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Chapter 2, Pattern 3: Shimmering.
A beautiful rectangular shawl, filled with alternating stripes of my favorite brioche textures.

All of my favorite brioche textures can now be found in one gloriously shimmering shawl! When I first discovered textural brioche, I was blown away. It’s good to have a basic understanding of brioche knitting before beginning to dive into the different textures these beautiful stitches can create. The yarn that I chose is what really makes this shawl shimmer. I love the sheen of silk blended with wool, it’s so smooth to knit with and gives the stitches such stunning definition. I first met Dianne of Suburban Stitcher at a fiber festival in Texas—she is a fellow Texan! I highly recommend choosing either solid or semi-solid yarns, or yarns with very subtle speckles and variegation. This way the textures themselves can really shine, especially in the Three-Color Moss Brioche! Yes, three-color brioche!! Think of this shawl as a textural brioche sampler, and I will walk you through each one! We will try my 5 favorite textural stitch patterns, but believe me, there are so many more to try!

Yarn Notes:
Grab 3 skeins of yarn in 3 different colors. You could go with a gradient or fade, or simply choose 3 colors that go nicely together. I recommend choosing 3 different tones: a light for A, medium for B and dark color for C. This will give you the very best outcome! If you are unsure about the tone of your yarn, lay them next to each other and take a black and white photo of them. This will help you to see the tone of the yarn as opposed to the color.

See photos here of my yarn in skein form.

Skill Level:
Intermediate. Basic brioche skills are highly recommended.

Techniques Used:
Twisted German Cast On, knit, purl, brioche knit (brk), brioche purl (brp), sl1yo, Elastic Bind Off.

Video Tutorials:
Twisted German Cast On: http://bit.ly/TwistedGermanCO
Elastic Bind Off: http://bit.ly/ElasticBO
Brioche Textures:
http://bit.ly/OneColorHoneycomb
http://bit.ly/TwoColorHoneycomb
http://bit.ly/PearlBrioche
http://bit.ly/ThreeColorBrioche

Construction Notes:
This rectangular wrap is knit from side to side, cast on to bind off. You will work through 5 stripes of different brioche textures, getting to the center focal point stripe of Three-Color Moss Brioche. This will be your largest stripe, and after its completion you will finish the shawl as a mirror image of the first half. Each textural stripe will gradually blend your yarns together, so keep that in mind when choosing your colors.

Rectangular shawls are so easy to wear in multiple ways: draped around your shoulders for a lovely night out, wrapped tightly around your neck for those chilly days, or draped around your neck loosely with a shawl pin.

One Size
69″ (175 cm) long and 16″ (40.5 cm) depth

Gauge
19 stitches and 22 rows = 4″ (10 cm), measured in one-color honeycomb brioche stitch knit flat (taken after blocking)

MATERIALS:

Yarn
1040 yds (951 m) fingering/sock weight

Color A: 410 yds (375 m)
Color B: 360 yds (329 m)
Color C: 270 yds (247 m)

Shown In
Suburban Stitcher Silky Single (70% Superwash Merino, 30% Silk; 438 yds 400 m per 100 g)

Color A: 1 skein in color Nudie Patootie (light cream speckled)
Color B: 1 skein in color Predictability (purple speckled)
Color C: 1 skein in color River’s Edge (green speckled)

Needles
24″ (61 cm) or longer US 4 (3.5 mm) circular needle (Circular needles are used for two-color brioche knitting. Adjust the needle size as needed to achieve the proper gauge.)

Tools and Notions
Tapestry needle for weaving in ends
Row counter (optional)