This pattern is now included with the Rothko Brioche Wrap.

The inspiration for the wrap was a design challenge – to accentuate what I love about brioche while eliminating the elements that annoy me.

When it comes to design details, I am as picky as a three-year-old with a dinner plate where all the foods are touching. With two-color brioche, two things in particular get my goat – the cast-on, and the selvedges.

I think the standard cast-on wrecks the lovely dimensional fluffiness of the knitted fabric. A thick, lofty, 3D fabric trying to emerge from a 2D flat cast-on doesn’t look cohesive, and it doesn’t stretch. The edge stitches, or selvedges, are also problematic. They’re either confusing to knit, or mix both colors and muddle the clean look of one color featured on each side.

I’m quite proud of the i-cord two-color cast on I’ve developed for this project. It solves both the cast-on and selvedge issues, and it’s extensible – once you’ve mastered the technique, you can use any brioche stitch pattern you like for the body of your project, and end up with polished, elegant results.

About this Pattern
Skill Level: Suitable for those new to brioche.

Skills Needed: Basic knitting skills plus Judy’s Magic Cast-on, i-cord, grafting / Kitchener stitch.

Finished Size: 22 inches / 57 cm wide, 40 inches / 106 cm long.

Yarn: MC - Infinite Twist Umbra, 400 y; CC - Market Cashmere blend (limited edition. Suggest 2nd color of Umbra for substitution), 400 y. Sample shown in MC – Aqua, CC – Super Villian.

Needles:
U.S. size 7 / 4.5 mm double-pointed needles, and U.S. size 6 / 4.0 mm circular, 26 - 32 inch / 60 - 80 cm long, or any size yielding correct gauge.

Gauge (before blocking): 14 stitches / 16 knit rows over 4 inches / 10 cm in two-color brioche rib.

Notions: locking stitch markers, yarn needle.