A couple months ago I shared a pattern for an awesomely fluffy cowl in brioche stitch, which a lot of you lovely knitters out there have made (and even adapted!) for yourselves. One thing I didn’t think to write about in that post was how to tear back and fix a brioche project if you make a mistake. Luckily one of your fellow readers reached out on Facebook to ask if I’d make a video on just that. Today’s new video shows how to wrangle all of the yarn-overs and slipped stitches when you’re ripping back to get rid of a misworked stitch in brioche.
The Basic Brioche Cowl Pattern
I’ll admit, fixing brioche is a little scarier than ripping out and rethreading loops of vanilla knit and purl stitches. The key is knowing where you’re picking up the X of a yarn over as well as a knit stitch and where you’re just picking up a purl loop by itself. Check out the video below for a nice and slow visual explanation on how to successfully redo mixed up brioche without having to tear out all of your work and start over. Hint: slow and steady wins the race! :)
Thanks for linking to my blog. I truly enjoy this stitch and your pattern. Funny, I was thinking as I was making my last brioche cowl, how tricky it is to fix mistakes and wondered whether you would post a tutorial. I look forward to watching your video and seeing how you do it.
-Natasha
Thankyou Heidi…!!
I really appreciate this tutorial….!!
Thankyou for taking the time to put
This together in such a clear and easy to understand way!!
Jeannie Swanson Mustoe
Seattle Washington
Thank you Heidi. I think I can at least recognize where my mistakes are and will be able to find and fix without ripping out (3 times after 5+ inches) all of the knitting. The yarn is holding up pretty well even after re-casting on and ripping.out. Now I’m confident that I’ll fix my work because I’m not going to start all over again–there will only be fuzz left after so many times. Thanks again you really make it very clear.
I loved this stitch the first time I saw it. Even though I do not do the continental stitch I had no trouble picking it up…UNTIL I MADE A MISTAKE! Ripped it out , started again and completed 43 rows on 28 stitches…mistake. I found your post and it was so easy to follow. Correction was made and I could move on with this piece. I love this fluffy stitch but if you can’t make corrections knitting it is no longer fun. Thanks so much for this great tutorial.
Wow! This is such a helpful video that I desperately needed. I was on my 3rd attempt at a 2-color brioche cowl knit in the round and realized I was 50 stitches into a mistake. Determined not to rip out the entire project, I found your video. It is actually easier to fix in the round because I was able to work backwards stitch by stitch rather than tearing out an entire row…always tricky in the round. I am so glad this lead me to your blog!
The website link I listed is for this specific project on my Ravelry page.
~ Liz
Ditto the previous comment… Wow! This is such a helpful video : ) I’m such a novice knitter that I don’t think to worry about a stitch being difficult; I plow ahead and do it. But, when I made a mistake in the brioche scarf I’m making I suddenly realized how hard it was going to be to fix. Your video is really well done and truly saved my project. Thanks!
Maddie
This tutorial was a lifesaver! I am knitting my first brioche scarf, and while I am also using a lifeline at intervals, this enabled me to only tink back three rows, rather than going back 20 rows to my lifeline.
Thank you so much! I’m working on my first brioche scarf and this tutorial just saved it!
That makes me so happy! Brioche is so fun. :)
Is there any trick to fixing a brioche increase? I have a project where I was supposed to brk4brk but instead only brkyobrk and sort of fudged it as I went along. I’d like to go back and fix it, but I’m worried messing around with my center spine may be a point of no return…thanks!!
That’s a little more daunting! I’ve done a video explaining how to do brioche increases and decreases, but none yet on fixing them. I generally am a big fan of using lifelines and frogging if I’m doing something involving needing to fix a spine. (I realize frogging is a nasty word for a lot of folks, though! ;) )
Hopefully this was helpful in some way! For your reference, here’s the playlist from my YouTube channel that features all of the brioche tutorials I’ve done so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTrKpKeEHBk&list=PLieTn2MJTvhDhkN8Cij1cT_5mT2A74D_J.
I can’t thank you enough…just taught myself brioche….and I was so upset that I made a mistake, and no idea how to fix it. Thought I was going to have to rip it all out the whole thing …..and I am already 2 skeins in…..thank you again. For some reason the ladies in the knitting store said minutes and your tutorial. You are a great teacher.
Glad it helped you out! 😊
Thank you so much for this super video. I was about to throw my knitting away and you saved it! So very well explained. Best wishes from Germany!
Heidi thank youuuuu soooo much for this video!!! Awesome Awesome!!! Great, helpful video!!!!
You’re welcome! :)