is much more intricate and masterful, but that some people had a hard time understanding her techniques because she throws instead of picks. Good luck!

This is definitely not a book for the beginning knitter. But, these scarves are just amazing. I'm hanging in there, and am about half way through my first scarf. This book is fantastic.

I'm an intermediate knitter, but not that familiar with brioche. I decided to make a plain two color brioche scarf with worsted weight yarn to gain experience before I started my chosen pattern (Willow, pictured on the cover). Thank goodness I did that. Although the cast-on, charting technique, brioche increase and decreases, and working with Kidsilk Haze yarn were all new to me, I was at least familiar with knitting two color brioche before I got started. If I had to do it all over again, I might not have started with Kidsilk Haze since it is a thin yarn that clings to everything and can be really challenging to unknit.

Before you start knitting one of the scarves from this book, I would become familiar with the following:

1. knitting two color brioche
2. unknitting (tinking) two color brioche
3. being able to "read" two color brioche
i.e. mistakes are apparent when you see them, you automatically fish out the stitch that usually hides under the yarnover, you think it's obvious what to do on the light side and dark side of the fabric
4. how to insert a lifeline into your knitting. I used a lifeline at first, and frequently had to unknit and use the lifeline to fix my mistakes. Once my scarf was further along, my mistakes became less frequent and I was able to stop using the lifeline.
5. the 2 color italian cast-on
6. knitting with kidsilk haze
7. the 2 color italian cast-on using kidsilk haze

For me, it was completely worth the time to learn these things before I started on my Willow scarf. You can read the introductory materials and easily figure out how to knit a two color brioche scarf without any increases or decreases. Or, you could buy Nancy's other book to learn. There are also online brioche classes on craftsy.com and knitfreedom.com. Look up using a knitting lifeline if you have not done that before, I found it invaluable.

The effort that has gone into this book is really impressive. There are very clear and detailed instructions on knitting brioche, various increases, decreases, the italian two color cast on and bind off. Nancy Marchant developed (as far as I can tell) this way of charting two color brioche patterns. Once I got the hang of the chart (since each row of brioche takes two passes, it takes two rows of the chart to display the row) it was very clear what to do. I believe she also developed the language (bark and burp) to describe the stitches. It might not seem like a big deal, but I had previously tried brioche based on a pattern that used different terminology and gave up in deep frustration. The terminology makes brioche understandable. The book contains a library of brioche stitch combinations. The scarf patterns are striking and beautiful.

UPDATE: Through Nancy's guidance, I see that there is a "key" on p.44 of the book. I'm so used to the keys being closer to the charts, that I didn't put 2 and 2 together to notice this. I'll change this to 5 star with a note that I think there should be some type of reference back to the key.
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I would have given this 5 stars, because I really loved her class, and this book is great!.

I started the Willow pattern right away, since this was the main reason I bought this book. The problem is that the written directions do not match the charted directions. At least, I think that's what it is, because I had to peruse through the book and write down a "key" to the chart myself, since there wasn't one included. When I do that, I see that the written chart says to brp across the DS LC rows, but the chart says to brk across (and in reading the knitting, I think it's supposed to be knit), and of course the opposite on the DS DC rows. I'm going to finish the willow design via the chart, but beware that if you go back and forth between the chart and written, as they are different, and you will end up with knits on the purl rows, and purls on the knit rows. You will have to either frog the knitting or start over. I ended up starting over because I'm using Kidsilk Haze yarn and it's REALLY hard to frog across without the yarn tangling or getting too "fuzzy".

Other than that, I love the look of the projects and the stitch dictionary.

KNITTING FRESH BRIOCHE is another wonderful Nancy Marchant book that all serious knitters will want for their reference library shelf. I've never cared much for brioche stitch, because it creates a very stretchy fabric, requires extra time and effort (one completed row requires knitting across and purling back again), and uses about twice as much yarn as stockinette. But Nancy's new book, which explores using brioche stitch to create beautiful two-color, reversible, twisting patterns on the knitted fabric surface, really inspires me to grab my needles and knit some of her shawls or scarves, or maybe some panels for a cardigan sweater of my own design!

Nancy clearly explains the basic brioche stitch, as used in two-color knitting, both in words and in step-by-step photos. As Nancy says: "Brioche knitting creates a cushy, reversible ribbed fabric that comes about by working one stitch and slipping the next. In brioche knitting, instead of carrying the working yarn in front or in back of the slipped stitch, you bring the yarn over the stitch, giving the stitch a little shawl over its shoulders. In the following row, this shawled stitch will be either 'barked' or 'burped' . . . ."

Barking and burping are much easier than they sound when described in words: Barking means bringing the yarn to the front over a slipped stitch, then knitting the next stitch together with its little shawl from the previous row. Burping means bringing the yarn around a slipped stitch and back to the front, then purling the next stitch together with its little shawl. That's all the technique there is! These beautiful stitch patterns should be easy for knitters with intermediate skills to execute.

The 50-page technique section includes instructions for creating the basic fabric, casting on, creating a selvedge edge, binding off, working increases and decreases, weaving in ends, blocking, repairing mistakes (thanks!), reading charts, and understanding the oddball brioche knitting symbols. All knitters will want to consult these pages, to get the two-color slipped-stitch fabric set up correctly.

Following the Techniques section, there is an amazing 110-page dictionary of two-color brioche stitch patterns. The variety of "twists and turns", and large and small repeated designs, will delight all serious knitters, especially those who love knitting techniques or designing their own knitted garments. Because the two-color stitch patterns are reversible, each stitch pattern is illustrated with a photo of both the front and the back of the fabric. In my opinion, the cover photo with the lovely "Willow" shawl doesn't show the most interesting of the included stitch patterns--but "Willow" gives you a good idea of how the surface designs show up on the knitted fabric. My favorites among the stitch patterns are Feathery and Fanny (sort of like a wavy Feather and Fan), Undulating Hourglass, Wavy Palm Leaves, and Sound Waves (sort of an op-art effect).

Finally there are 60 pages with complete instructions (both written-out and charted) for 12 different shawl and cowl projects knitted on circular needles. The patterns, with needle sizes, are: Ring of Fire (US 4), Willow (US 7), Reptilian Cowl (US 9), Icicle (US 5), Stegosaurus (US 6), Veda's Peacock (US 5), Sister Janie (US 4), Cathedral (US 4), Miss B (US 7), Nan's Other Cowl (US 3), Gretchen's Zigzag (US 6), and Bart & Francis (US 2 or 3). Nancy gives excellent instructions for substituting yarns, so you aren't limited to the yarns used in the photographed models. My favorite project patterns are Icicle (sort of wavy geometric triangles) and Bart & Francis (sort of a leafy, growing plant).

This book is a great reference book for two-color brioche knitting. If you enjoy brioche knitting generally, you may want to consider Nancy's earlier reference book on all kinds of brioche knitting (not just two-color), [[ASIN:1600613012 Knitting Brioche: The Essential Guide to the Brioche Stitch]]; or another good, recent pattern book using brioche knitting, [[ASIN:1620334429 Brioche Chic: 22 Fresh Knits for Women & Men]].

This amazing book has a single but HUGE shortfall. The charts are tiny and pale. With so much great information in this book, I can understand the desire to keep the charts from taking over what a shame to be nearly unusable.

I enlarged the chart scan and color coded. It is now readable and understandable.

Brioche knitting at its best. Marchant is the "go to"authority on this technique. The patterns are fabulous but not easy. The charts require a great deal of study to knit the patterns properly. An excellent resource but not for the faint of heart.

I just received this book, so I haven't worked any of the patterns yet, but the book is marvelous already.

The beginning portion has instructions for the cast-on she recommends. The way the method is photographed and shown with movement arrows over the pictures is extremely clear. I'm self taught from watching videos and have had trouble with books in the past not showing the motions clearly enough for me but this was quite clear.

Another very useful portion of the book is the section that describes (in clear, helpful detail) how to do the various increases and decreases. Each increase and decrease has photographs of what it will look like from both sides, which really helps explain what each one does.

The section with the various stitch patterns has great variety. Whether or not the patterns are easy I cannot say, but I can say that the images of the patterns are very clear- the samples are knitted in dark brown and tan and are shown both right and wrong side so you can see exactly what it should look like. From reading through it seems clear, but again I haven't gotten a chance to work them yet.

Physically, the book appears to be well made. The pages are nice and thick, glossy, and all the photographs are colorful and clear.

Even though I haven't worked anything yet, reading through the beginning already answered some of my questions and uncertainties about two-color brioche knitting. It only covers one color brioche in an appendix, but it does tell you how to translate the two-color brioche designs to one-color.

I've started following the instructions and am learning a lot. My only complaint is it seems the steps for someone who has never done any brioche could be a little more clear and in one place. I felt like I was having to jump around in the book a bit.