Knitting books you may like to add to your collection.
I have collected a few books about knitting and thought I’d share my knitting book reviews here. (Please know that some links go to the Amazon site, where I am an affiliate. If you end up purchasing through the link, I will get a small royalty which in no way affects the cost to you.)
Do you enjoy knitting Fair Isle, colorwork, and stranded? If so, there is a fun book of charts you must consider buying.
Alice Starmore’s Charts for Color Knitting contains more charts than (I suspect) you could use in a lifetime. I’ve only used a couple of the bigger charts, and a few of the “border” charts. This is a wonderful book for Fair Isle and colorwork knitters who like to choose their own patterns.
The author also goes into depth on how to create your own colorwork sweater. This is over my head at this point in my knitting journey, but would be very helpful for those who would like to design knitwear.
I purchased a used copy of the book, in November 2021, and it is in very good condition. Check at Amazon for used books to save money. I’ve had very good luck buying used books of all kinds.
Both colorwork sweater designs below were taken from the book.
The Vogue Knitting Book, Revised and Updated Version
The Vogue Knitting book covers all types of thing related to knitting (with some pages about crocheting). From choosing needles and yarn, to finishing projects, and designing your own knitwear. There is a whole section on designing sweaters with knitting design worksheets to copy and use. There are more pages of knitter’s graph paper in the back of the book which can be copied as many times as needed.
I like most things about this book, and bought a used copy to save money. Cons for me are the dark colors used for a few of the sample images in the book. It is more difficult to see the samples. Also the images about how to work stitches can be hard to follow. I’d rather look it up on YouTube. For that reason, I often forget to use this book, but it is full answers to just about every single knitting question you may have.
If you have never tried mosaic knitting, you really should. It is very simple to accomplish these colorwork patterns and is done on flat knitting projects.
Here in Florida we had a hurricane hit shortly after I purchased this book. I spent a few days without electricity. I used that down time to knit mosaics from this book!
Just think about a time without access to online things, or electricity to charge the computer and phone. I love to have books around for these reasons. The day may never come in your lifetime, but what if it does?
I admit right off that I can’t knit brioche. Every year or so I give it a try, and fail. The last 1/4 of the book is all patterns! If you already like knitting brioche, this book may be worth purchasing just for the patterns. If, like me, you still need to get the hang of the basics, a video is probably more helpful.
Do you have some favorite knitting books? I’d love to hear about them. I wish I had some of my grandmother’s knitting stuff. I don’t know where it went when she died, but probably to one of her daughters. Do you have patterns, needles or other items that were passed down through the family?
I began writing this post in the hope of being able to easily explain how to knit brioche. It turns out that I simply can’t do it. This project was ripped out, but I do have some good notes, and videos, to reference for anyone trying to knit brioche in the round.
Where’s the Brioche Hate Club, I need to Join
After much difficulty with casting on, (I did learn some new cast-ons) I am on my way to successfully knitting brioche in the round – or so I thought. Well, honestly, I am making lots (and lots) of mistakes – ya, it looks horrible!, but that’s okay, I am practicing. But, at each BOR (beginning of round) the yarn color changes and I’m either going to knit or purl. This can be daunting for us beginners. And sometimes downright impossible.
After my many efforts to complete a nice cast on for brioche in the round, I gave up and simply used some sort of long tail cast on which is what I usually use. My cast on edge looks bad, but I needed to begin practice on brioche stitch.
My Practice Hat in Brioche Stitch – which I ripped out
I cast on 80 stitches using worsted wool and this was a good number. The Skipp hat pattern called for fingering yarn, so I tried to estimate with worsted, just to try out the pattern. Before I ripped out the hat, I tried it on and the fit was good. If I ever learn to knit brioche in the round correctly, 80 stitches are a good amount to cast on.
The light gray is unknown yarn and the red is Brooklyn Tweed’s Shelter. I’m using up stash with only a small ball of red yarn left, then I switched to dark blue.
Brioche knitting
My Brioche Knitting Advice For Beginners
To practice brioche knitting, I’ve found that doing the following makes things easier
Use worsted weight yarn
Choose two very opposite colors and NOT variegated
If you can’t get a good cast on done, do whatever you can so you can just knit! Consider this practice.
Figuring Out Beginning of Round Knits and Purls
Brioche knitting is not really all that difficult, but at the beginning of each round I get very confused. This mainly happens when I don’t see the yarn stitches I’m supposed to see for the next round! I guess I have some kind of mental block because so many people CAN DO THIS! What’s wrong with me?
With only two yarn colors and two types of rows (knits and purls), this shouldn’t be all that difficult. But as a beginner, who makes lots of knitting mistakes, I dreaded that BOR stitch – because it screwed me up….!!!
So here’s how it goes for two yarn colors, and two row changes. This much I understand.
Know your yarn and what it means. My knit row yarn is my MC (main color) which for me is light gray. That makes red yarn my CC (contrast color) and it is my purl row yarn.
MC Gray yarn = Knit Row
CC Red yarn = Purl Row
But in brioche, knit and purl rows are not all that obvious unless you know what to look for. This information is for “brioche in the round” because flat brioche is probably different – I don’t know. (Oh yes, I tried that too and still couldn’t accomplish it! – see the free pattern links below for brioche scarves.)
BOR Stitches – The Knit Row
At the BOR, when I see a purl stitch as the first stitch to work (photo below), and it’s in my CC (red) yarn, it means I will be using the MC (gray) yarn for this row. That means it’s a KNIT row.
The knit row is worked as follows: *Gray yarn forward, slip that purl stitch (purl wise). Leave the yarn in front as I pick up the next TWO stitches (a gray and a red stitch – you can see them crossed in the image below) and bring the working yarn up and over the needle to knit those two stitches together. This creates a yarn over (YO) for the next round of knitting. *Do it again until I finishing knitting this round. It helps to repeat this in your head when you get going on the round…yarn front, slip, yarn over purl (2 – counted as one).
It’s not that difficult. It’s basically a slip and k2tog – but those two together are counted as one stitch. The yarn just needs to be in the correct position to create that yarn over with the knit.
BOR, a slipped purl stitch begins this round, so I am knitting this row and using the MC yarn which is gray.
BOR Stitches – The Purl Row
My purl row begins incorrectly. This goes back to my difficulties in casting on. If I can’t make the right kind of cast on and join, I won’t have the correct stitch set up!
My photo below is in the middle of the round, but the beginning of the round would start with a knit stitch like this – at least I think it would. A gray knit stitch means I will slip it – using the other yarn color. Dark blue yarn has replaced my red so I am working with the CC color and purling this row.
Work the Purl Round / Row like this: *Yarn forward and slip the knit stitch. Yarn up and over the needle to purl the next two stitches together. *Continue around. Once the purl has been done, the yarn is in the front so just slip the next stitch. Yarn up and over and purl the next two. Pretty simple. Hahahahaha… do I sound insane?
Adding a New Yarn Color
Eventually I ran out of red yarn so I have added a dark blue. The yarn was added at the beginning of a round and it now takes the place of the red yarn. Blue is now my CC.
I’ve made a ton of mistakes on this practice hat, which may not ever end up being a hat (No, it won’t) because I have no idea how to decrease at the top while knitting brioche – Oh Lord, I’m far from being able to do that!
Dark blue yarn added
My Brioche Hat Photos, Before I Ripped it All Out
The actual stitches were fun to do, but every now and then I would make a mistake on the round. The Beginning of round stitches, and end of round stitches, did not line up and I would lose it (glass of wine anyone?). Also, it’s easy to not carry the yarn correctly – front or back – which will make unwanted lines of yarn where they shouldn’t be.
This is nearly impossible to fix. Jared Flood suggests adding life lines to brioche and it’s definitely some great advice. See the link to his video below where he shows you how to do that.
This part is okay
The Reverse
Yikes, that BOR is a Horror Show
Mistakes in the round
Two color tubular cast-on
The cast-on’s in my photos above were done following Andrea Mowry’s “Two Color Tubular Cast-On” which is really nice and a great cast-on to master. A couple of rows are knit back and forth before the join and the video is a very good one. BUT… and this is another big BUT… like so many other videos, it stops after the cast on – how do I join? How do I continue to knit from this? There is no explanation. The video ends. So the cast on is as far as I went, and then ripped it out.
Patterns For Practicing Brioche
Some patterns listed here are free, and some are not. I did buy the Jared Flood hat which I couldn’t complete. Then I found some free patterns for knitting brioche flat (should be simple right?), which I also couldn’t complete. It’s so sad that I am incapable. If you can’t do brioche, join my club. I may try again in a couple of years, but at this point I am OVER IT.
I’ve spent nearly two weeks trying to figure this out. I have all these patterns and saved videos to reference for later. I’m not one to give up easily and in general I believe that if others can do it, I can. Not so with knitting brioche.
Lots of people have made tutorials for YouTube showing us how to brioche knit. Here is a list of some of my favorites. No videos I came across shows me how to create a good join and knit from there.
Brooklyn Tweed – Jared Flood – Brioche in the round – This video is awesome for everything except casting on and joining in the round. Jared explains what to do at the end of the round – with that other color yarn which is just hanging there waiting to be used. He also shows how to add a life line – which is a great idea for knitting something where mistakes could easily be made and be difficult to fix.
At first, I was not interested in learning the brioche stitch. Most patterns I saw kind of turned me off. In fact, I considered brioche to be a bit ugly sometimes. Then again, some brioche patterns are stunning! This type of knitting can create hats that are reversible, with a different look on each side.
Here is the beginning of a hat with brioche in three colors. First I used red and white, then added some blue. If I had been able to knit this correctly, the hat could be worn with the white (gray) mostly showing, or the color side. It could have ended up being a nice hat – if I hadn’t failed so miserably at knitting it!
My attempt at brioche knitting
Brioche is reversible
Brioche Hat – “Skipp” by Brooklyn Tweed
I love to knit hats and I’ve knit a few BT patterns. Hats are my favorite knitting projects because they are quick and use DPNs for only a short time. After I knit the Habitat hat in bright orange cables for my daughter, I wanted to knit more hats. Why not learn some new things while doing so? And let’s try some brioche.
My son had given me a Brooklyn Tweed gift certificate for Mother’s Day and I needed to use it. I decided to buy some patterns because my yarn stash is already large. One of the hat patterns I purchased is called “Skipp” and it’s done in brioche stitch.
The idea of creating a reversible hat appealed to me, and brioche creates a reversible fabric. Yippee… onward. But first I would have to learn a new kind of cast-on to create a nice hat edging.
Hat’s can’t be knit until a good cast-on is completed. These special cast-on directions will create a tidy edge for a brioche knit hat. As I note on this page, I did a few different cast-ons but then had lots of trouble jumping in and beginning the pattern.
#1. Rib Cabled Cast-on
The cast on for the Skipp beanie is called a Rib Cabled Cast On. It’s not that difficult to accomplish, but I needed to use two yarns held together (notes for this pattern). I can’t go into the list of all the mistakes I made because there were too many, but in general the stitches in my rounds didn’t line up at the join. There are no directions for joining in the round – and this is the problem.
First of many fails….this shows that rib cable cast-on with double yarn
Hint: To learn brioche use two contrasting colors of yarn. Don’t use variegated. Make the stitches easy to tell apart by color. Also, try a pattern that calls for a heavy weight yarn. This will make that difficult cast-on progress faster!
Grrrrrrr…..
So I decided to try again with a single yarn color and I began that looooong cast-on again. I needed two yarns, so I had to cut a length from my skein hoping it would be enough – it wasn’t – only made it to 60 stitches and needed 96.
Hint: This type of cast-on uses lots of yarn. More than a normal cast on.
Ripped out again and cut a longer length – I needed about double (if you try this, double what you’d use for a normal long-tail cast on). Got finished with that cast on, joined and began the purl using both yarns – but I was only supposed to use one… when I went to un-purl that stitch the join fell apart… I don’t even know what happened, but at that point I gave up for the day and ripped it out.
Knitting Skipp Video Reference
I found THIS VIDEO of a woman who is actually knitting the Skipp hat… at about 5:47 minutes she shows how to join the cast-on, which is to simply purl into the first stitch for the set up round. What? Could it really be this easy??
The video is not great, but at least it tells how to join after the cast on. So, I tried it – just began with a purl like she did. And my join was not really a join… I discovered this after a couple more rounds. It looked like crap. This was another waste of time. (However, if I ever get past the cast-on, this video shows the crown shaping for Skipp, which I might need.)
#2. The Italian Tubular Cast-on
In Jared Flood’s tutorial for the Italian Cast On, he says it’s perfect for brioche. He knits a small, flat brioche sample. This is a good video but there are no directions for joining in the round because it’s back and forth knitting...! So, no help there.
Andrea Mowry has a tutorial for Two Color Tubular cast-on which is pretty good. She slowly (thank-you) shows and explains the cast-on and set up rows. See my examples below from following her video. Notice my circle is not joined because there were no directions for that – OF COURSE…!!! But this video is a good one.
Her video is for her “Harlow” brioche hat pattern. The cast-on and two set up rows are knit before joining in the round. If I could get to this point, join in the round, and begin brioche knitting, I think I would be okay.
The Italian tubular cast-on is not easy, in my opinion. As the stitches are put onto the needle, they are loose and if you stop or take your hand away, the stitches fall off the needle! I suggest using two colors because it’s easier to see where you are in the cast on, and in the video.
I never figured out how to do any new “brioche” cast-ons, but began the Skipp hat using a normal cast-on. Then, I kept messing up my knitting and ripped the whole thing out.I hate brioche.
So What is My Problem?
I’ll tell you where I keep getting stuck – it’s at the BOR (beginning of round). Once the cast-on is finished I can’t join correctly because the knitting of brioche requires different BOR stitches. I guess maybe adding one extra stitch to combine with a regular stitch might work. Usually I transfer the two end stitches on my needles to join in the round, but that won’t work for brioche. Am I just making this more difficult than it needs to be?
#4. Long-tail Cast-on Over Two Needles
Maybe another designer can explain all this better. So I went looking for a new pattern to try.
The free hat pattern called BriocheStarter Hat (link below) is listed as using worsted yarn. But, the cast on number is the same as Skipp’s (fingering weight) at 96 stitches. This is confusing, and must be wrong. I noticed that many knitters using worsted cast-on fewer stitches (80).
And what type of cast on does this free pattern call for? A long-tail cast on over two needles. The tutorial does not show how this cast-on looks once it’s finished. One needle gets pulled out, and I’m not sure I would like the looks of this cast on. It sounds a little odd but what do I know. My Vogue Knitting book also says to do the brioche cast-on in this manner. (Truthfully this is one I did not try myself.)
For a free pattern, this one is very well written with charted and written directions for knitting brioche. The designer does mention knitting the first couple rows flat and then to join… AGAIN…no directions for how to make that join and then begin the pattern.
Please, someone help me get my cast-on joined!
Brioche Knitting Patterns
I have not knit any of these projects, but if I ever decide to try brioche again – and get it right – I will probably try one of these.
Brioche Knots – beautiful hat by Katrin Shubert, done in DK yarn in two colors.
Gina’s Brioche Hat and Cowl – FREE pattern by Purl Soho – This pattern uses a rolled brim cast on which means after a normal cast on, simple rows of knitting are done to create the roll. The second color is added after that.
Failing at Brioche in Photos
Once I began to knit brioche, I loved it – when things were going well – but most of my knitting was a BIG FAT FAIL.
For the “hat” below I did a normal long-tail cast-on, because I gave up on the special brioche cast-ons. Although I had many mistakes – which mainly began at the beginning of each round – I kept knitting for the practice. Finally, I took photos and ripped out the project.
I will NOT be attempting to knit brioche again anytime soon, but will post this page for future reference. If you have any tips for brioche knitting, or have a favorite cast-on, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Brioche knitting
Dark blue yarn added
BOR, a slipped purl stitch begins this round so I am knitting this row using gray yarn.
New England's Narrow Road 