Increasing in Brioche Stitch is a lot easier than you’d think. As a 2-stitch repeat, Brioche stitch requires a two-stitch increase, and the Brioche Stitch Basic Increase does just that. Even better, this method slants to the right or left depending on where you decide to work the increase. We’ll show you everything you need to know in our Basic Brioche Increase Tutorial below! 

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Hey, this is Laura from Purl Soho, and today I’m going to show you how to work a brioche yarn-over increase. Brioche stitch has a two-stitch repeat, and this increase is a two-stitch increase, which is great. It allows us to stay in pattern when we use it. Another great, part about this increase is that depending on where you place it, it can appear to be either a left leaning or a right leaning increase, but you only have to learn one technique.

I’ve worked up to the second column of brioche knit stitches here and I’m ready to work my first increase. I’m choosing to work it here so that it appears as another left leaning increase, just like this one below it. The first step of this increase is to brioche knit two together. So I’m going to simply put the tip of my right needle into both this knit stitch and its paired yarn over and wrap my yarn counterclockwise as I would to knit normally, pull my yarn through, but I’m going to leave these stitches on my left needle. The next step is I’m going to take my yarn and bring it between my needles to the front of my work. 

Now I’m going to brioche knit two together again into that same pair of stitches. So I’m going to take this right needle, insert it into these two, wrap my yarn counterclockwise again as I normally would to knit. And now at this point, I can let those fall from my left needle. And if you take a look over here, you now have one, two, three stitches on that needle. Alright, now I’m going to work in pattern until I work another increase at the other edge of this swatch.

So here I’ve reached this second-to-last column on the other edge of my swatch. Now I’m placing my increase here to create a right leaning, or what appears to be a right leaning increase, but the great news is it’s the exact same technique that I just showed you. 

So once again, let me just show you those steps once more. I’m going to brioche knit two together, leave those stitches on my left needle, bring my yarn between my needles to the front of my work, in order to take it over, create this yarn over, take it over the top of the needle, and brioche knit two together again. Now I can let that fall off my left needle, and I’m going to work in pattern to the end of my row.

So here I am on the return row, and the great news is, is that you essentially get to just work in pattern. There’s just one slight difference, and that’s what I want to demonstrate. But first I’m just going to work in pattern. I have one knit selvedge stitch here, and then I’m gonna yarn over, slip, brioche, knit two together, all very normal, yarn over, slip.

And now I’ve reached a stitch that would be a brioche knit together, but this is from our increase on the previous row. So it doesn’t yet have a paired yarn over. So for this row, just on the return row after increasing, I’m just gonna knit this one stitch normally. So just Knit it, and then move back to working in pattern. So I’m going to yarn over, slip, brioche knit two together, yarn over, slip, and I’m going to just stay in pattern, keeping my eye out for that one rogue stitch from increasing last row down here on the other end of my swatch, where I will do the same thing. 

So you can see here we’ve knit a few more rows. And I just want to point out that if you continue to place your increases into the same columns all the way up, you end up with these very, like, directional shaping. But again, you get to create that with just knowing one technique. So, hope you enjoy this brioche yarn over increase.


Brioche knit 2 together (the next stitch with its paired yarn over) and leave stitch on left needle; yarn over on right needle; brioche knit 2 together (the remaining stitch with its paired yarn over) and drop resulting stitch off left needle. [2 stitches increased] 

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