A new book by Nancy Marchant is out and we are in for a treat with many incredible brioche patterns that Nancy developed for us to use. In this book there is a stitch dictionary with more than 70 original two-color patterns. All patterns are charted with symbols developed by Nancy.
Nancy said while finishing her first book, Knitting Brioche, she “desperately wanted to dive into developing new brioche stitch patterns. I have spent the past five years developing the stitches presented here, all of which were created using only increases and decreases worked on a basic two-color brioche knit fabric. There are no cables or crossed stitches, no textural variations, no play with variegated color or different yarn weights — only increases and decreases. And this is just a handful of brioche stitch pattern possibilities: there are still so many more to discover!”
Nancy made an interesting choice of projects to show how to use the stitch patterns in this book. All of the projects are neckwear: either it is a shawl, cowl or scarf. This choice is confirming the two-sided nature of the stitches. The first part of the book is taking the reader through the basics of brioche technique in two colors. It helps to know a basic brioche stitch without variations in one color. If you want to learn more about the variety of brioche stitches, you could refer to Nancy’s first book, Knitting Brioche. After you’ve mastered basic brioche stitch, you can quickly go to two-color brioche, which is the focus of this new book. Nancy explains how to cast-on in two colors, how to bind off, how to increase and decrease in two-color brioche. She even explains how to weave in ends after the project is finished and how to fix mistakes. You will be taken through the portion of the book where you learn how to use two-color brioche charts along with learning symbols and abbreviations. The numerous stitch patterns are well photographed, charted and have very clear instructions. If you are designing your own project, you could refer to the stitch dictionary and have a wealth of beautiful stitch patterns to choose from. Here are some examples of beautiful projects in this book:
I am looking forward to using this book for my designs and learning some of these beautiful stitches. I’m sure that you will find this book exciting and informative. This is definitely a great reference book that I highly recommend adding to your knitting library! You can learn from Nancy yourself how to brioche in her Craftsy.com class, Exploration in Brioche Knitting
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