Brioche

So I see that Brioche is something the loom knitters really want to know. It's fairly simple and easy to crack. I have a few pictures that I hope will help you loom knit brioche. All you have to remember to make your basic brioche stitch is yarning over (YO) and knitting, alternating the pegs where your YO are each row. You can look at these tips for knitting in the round or knitting panels.   I also have some tips, to help loom knitters interpret brioche stitch patterns from regular needle knitters.

My pictures are assuming you are always knitting in the same direction (aka knitting in the round).  However, read the steps over and look at the pictures.

Step 1: Cast On

1. Cast on.
Nothing to be said here.

Step 2. * sl1 (do not knit) yo, k1, *

2. Prep row.
a. Do not knit your first peg, but yarn over. Make sure that it is not an e-wrap YO. Make sure your YO looks like the picture below.
b. Knit over the second peg.
c. Repeat a and b for the whole row.

Tip: YO.

TIP: YO

The second peg is a YO. This is a bad picture... I know, but make sure you're not e-wrapping.

Step 3. *BRK1, sl1 yo, *

3. First brioche row!
a. If you remember, you left peg 1's stitch on and did a yarn over. Therefore you had 2 loops on peg 1.  Knit  loops over. Now peg 1 has only one loop on it. That is a BRK (brioche knit).  See the next picture for a BRK.
b. Now, do not knit peg 2, but YO.
c. Repeat a and b.

BRK - Brioche Knit. So simple.

TIP: BRK

The yellow coloured peg is about to be knitted over. The bottom loop is the stitch that you left alone, and the top loop is the YO you did the previous row. Knitting over will leave you with the new loop!

Step 4. * sl1 yo, BRK1

4. Second Brioche Row! Doesn't this look familiar? Except...
a. Do not knit over peg 1, but YO.
b. If you remember the last row (and you will, if you are working on your knit while you are currently reading this), you peg 2 had 2 loops on it. You know what that means by now (hopefully). Knit them over (BRK).
c. Repeat step a and c.


5. Repeat the pattern.
You keep repeating step 3 and 4. And voila! You should have your brioche stitch.




Extra tips:

• Panel knitting - It's really up to you to start your prep row with a yarn over, or to knit your first peg. It is also up to you whether or not you want an even or odd number of stitches, but your edges will be the same if you have an odd number of stitches.
• Working this pattern in colour - Stripes, anyone? To do this, still follow the same steps BUT remember that each peg uses the same colour yarn each row.
• Creating variations of the brioche stitch are by using alternate positions of YOs and BRKs. So, you should be able to learn new stitches.  For example, one step of the brioche stitch written is "yf sl1, yo, brk1". You do not need to know "yf sl1" because it means yarn forward, slip one, yarn over for needle knitters. Just know that for a loom knitter, it means that you do not do anything for that peg except yarn over, so that there will be two loops on the peg, and then BRK the next peg.
• However, some brioche stitch variations do not look as eye-catching as they do when you use needles for knitting. This is because you will always have the same amount of tension on pegs. I've tried the pearl brioche stitch on a loom, and it doesn't look as nice. 

Please tell me if you have trouble panel knitting brioche!

Youtube Round-Up Comes Back for Some More!

I'm back! Long story short, a break from the internet became an even longer affair after those Olympics set in...and then the Paralympics.  I turned into a total sports zombie (even though I promised myself that I wouldn't go nuts during the Olympics again). Crazy sport-nut that I am, I was in bliss for a while.

Anyway, onto the links!  Today I go back to the basics! I love Isela Phelps.  Her videos are great, and they're pretty short, too!

• Simple Crochet Bind Off
• Basic Bind Off
• Knit stitch (the normal one, not that e-wrap one)

Weekend Youtube Roundup

Finally! I was supposed to finish this post two days ago, whoops! My excuse is that it was my birthday.  Anyways, most of these posts are new videos that go along with articles from loom knitters circle! These are great, especially Bethany Dailey's bind off/cast off comparison.

Today's videos will show you:

• Chain lace stitch
• Bind off / cast off comparison for loom knitting
• slip one knit one pass over slipped stitch

Clever looms

No picture today, folks.  I know, it's sad.  I miss my digital camera too.

This is an old-timer, before high speed internet type of post.  If you are shocked, proceed to look at my past blog posts instead and enjoy.


Question: Have you built a loom before?
Answer: No, but I really want to build one.  You see, I live in Canada.  Okay, I will admit that living in Canada has nothing to do with anything.  I'm really lazy to find out if there are stores that I can go to buy finer gauge looms than a knifty knitter or any of its cousins.  It's on my summer bucket list.  Seeing that I'm making a small profit from knitting stuff for people, this is a very BIG possibility, because I want to be able to change my knitting gauge.  The knitting gauge depends on the space between your pegs.

Question:  Why would you want to make your own loom?
Answer: The main reason is because I do not have any change to spare.  Any money goes towards my education.  Also, I am curious.  I want to know how to build one.  My dad once built my mom a huge weaving loom just for her to make one afghan.  He won't be helping me, but I guess history has a case of repeating itself....except this is a knitting loom.  Save your money, folks! You can save so much money by making your own looms.  Most of the time you will have the materials, or you can go out and buy the materials for a fraction of the price.

Question:  Will you post your looms if you make them?
Answer: Of course I will. I will make them this summer for sure.  However, they may be really bad.  I've never been good at hands-on stuff except for knitting and painting.  I just can't think in 3D. But never say never! I have never been motivated to build stuff (especially for school projects; I just didn't understand why I needed to build the Globe Theatre while studying Shakespeare).  I honestly cannot tape popsicle stitcks together to make a fence in a model. It's that sad.  What I'm trying to say is, I'm here to encourage everyone to try it at least once!


I've found two very useful sites to build looms.

Adjustable looms/circular-looms/double-rakes:
This is the most CLEVER way to make looms I've ever seen in my life.  This is more like what I would do, because I am not that great with tools.  For a finer gauge loom, you need real rubber bands (for example, the ones for hair - they don't pull your hair out like the elastic bands you get with groceries), pick-up stitcks, and spacer beads.  I am so impressed.  She also has adjustable looms, which I think would be great for berets.  The only way I know how to make berets with knifty knitters are to increase stitches off of your loom or make wedges and sew them together.  This is a quick fix!  Increases or decreases will look neater, especially if you want to do a drastic decrease. As soon as I have enough money I'm going to go buy these items.  I think I can pick them all up at the local dollar store.

I also have to put out a blurb, because she does great Harry Potter stuff.  Honestly, that was the reason I learned how to knit.  Go Ravenclaw!

Standard wooden looms:
This is if you want to make looms similar to those found on knittingboard.com.  This is the standard double rake loom (as opposed to the newest all-n-one loom, which looks amazing and makes me salivate, if that is possible).  It's a rustic site, but it goes step by step.  I will probably be doing this when summer time actually hits (July).


Happy looming!  If you don't know how far you need to space your pegs check out loom knitting help here.

Weekday Youtube Linkage II

I have been remiss on these video posts! These are the easiest posts I make!

Today you will find:

• How to knit a twisted keyhole scarf (very fashionable)
• Two-colour brioche stitch on the round loom!
• Slip with yarn in front (sl wyif)

I tried out the brioche stitch, and I absolutely love it. Every time I see using two colours in a project, I immediately turn all nerdy and think about how great it would look if I knit it in Harry Potter colours (blue and bronze for me - GO RAVENCLAW!), and I see myself getting broke in the near future.

Right side

wrong side - still looking good nonetheless

Onto those links!

Lace tip - getting your yarn overs to look like regular knitting

So I've been experimenting with lace lately. Well, no, not lately. I started knitting with needles and crocheting too, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  I tried to mention in my last post about getting really nice yarn overs.  So here I have a sample of knitting that has a regular yarn over that one would get with needle knitting, and the e-wrap yarn over commonly done in loom knitting.  There isn't much of a difference, but I think the e-wrap yarn over looks a little more messy (the knot is at the side, whereas a normal yarn over creates a nice twist) and is slightly smaller when you are making eyelets.

There are reasons why I do my yarn overs that are initially e-wrap instead of just laying the yarn in front of the peg. For one, they are loose and easy to knit, whereas just laying the yarn in front of the peg may become too tight. Even if you leave space and do it loosely, the more you knit, the more you pull on the working yarn, so it's easier to just leave it as an e-wrap and unravel it later on.  This method provides the cleanest looking eyelets, and it doesn't take long at all! If you want your loom knitting to look like needle knitting, this is it.

I hope this tip helps!  Proceed onto the pictures for your perusal.

Lace tips..coming soon... with pics

I know I have non-English people reading my site (Hiya!) so I will post some pictures soon.

I've really been experimenting with lace. I've also found some quick tips that I may be able to post over Easter weekend.

Firstly, when you're making eyelets, whether you're doing ssk (decrease to left) or k2tog (decrease to right), and then doing your yarn overs (yo) for lace, the yo is an e-wrap.  When they tell you to knit over the peg that you e-wrapped the row before, you should unravel the e-wrap and knit it over like a flat stockinette stitch, I've noticed that if you don't do this, your eyelets don't look like they're knitted together.

Weekday Youtube Linkage

I see that people like my links to youtube videos! I do take some time searching for these.

Today, learn how to:

• pick up a dropped knit stitch
• pick up a dropped purl stitch
• knit 1 colour on 1 side for double knitting

Let's get to it!

Pass it along Sunday

I was looking through some links, and found this post from Anne Bipes ages ago. It's great!

Using a lifeline so that when you frog it, you'll still have your knit pieces up to a certain point.  I wish I thought of this before - especially when knitting large pieces of work like scarves and shawls.

Check it out!

http://loomknittingblog.blogspot.ca/2007/08/using-lifeline.html