Well, I was looking for a Challenge...

As everyone reading probably knows, the Knitting Olympics began yesterday. For my challenge I am doing the Bi-color Brioche from Interweave, Spring 2005. I have never done a brioche stitch, let alone a bi-color brioche, so originally learning the stitch and making the sweater were both part of my challenge, therefore I didn't do any training until Thursday, after my last post. I finally decided to read the article in that issue of IK telling you how to do a brioche stitch, and to make my working copy of the pattern. Imagine my dismay when I first realized the pattern was 7 pages long (yes I know I should have looked at it before selecting this piece.) My dismay grew when I realized that bi-color brioche was not done working both colors at the same time (a la fair isle) but rather that it was done like double knitting. I use one color to knit every other stitch, slipping the non-knit stitch along with a yarn over thing, then slide the fabric around your circular needles and knit the same row again in the other color! And the sweater is knit with size 4 needles! And it has a crochet cast on, which I successfully did once, almost a year ago, and promptly forgot how to do. Okay, deep breath, we are supposed to be challenging ourselves, and this will certainly be a challenge in terms of time.
Oh, I forgot to mention, because of the way the yo's work, I thought continental would work best with this stitch, and my continental knitting is slower than throwing.
I made my crochet chain on the bus ride home at 6 pm (I was not lucky enough to be able to cast on at 2 :( ) and picked up the stitches to get started. Then I immediately screwed up and knit 2 stitches in a row. Unfortunately I didn't realize it until AFTER I finished the first 1/2 of the row and went back to using my MC. I had to tear it out and start again. This time I followed the instructions (I thought) but it didn't look right. By the way, the wrong side looks worse in the first row than the right side. I KNEW that if I tore it out again, I would not start over again, so I left my mistake, which I hope to somewhat be able to fix when I pull out the crochet chain. I don't know why the pattern called for a provisional cast-on, I guess I will learn latter.

To add to my dissatisfaction, I received my 2 skeins of Vesper Sock yarn from Etsy! This is good news, but it makes me want to cast on with Vesper and use it now! Never mind that I have my shelridge farm socks that are still in progress (at least one is). Well, I have rambled enough, and today I have precious little knitting time, so I guess I will sign off for now. Enjoy the weekend and good luck fellow Olympians!

By the way, thank you everyone for your complements on my jacket!