Brioche stitch questions

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend!

To have a break from miles of stocking stitch I decided to try and do a jumper in brioche stitch and wow, I’m having a struggle! I’m just going to keep practicing (the knitting and the trying not to cry) before I get stuck in but I’ve got a couple of questions.

Is there a trick to unraveling rows that you’ve done wrong with brioche or is the trick not to make any mistakes? :joy: When I’ve flubbed it I’ve basically just had to start over because the yo stitches kind of disappear.

Also, all of the videos I’ve watched to learn the start with an uneven amount of cast on rows to do the selvedge but the pattern suggests a tension gauge of 10 st x 24 rows. Would I just work the 10 stitches without selvedge? And would the 24 rows include the brioche set up row? The pattern is called Peony from Emma Wright’s KIY book.

Brioche can really be fun to work, honest. There are a couple of things that may help. One is a lifeline. A lifeline will even preserve the yarn overs.


If you have to rip back, having a lifeline mitigates the pain. Keep putting one in every so often.

If you need to go back a row (I hope not), tinking back is an easy way to do it without losing sts or yarn overs.


The video shows 2-color brioche but applies to single color as well.

Like all swatches, bigger is better. Work a swatch on 20sts plus a selvedge stitch on each end if you would like (the selvedge is really to help with seaming so it’s not strictly necessary for the swatch.). Work more than 24rows not counting the set up row. For both stitch and row gauge you want to be able to measure across the middle 4 inches, avoiding the edges on all sides.

Wow, thanks so much for such a comprehensive reply! That’s so helpful!

I’m sure I’ll be ok once I get clued into the rhythm of it. I’m going to switch from my bamboo needles to metal - I’m not sure if the drag on my yarn is making it harder or easier but I’ll soon find out!

I do like metal needles. For me, brioche is much more fun to knit than Fisherman’s Rib although the result is the same. See how it goes and let us know!

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