Esprit de Corps

“Esprit” is an anagram of “stripe.” Worked up in school colors, this striped cowl (or scarf) will rock the team spirit look. Or use more subdued colors for a more sophisticated look. This piece works up quickly in a bulky or super bulky weight yarn, producing a textured, reversible, and, yes, flat fabric. Even though it looks complex, the stitch pattern is basically a 2-row repeat and only 1 color is worked at a time. The stitch is a modified version of stockinette brioche stitch – resulting in an even more interesting reverse side. A video tutorial is available at www.verdigrisknits.com.

This pattern uses brioche terms and abbreviations as established by Nancy Marchant at www.briochestitch.com and in her book Knitting Brioche (North Light Books, 2009). These terms may look strange at first, but just give the technique a little time and the pattern will become very easy to work.