Brioche Stitch: Centered 4-Stitch Decrease (bc4d)

Hi, this is Laura from Purl Soho, and I’m going to show you how to work a Brioche Centered Four-Stitch Decrease. You may see this abbreviated as B C 4 D. I have two quick notes before we get started. The first one is that you will need either a cable needle or spare double pointed needle for a very, very brief moment during this technique. The second note I wanted to make has to do with counting Brioche Stitches. When you count stitches in Brioche Stitch, you don’t count the yarn over separately. They’re actually counted along with their paired knit stitch. And if that sounds a little unfamiliar at this moment, I think you’ll understand what I mean in just one minute. 

Here I am partially through my row. I worked in Brioche Stitch pattern up until where I want to work my decrease. The last stitch I did was a YOS. So I have my working yarn in front and I’m going to carry it over the top of my needle in order to move on to working this decrease. Here we go. 

The first step of the decrease is a knit two together. Now again, in Brioche Stitch, the knit stitches and their yarn overs together count as one stitch. So my knit two together is going to be this one stitch, the knit stitch, and its paired yarn over, and then this second stitch, this purl stitch here. 

There we go. Get those two together. Next I’m going to slip this next stitch here, which is a knit stitch, and its paired yarn over from this left needle to the right needle. And to do that, I’m just going to insert the tip of my right needle purlwise. So from back to front into the stitch and gently slide my left needle out. That way the stitch is not twisted and the orientation is correct. Next step is another knit two together. The knit two together will be this stitch here, which is a purl stitch, and then this knit stitch, and its paired yarn over these two. 

There we go. Alright. At this point we’ve decreased two stitches and we have two more to go, and we’re going to do a little bit of stitch gymnastics, and we need to change the order of the stitches in order to retain this beautiful ribbed quality of the Brioche fabric. And here’s how we’re gonna do it. I’m going to grab my spare needle. I have a cable needle here. Again, you could use a spare double pointed, whatever you have on hand. Now, I’m going to use this needle to take this last stitch on my right needle and put it on hold. So just kind of slipped it off the right needle onto this spare needle. Now I’m going to put this on the back of my fabric. Excuse me, while I wrestle with these three needles. There we go. It’s kind hanging out back here. If you’re a little nervous about it, you can pin it down with your index finger. But now we’re ready to move on to the next step. 

The next step is to move this last stitch on the right needle over to the left needle. So I’m going to insert the tip of my left needle into this stitch and just pull my right needle out. That’s it. Now we get to pick up this on-hold stitch again. I’m sliding it to the other end of this cable needle so that I can very easily just slip it on to my left needle. Now I’m going to put this away. That was it for the spare needle. So you can see here these two stitches are in a different order than they were previously. Next, I’m going to slip the last stitch on the right needle onto the left needle. So use the tip of your left needle, stick it in that stitch. Pull the right needle out. There we are. All right, we’re getting close. Next, we’re going to do a knit two together. So we don’t have any yarn overs to contend with here. It’s just these two stitches I’m going to knit together. 

Here we go. Now once again, we’re going to slip this last stitch on the right needle over to the left needle. So just slip the tip of your left needle in that stitch. Pull the right needle out. There we go. Now I’m going to use the tip of my right needle to pick up this second stitch on the left needle. So again, I’m going to do that purlwise kind of from back to front. You can see what I’m doing here, just like this kind of gently pull it up and over that first stitch and off the needle. At this point we have decreased all four stitches and there is just one more step to go, and that is getting this stitch on the left needle over to the right needle. So stick the tip of your right needle into that stitch. Pull your left needle out and you’ve done it. A Brioche Centered Four-Stitch Decrease. You’re ready to carry on with your pattern like an absolute legend.