It's been a while since I learnt a new technique or skill and so it was with some trepidation that I approached brioche knitting. I have long admired the fabulous brioche shawls a la Stephen West on Ravelry but somehow refused to consider them as potential projects because, "I don't knit brioche"

Daft I know, but I had somehow got into the mindset that I simply was not a brioche knitter. It was a beautiful stitch and gave the most fantastic results but nope, it simply wasn't for me.

Fast forward to December of this year and I found myself going through old bullet journals. I realised that for the past three years, one of my New Years goals had been to learn Brioche knitting. Slightly embarrassed that I still hadn't managed I decided that 2017 would be the year - and declaring it publicly meant that this time I wouldn't be able to wimp out.

IN the end it turned out to be not nearly so horrific as I thought and after a few false starts I soon got into the swing of this soothing and strangely addictive stitch. I found this tutorial to be really helpful and also the pattern instructions for the Purl Soho cowl and hat are super clear and informative too.

Yes, I made some mistakes - as the slightly dodgy photo above shows - but I really enjoyed the project and am now casting around for another brioche project. Next time I would definitely pay more attention to gauge. An 88st cast on should have been for a hat but it came out much larger than that - happily it works as a snug cowl. On relfection I think a smaller needle size would have helped with this and might also have helped to tighten up my slightly wibbly sticthes. But on the whole I'm counting it as a success ... and awarding mysekf some cake,