Brioche knitting with two-colors is a simple multicolor technique that creates a beautiful fabric of ridges and valleys… The exciting color play of Fair Isle or intarsia without the bother of tangled balls of yarn and pesky tails! Brioche fabric is truly as lofty and fluffy as its namesake, the light and buttery brioche bun. Our video includes a very detailed step-by-step explanation of this technique, as well as some bonus footage on how to complete the Set-Up Row and how to Fix Mistakes in Two-Color Brioche!

Click To See Video Transcript

Hey, this is Laura from Purl Soho and I’m going to demonstrate how to work brioche stitch with two colors. As you can see here, it’s a really wonderful way to combine colors in your knitting. It also creates this incredibly reversible fabric. 

Two-color brioche knitting is worked over a four row repeat. And you may notice that I have this swatch on a double pointed needle. And the reason for that is there is a step where we’re going to be sliding our work rather than flipping it. 

Alright, let’s get into it. Alright, let’s get started with a setup row. As you can see I’ve just finished casting on an odd number of stitches with my main color here. And in order to work that first setup row or the only setup row the first thing I’m going to do is turn my work. So I’m going to turn my work. 

Now rather than working with my main color, the setup row is where you join the contrast color for your two-color brioche. So here’s my contrast color and let me grab my second needle. All right. Okay, let’s get started. 

For the first stitch, I’m simply gonna slip one purlwise. Next, I’m gonna knit one. Then, I’m going to work a YOS. So I’m gonna bring my yarn to the front for the yarn-over portion of the YOS. I’m going to use the tip of this needle to slip one purlwise for the slip portion of the YOS. And then I’m going to bring this working yarn over the top of my needle in order to start that repeat again, which begins with a knit one.

So there I am knitting one and now it’s time to YOS again. Yarn to the front. Slip one purlwise, yarn over the top of the needle, and now I begin the repeat again. Knit one, YOS, knit one, yarn to the front, slip, over for the YOS, and then you just continue working this, and then you’re going to end on a knit one, slip one. Okay, as you can see, I’ve worked a couple of inches since that setup row. But where I’ve stopped is exact, leaves my stitches in the exact same formation as how they’ll look after that setup row.

So I’ve just completed row four. If you’ve just completed your setup row, these stitches will look the same. You have your contrast yarn coming off this end. You have your main color coming off this end. Now I’m going to demonstrate how to work. Row one, it’s on the wrong side of the fabric here, and it is worked with the main color.

So, rather than turning my work, as you normally would after working with this yarn the yarn I need to work with is down here, so I’m gonna slide my work to this end of the needle. If you’re working on a sweater or a big cowl or something, you might have circular needles. But on this swatch, this double point works perfectly.

Okay, so I’m going to begin by working this selvedge stitch with a single purl. Purl stitch here. So, all right, now we’ve done it. I’ve gotten that selvedge stitch out of the way. The next thing I’m going to do is a YOS. So, I’m actually going to have my yarn in front in order to slip this stitch and work a yarn over, bringing my yarn over the top of my needle to create the yarn over portion of the YOS.

And then I’m The next thing I’m going to do is going to be working purlwise. So I actually need to bring my yarn over all the way around until it’s on the front of your work again. I’m going to show this all again, so just hang on with me and we’ll repeat all this in a second. After you work this YOS, next it’s time to brioche purl two together.

So, you’re going to look for this column, this kind of purl column here. And look for that paired yarn over on top of that stitch. You’re going to simply insert your right needle purlwise into both of these and simply purl. 

Okay, let’s do that all again. So first, we need to YOS so I have my yarn in front, which is great. I need to slip this stitch purlwise, like so. Next, I want to yarn over that slipped stitch, so I’m going to take my yarn over the top of it. And since my following stitch is going to be worked purlwise, I have to bring it all the way around to the front of my work again, in order to brioche purl two together.

I know it sounds a bit complicated at the beginning, but you get in quite the groove after a bit. So let’s do it a couple more times. So YOS, so yarn is in front, slip one purlwise, take it over the top of the needle, bring it to the front of your work in order to brioche purl two together. YOS. Brioche, purl two together. 

I’ve completed row one, and you can see now both of my tails are coming off this end of my work. And I’m ready to work row two but the first thing I need to do is turn my work. So I’m going to turn my work in order to work row two. Row two is worked with the contrast color, so for us it’s this charcoal.

You’ll see here that the main color is in front, that’s good. The charcoal or contrast color is in back. That’s also good. And so now we’re ready to get going. The first thing I’m going to do is slip one purl wise, and again you can see my contrast color is in back. Just like this. Alright. And now I’m going to jump into a BP2Tog.

So brioche, purl two together. Easier to say than the abbreviation. So I’m going to bring my yarn to the front in order to purl. And then insert my needle purlwise. And purl this column with its paired yarn over. Next, I’m going to do a YOS. So use the tip of this needle to slip this stitch purlwise. Then I’m going to take my working yarn over the top of my needle. And since the next stitch I’m going to be working is a purl stitch, or purlwise, I’m going to bring this working yarn over the top and all the way around to the front. And now I can brioche purl two together.

So, a similar repeat as the last row. Again, we’re going to YOS. Yarn in front, slip, yarn over the top of the needle, bring it around to the front, brioche purl two together. We’re gonna YOS, yarn over the top of the needle, all the way around to the front, brioche purl two together. Yarn over the top of the needle slip one. Sorry, slip one purlwise, yarn over the top of the needle, bring it all the way around and brioche purl two together. 

I’ve just finished row two, having worked with my contrast yarn. You can see it’s coming off this end of my fabric. And next up is row three. Row three is worked with the main color, which you can see is coming off this edge of my fabric. And so rather than turning my work, what I’m gonna do is slide my work to this end of my needle. And now I am ready to work row three. I’m gonna begin row three with a single knit stitch. And then jump into my repeat.

Okay, selvage stitch done. And now, the first thing I’m going to do is YOS. And next, I’m going to knit brioche two together. That’s the repeat. Let’s do it. So, yarn in front for the YOS. Slip one purlwise. Take your yarn over the top of the needle in order to brioche knit two together. What’s this? Go through both this column and it’s paired yarn over, to knit those together. Alright, let’s repeat it. YOS, yarn to the front. Slip one purlwise, bring that working yarn over the top of the needle in order to brioche, knit two together. 

So I’ve just completed my third row as you can see I have both of my yarns coming off this edge of my work. So what that means is I need to turn my work in order to work the fourth row. I’m going to turn my work. So I have my main color is naturally coming off to the back. I have my contrast color naturally coming off a bit to the front. I’m going to begin this row by slipping the selvedge purlwise. And I’m going to be working this row in the contrast color. So let’s get this selvedge stitch out of the way.

Here we go. Slip one purlwise. So the first thing I’m going to do is bring my yarn to the back in order to brioche knit two together. Just like that. The next step is to YOS. Bring your yarn to the front, slip one purlwise, and carry that working yarn over the top of your needle. Now we just keep repeating those two steps.

So I’m going to brioche knit two together, and YOS. Bring your yarn to the front. Slip, take it over, and brioche knit two together. And bring the yarn to the front, and slip, take your yarn over the top, in order to brioche knit two together. I think you guys probably have it at this point. This is the fourth row of the four rows that the stitch pattern requires. And yeah, enjoy two-color brioche. 

Okay, I have a bit of a bonus clip here. I want to demonstrate how to fix a two-color brioche stitch if you have a stitch that runs on you. Undoing a couple stitches here. I’m gonna fluff out my strands. There we go. 

So here we have a situation to repair. In order to repair this, I’m going to need a crochet hook and I would say that the very first step when you have a running, running stitch on you is to catch that stitch. So I’m going to take this crochet hook and just insert it. Right into that stitch, so there’s no more we don’t lose any more stitches. No more dropped stitches. 

So, the next thing I want to do is organize these strands. Just make sure. They’re all in the order in which they were worked.

So just make sure they’re not crossing over one another. I’m going to hold my fabric differently so you guys can have a better angle. Here we go. Okay, the next thing I’m going to do is… well, actually, let me point out one more thing. Because we are, you can see that the, this ridge is white, it’s in the main color. That means we’re treating these charcoal strands as yarn overs. And I mention that because it means what I’m looking to do is find the next white strand to pull through this strand. And it’s just a matter of getting from point A to point B. So, I have my crochet hook in the dropped stitch, I’m going to take, I’m going to take this hook behind the next two contrast color strands.

I’m going to snag, I’m going to snag this white strand with my crochet hook, bring it behind those two contrast strands, those charcoal strands, and through that white stitch. So we’ve successfully picked up one stitch. We still have one more to go. Now if I continue like this, I’m going to end up with a twisted stitch right here, so I’m going to just reorient my crochet hook. Here we go. 

Now let’s do those steps again. Let’s take this, I have my running stitch, let’s take my needle, my crochet hook rather, behind these two gray strands. Let’s snag that next knit stitch, this white yarn, which is going to become our next knit stitch. Drag that yarn behind those two contrast strands and through that knit stitch.

Alright, we’re almost there. We have one more step. Once again, I’m going to reorient so I don’t twist a stitch here. I need to sneak this crochet hook underneath this last gray strand. And what that is, is the yarn, it’s the yarn over. So you can see over here, there’s a white yarn over. Knit stitch and this, it’s paired yarn over. That’s what these two guys are right here. 

And my very last step, now that I have this gray yarn over, is to just get it back on that needle. There we go! We’ve done it! Okay, so that’s how you fix a running stitch or a drop stitch in two-color brioche.

Below is a wonderful photo tutorial for Brioche Stitch in Two-Colors, as well as some helpful notes to keep in mind!

For assistance with more Brioche Stitch techniques, visit our Brioche Stitch: One-Color Brioche + Fixing Mistakes Tutorial and our Brioche Stitch: Basic Decreases Tutorial!

Notes

Flat Knitting

When working Brioche Stitch in two-colors for flat knitting, you will need to use either circular or double pointed needles in order to slide the work every other row.

In The Round

When working Brioche Stitch in two-colors in the round, simply alternate between brioche knit rows and brioche purl rows as indicated by your pattern.

Abbreviations

bk2tog [brioche knit 2 together]: Knit next knit stitch together with its paired yarn over.

bp2tog [brioche purl 2 together]: Purl next purl stitch together with its paired yarn over.

YOS [yarn over slip]: Bring yarn forward, slip one as if to purl, bring yarn over right needle to back of work in order to knit the next stitch.

NOTE: When working a YOS that is followed by a purl stitch, bring yarn over right needle to back of work as you would to knit, then continue bringing yarn to front of work to set yourself up to purl.

Photo Tutorial

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Brioche Knit Row: Work a YOS, by bringing yarn forward and slipping one stitch purlwise, bring yarn over right needle, and then bk2tog, by knitting next stitch with its paired yarn over.

Brioche Purl Row: Work a YOS, by slipping one stitch purlwise and bringing yarn over right needle to back of work and continue bringing yarn to front of work in order to purl, then bp2tog, by purling next stitch with its paired yarn over.

Give It A Try

Want to give Two-Color Brioche a try? Our Pocket Full Of Posy Blanket is an exciting place to explore this technique!

Brioche Stitch: Two-Color Brioche + Fixing Mistakes | Purl Soho

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