Errata?

I tried the Brioche Stitch from page 45-46 of Barbara G. Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns and got something that looked funny (and not like picture). I suspect there may be a line missing from the pattern: there's only one row of pattern repeat, and the piece looks kinda like a garter-stitch something-or-other. Can anyone else who has the book shed any light on this?

I don't have Barbara Walker's book, but a brioche stitch pattern should have two rows. One example of a charted brioche stitch can be found here.

Thanks! I kinda suspected there was a row left out. Walker gives you a set-up row and a pattern row, and then tells you explicitly to repeat only the second row.

Looks like that is right. The pattern linked above does the same thing; after the setup row, the pattern is the same for all rows.

The two rows look different in the chart, but you read odd numbered rows from right to left. Then (because you are working from the back side) you read even numbered rows from left to right.

If you are knitting circular, you would always read from right to left, and the pattern would alternate between the two rows illustrated in the chart.

Clear as mud, right? Just work up a swatch and you should see it.

One more thought...

Many knitters like to slip a stitch at the beginning of each row, and knit the final stitch on each row, to get a firm edge. If you are doing that, you would have to add those 2 stitches to your initial cast on to make the pattern stitch line up. Your total number of cast-on stitches would be 3n+2, that is: (any number divisible by 3) + 2.

Well, having thought about it, I think in following the pettern as written (in book), I was following the pattern as it should be, but somehow it just looks... wrong. There's clearly something vertical going on, but the result looks a lot more flat than it should be. More flat than the picture I took of my own swatch would suggest, in fact. I've put the swatch next to the photo in the book.



If this looks like a known/common error, I would love to know how to fix it.

Anna Claire I have Barbara Walker at home and I'll try to remember to look at it tonight but I used that stitch pattern from her book to do a cowl and I didn't have a problem.

There is a set up row and then you repeat. I recall that. Are your number of stitches correct. I recall that being very specific too because you are essentially picking up the yarn overs from the previous row and knitting them together when you knit back across the other side.

I remember it was tricky at first until I got the hang of it.

My home computer was electrocuted in a recent thunderstorm here or I would send a picture of my neckwarmer. I got specific ridges that were sort of raised with a bit of a V shape to the look of the stitches- but then brioche looks very different with different weights of yarn.

I'll try and remember to look tonight.

I used Cascade 220 on size 8's. Got vertical something but not to the extent of it being ribbing -- and certainly not the V-ness you describe and which shows up in the photo in the book.

I got that the set-up row wasn't part of the repeat, and didn't have stitch-number problems either. Just not quite sure what else isn't working right.

That definitely looks wrong. Are you sure you are working in the front of the stitch? On the knit stitch, your right hand needle should go into the front leg of the loop, picking it up from left to right. Purl stitch is also worked in the front leg of the loop, but you enter it from right to left. Or maybe you are wrapping your yarn over in the wrong direction.

That little twist at the bottom of the stitch looks like what I did on my very first knitting project. My aunts had taught me the basic knit and purl stitches when I was about 5 years old. As a freshman in college, I decided it would be nice to have some knitting to work on in the dorm.

I found a knitter who agreed to help, and she recommended a scarf pattern. But oh no, not me. You see (I sniffed imperiously), I am a quick study and would be incredibly bored after a few rows. I will make nothing less than a long-sleeved cardigan! She gave me a quick refresher on casting on, knit and purl stitch, and left me to my own devices.

A few days later, after I had knitted several inches of the back, I noticed that the stitches on every other row looked a bit odd, like they were crossing their legs. My knitting consultant was not around, so I just kept on knitting. When she finally checked it out, she realized immediately that I was knitting through the back loop! But I was purling through the front loop, so the problem was appearing only on alternate rows.

I was too pigheaded to rip it out, so I just kept on going in my newly created pattern. I wore that sweater for years, and every once in a while someone would ask me what the pattern was!

Best take the swatch to your nearest yarn shop and ask for some help. They will be glad to help you - a happy knitter will be back for more yarn.

I tried brioche stitch from the Treasury last night and it turned out beautifully! The most confusing thing was the yo at the beginning of each row, which I found was easy to make by starting with the yarn in front and taking it over the right needle to the back, leaving a strand of yarn that wraps only the top of the right needle, before doing the slipped stitch, which is done purlwise - inserted in the front from right to left, with the yarn held in the back. The next stitch, knit 2 together, make sure the two stitches you're knitting together are the yarn over and the slipped stitches from the previous row. I've noticed that once I'm ready to slip a stitch, the yarn over and slipped stitches sometimes come up over this stitch from the left and I have to push them to the left to find the correct stitch to slip. The stitch you're slipping is the previous rows k2tog. All the yo's after the first one, you are starting with the yarn in back because you just did a k2tog, so your yarn over will travel from the back, under the right needle toward you, and then over the top of the right needle away from you, forming an open loop on the right needle.

So try it again and make sure your yo's are in the right direction, slip the stitches purlwise with yarn in the back, and k2tog - as if they were one strand from the front, left to right, - making sure these two stitches are the previous rows yo and slip stitch.

I hope this is helpful and good luck!

AnnaClaire,

I got home late last night and of course forgot to look at Walker. You weight of yarn shouldn't make a difference given the needle size. Brioche looks lacey if knit with fine yarn on big needles.

I think iammew is on to something with the suggestion about how you are slipping the stitches.

Also I found when knitting the pattern that the k2tog were sort of tight to get the needle into both stitches and that both stitches sort of hang together already.

But until I had done a few rows and the vertical ridges started emerging I had to look at the wrong side and double check which stitches I was knitting together.

The good news is once you've figured it out the pattern is really easy. I found it as familiar as knitting a ribbing by the time I was done.

Stick with it. It turns out these nice thick ridges and makes a very pretty and cosy pattern.

I agree that twisting your stitches may be complicating things - if you're not making stitches the same way they're being made in the book, it's going to screw up everything that involves stitch placement later.

What you want is for all the stitches to hang on your lefthand needle such that the right-hand "leg" of the stitch loop is toward you and in front of the needle (the front) and the left-hand "leg" of the loop is away from you and behind the needle (the back). When you insert your righthand needle you should be poking it from left to right (and thus into the front of the stitch) if you're making a knit stitch (this is "knitwise" and describes one way of sliding the stitch onto the righthand needle; if you put it behind that front leg and poke the needle through right to left from the back, then you're slipping "purlwise").

The way the yarn is then wrapped around the righthand needle to make the next loop is important too (I don't recall right off, but try it your usual way, and check the stitch you just made - if it doesn't look like I've described, undo it and try again, this time wrapping the yarn around the needle in the other direction). Both purl and knit stitches should hang on the lefthand needle the same way; if they're not, then you're wrapping one of the stitches in the wrong direction (clockwise or counterclockwise).

It's really hard describing this in print! If you can find it, Principles of Knitting is really clear in its explanations - it's how I figured out why my own knitting wasn't working with the descriptions.

If your stitches are twisted but there are no purls in the pattern, you must be slipping wrong. Make sure you "slip as if to purl." After slipping the stitch, it should look the same on the right hand needle as it did on the left.

I don't think that's your problem, tho, looking at the picture. Perhaps you simply cast on the wrong number of stitches. That would mean the rows are lining up correctly when you knit it.

I often wondered how you let a company know that they have mistakes in their patterns -- I ran across a multiple on in "Knitted Sock Sensations" by Butt and MacLeod -- it looks like they used the computer to just copy&paste and didn't bother to change some of the pertainent info ... would have wound up with one funny looking sock if I hadn't read thru the instructions first.

So how does one find out if a company knows of errata? And what responsibility does the publisher have for letting purchases know of the corrected mistakes?