As we have said many times in previous blog posts, camouflage is one of the veterans’ favorite colors in our knitted goods. Many of our community partners, volunteers, and staff members can attest to this fact. Camouflage goods fly off our booths at Stand Downs!
The problem is what pattern(s) work with camouflage yarns- especially when it comes to scarves. For the purposes of this blog we’ll focus on knitting patterns that work well with camouflage yarns and in a later post we will address the best crochet patterns to use with this yarn. Our crafters love to flex their creative muscles when knitting garments for our wonderful veterans and their dependents- a quality which T.H.R.I.V.E. Association fully supports. However, in many instances, camouflage lives up to it name, and therefore a lot of patterns don’t necessarily work as well with camouflage as they do with other yarn colors. As a result, several of our crafters find themselves a little disheartened and pretty intimidated by this particular yarn. This is completely understandable. We’re here to help.
After a lot of thought, and some experimentation, we have found that three patterns work especially well with camouflage yarn: the double stockinette stitch, a rib, and our absolute favorite (and the subject of this blog post) the brioche stitch. Brioche knitting does get a bit of a bad wrap amongst the knitting community as being kind of a teeth-pulling experience. Let us reassure our wonderful community of crafters who might be eager to give this awesome stitch a try for the sake of the veterans and their dependents- the brioche stitch is really not that bad. It does take a bit more concentration to achieve and is not necessarily “turn-your-brain-off knitting.” That does not mean that you can’t have some nice relaxing music playing in the background while you’re knitting a garment in brioche; quite the opposite actually. The brioche stitch is excellent, and by that we mean without peer, when it comes to really showcasing your yarn. This is especially true when it comes to camouflage yarn. The brioche stitch rather than getting lost in the yarn, tends to go hand-in-glove with it. Neither the stitch pattern nor the yarn detracts from the other- rather they tend to show off the best qualities of each other.
As you can see from the pictures, the brioche stitch scarf is wider and fluffier than many other scarves with the same amount of cast on stitches. This is because brioche is a kind of “false rib” stitch that is not as stretchy as a traditional rib stitch. However, it makes for a very soft, luxurious, and pillowy garment. This stitch creates a beautiful double sided scarf that is reversible, so there is no right or wrong side. Garments knitted in brioche also lay flat so the knitter doesn’t have to account for curling edges. An added bonus of brioche is that scarves knitted using this stitch have very tidy edges due to the first stitch being slipped on every round. As a disclaimer, it takes two rounds of knitting to make a row to achieve this stitch pattern. It is a little more work, but in our humble opinions, the results are second-to-none!
For those who would like instruction from one of our dedicated staff, we will be posting a how-to video on this and other stitches at a later date. Please stay tuned.