Practice Your Brioche Knitting with the Folgate Set

Brioche knitting, also sometimes known as English rib, is a popular way to add a lot of texture to knitting projects. It can be a little intimidating when you’ve never done it before, but once you get the technique down it’s lots of fun to do. And it creates the squishiest, warmest fabric, so it’s great for fall and winter accessories like these.

Mirella Moments has a whole collection of English rib knitting patterns, including the hat pictured here, a headband and an infinity scarf.

These would be super as gifts to knit now and have on hand for the holidays. You can knit all three and give them to three different people, or gift them all to one person, or keep them for yourself. No one is judging here.

All of the projects use worsted weight yarn but they come out looking chunky because of the knitting technique, which involves yarn overs that are worked together with the next stitch on the next round so there’s not a visible hole, it just makes the fabric really stretchy.

You can practice working the stitch flat if you like, but it’s not any more difficult to do in the round. If you’ve never done it before you might want to start with the headband pattern here before moving on to a bigger project.

The hat and the headband both come in three sizes for adults (the small would probably work for a teen) and the infinity scarf is one size but you could adjust it to be bigger or smaller if you like.

These projects are so pretty and relatively easy to do, too, even if you’ve never worked brioche before.

You can find all the patterns, complete with photo tutorials, at Mirella Moments: hat | headband | infinity scarf.

[Photo: Mirella Moments]

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Knitters are always looking for ways to continue to knit and to wear their knits even when it’s hot outside, so there are tots of great T0shirt knitting patterns to choose from. I love knitting short-sleeved shirts because they feel so much faster than sweaters, and you can wear them on top of dresses or even longer-sleeved items when it gets cooler.

There are lots of different styles of knit tops, from the basic to the more detailed. On the more basic side are things like the Perfect T-Shirt from Originally Lovely, a basic raglan tee with nine sizes and worked in worsted weight yarn; Paper Bloom by Yvonne Hugo (free on Ravelry), available in six sizes and worked with cotton and silk yarn for extra coolness; or Iris H’s Amelia Top, also on Ravelry, a slim fit, DK weight top with nine size.

Jazz it up with a bit of lace like on the Athens Lace Hem top by Sarah Hatton (Ravelry). This otherwise simple project has a bit of lace at the bottom, which is an easy way to make a project more interesting without a ton of work. This one uses fingering weight yarn and comes in nine sizes.

Another simple embellishment is to emphasize the lines of your top with different stitches. The Spring Lines top uses twisted ribbing at the center front and V-neck and along the raglan lines to give it a slimmer fit and more interest. This design from Turquoise Toque Designs has 11 size options and is available on Ravelry.

Silfurberg by Joji Locatelli uses both of these elements, with lace panels at the center front and back and purl ridges throughout to make it a little more fun to knit and to wear. The pattern uses fingering weight yarn and comes in 10 sizes. Learn more on Ravelry.

Keep it simple or add puffed sleeves (and/or long sleeves) to the slim fit Knitty Committee top by Lily Kate France. This one has two length options, waist shaping and optional bust darts to fulfill all your curvy top dreams, and it comes in nine sizes. You’ll find it on Ravelry.

Take it even more romantic with the Daphne Top from Friday Knits, which has puffed sleeves and applied I-cord to emphasize the bust and sweetheart neckline. It comes in eight sizes and uses DK weight yarn.

Or add some sweet flowers with the Gigio pattern from Emilie Luis. This pretty pattern found on Ravelry has cable panels running up the front with the option for adding sweet embroidered flowers. You can also add decorative buttons if you like. It comes in 11 sizes and calls for sport weight yarn.

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