I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that for some time I have been walking around thinking Brioche and Boucle were the same. I thought this because my mind somehow made the words identical. Therefore, every time I saw the book Knitting Brioche: The Essential Guide to the Brioche Stitch I processed it as knitting with that nubby yarn. Nevermind that it says stitch right there in the title. Don’t you logic at me!
Tuesday, I was sitting in a bookstore cafe flipping through this year’s Interweave Knits Weekend after the blurb “Our Favorite Sweaters for Men” on the cover caught my eye. Where was this when I was conducting an epic search for a tolerable manly sweater with buttons? I listened to a table full of German women talking animatedly about something I couldn’t begin to decipher and glanced at the pages. Yes, he might like that. Yes, that is pretty good. Oh what is this?
I stopped on a picture of Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark’s Brioche Rib Cardigan. The sweater is a typical raglan bit with a zipper but the solid blue/gray in the foreground with a self-striped rainbow set back to create a subtle but colorful display is mesmerizing. Almost as hypnotizing as the German ladies and the soft sounds of keys clacking and book pages turning around me. What is this Brioche…stitch?
Oh.
Wait. I’ve seen a book about the Brioche stitch. At this point I finally realized the game my eye and brain had been playing with me for months. Boucle and Brioche. The pattern referenced the book I’d passed over a multitude of times because it evoked visions of aggravating yarn. It was like looking through a microscope and discovering a whole tiny world of beings moving around and existing right under your nose. Here was a whole technique I knew nothing about.
