Top Down Brioche Sweater – English or Continental knitting

 It's September and that means: Time to stack up your woolly wardrobe! Take your knitting needles and start making your new favorite sweaters for the colder days. Since I fell in love with brioche knitting (this one over here was my first brioche sweater project), I wanted to try another, this time very simple, minimalistic brioche sweater. Knitted in the round and from top to bottom (because I'm a bit lazy when it comes to sewing up my knitwear, ehem…). That was the idea and what you see here in the photos is the result. I'm super happy with it, and I'm even happier to announce that the pattern is now available in my Etsy store. I hope you enjoy knitting it as much as I did.

A very BIG THANK YOU to my lovely test knitters, and especially to Lorraine of Rain and Bolt. Not only did she knit two sweaters after my pattern in basically no time (WOW! Really, such a speedy and amazing knitter, I'm jealous! Also, you should follow her on Instagram!). She also came up with detailed instructions for everyone who prefers English style knitting. 

So if you already bought my top down brioche pattern and prefer English style knitting, this is for you. As I have no clue about English style knitting, I just copied and pasted Lorraines notes – I'm so happy she test knitted this pattern. Can't thank you enough for this!! :)

Ok, here we go:

After the ribbing is completed: Starting at a Knit stitch (to match ribbing) Set up row. K1, Sl1wyif, (Slip one with yarn in front)
Row 2: YO, Sl1, YO, *BRP, Sl1,YO * repeat to marker
Row 3: BRK, Sl1wyif, repeat to marker
** When you get to end of a knit row transition as follows: YO, Sl1, YO, your ready to BRP
** When you get to end of a purl row transition as follows: move yarn from front to back and BRK

When I got to transition I had what's called 2 wrapped stitches, on the following row I had what they call a funny stitch and just had to move the yarn to back of needles to trap the funny looking yarn.

Increases: On Knit ROWS. (at marker) BRK YO BRK in same stitch, YO, Sl1, BRK YO BRK in next stitch 2 Sts Increased On row proceeding increases (3 stitches in the one stitch) Sl1,YO,Purl,YO Sl1, YO BRP

Doing a decrease at the transition left me with a loose yarn (unwrapped) I therefore did decrease after or before those transition stitches, leaving me with a continuous center stitch with left and right slanting decreases.

Decreased as follows: 

Left Slanting: Sl1 Knit wise, (stitch and wrap), Knit next 2 Stitches(3loops), Pass Slip Stitch Over put stitch back on right needle.

Right slanting: Sl1 Knit wise, knit the next stitch, Pass Slip Stitch over, put Sl, St. back on left needle - Pass next Brioche St over and off, Sl st back on right needle. 

No matter if you prefer the English or the Continental knitting style, this is your shopping list (or your look-through-your-yarn-stash-list): 

• 10 balls of Rico Essentials Alpaca Chunky Mix (color: medium grey)
• Circular needles and set of double pointed needles, 5.0mm / US 8 / UK 6
• Scissors, tapestry needle, paper, pencil and / or row counter
• And of course the knitting pattern :) 

Have fun knitting! If you share your work on Instagram, please feel free to tag me in your post ( @_flcty_ ), because I'm super curious and I always love to admire your work!