Knit Below, Brioche Knitting, and Tuck Stitches: What’s the Difference?

Brioche knitting has been very popular for the past decade. From sweaters to shawls to scarves, designers love the texture this stitch creates, as well as the opportunities to play with color. Knit below, however, is usually only seen in patterns described as fisherman’s rib.

But these two techniques can be used to produce exactly the same fabric! Let’s take a closer look.

Knit Below

Knitting below involves knitting or purling into the stitch one or more rows below the next stitch, allowing the stitch on the needle to drop. Although knit below stitches are most often used to create fisherman’s rib, they can also create a beautiful fabric that looks like vertically striped Stockinette stitch.

In her book Knit One Below, Elise Duvekot calls this the Column Pattern. Here’s how it’s done:

Column Pattern

With color A (purple) and a circular needle, use the Backward Loop method to CO an odd number of stitches. Slide stitches to the other end of the needle.

Set-up row 1 (WS) With color B (blue), purl. Both A and B are at the same end of the needle. Turn work.
Row 1 (RS) With A, k1, *k1, knit 1 below (k1b); rep from * to last 2 sts, k2. Slide sts to other end of needle (Photo 1).
Row 2 (RS) With B, k1, *k1b, k1; rep from * to end. Turn work.
Row 3 (WS) With A, p1, *p1, purl 1 below (p1b); rep from * to last 2 sts, p2. Slide sts to other end of needle.
Row 4 (WS) With B, p1, *p1b, p1; rep from * to end (Photo 2). Turn work.
Rep Rows 1–4 for pattern.

Brioche Knitting

Brioche knitting involves slipped stitches combined with yarnovers and knitting or purling those yarn overs together with their accompanying stitches on the next row or round. There are many variations on the technique.

For her book Knitting Brioche, Nancy Marchant created the now-common abbreviations for brioche knitting. These are the terms we’ll use in this article:

The 2-color Stockinette Brioche Stitch shown in Marchant’s book looks just like the Column Pattern made using knit below stitches. Here is how to work the brioche version:

2-Color Stockinette Brioche Stitch

With color A (purple) and a circular needle, loosely CO an even number of stitches.

Set-up row (WS) With color B (blue), *sk1yo, p1; rep from * to end. Slide sts to other end of needle.
Row 1 (WS) With color A, *brp, sl1yo; rep from * to end. Turn work.
Row 2 (RS) With color B, *brk, sl1yo; rep from * to end Slide sts to other end of needle.
Row 3 (RS) With color A, *sl1yo, brk; rep from * to end. Turn work.
Row 4 (WS) With color B, *sl1yo, brp; rep from * to end. Slide sts to other end of needle.
Rep Rows 1–4 for pattern.

Related: How to Bind Off Brioche Knitting

As you can see in the swatches above, the structure of the fabric is exactly the same, whether it was made using brioche knitting or knit below stitches. I find that my gauge is little tighter in knit below.

Going Deeper: Knitting More Than One Below

The Stack Bond Wrap from Interweave Knits Fall 2023 issue features a grid pattern made by knitting into the stitch five rows below the next stitch.

Andrea demonstrates the method in the video below. For step-by-step instructions, keep reading.

The Windowpane Stitch is a 6-row pattern. The first 4 rows are stockinette stitch with the color that fills the grid. All the action happens on Row 5, which is worked in the grid color. Row 6 is simply purled with the grid color.

Here’s how to work the pattern:

Windowpane Stitch

With color A (purple), CO a multiple of 4 sts + 5. Our sample is worked over 17 sts.

Set-up row (WS) With A, purl.
Rows 1 and 3 (RS) With B (blue), knit.
Rows 2 and 4 (WS) With B, purl.
Row 5 (RS) With A, k4, *K5B (see below), k3; rep from * to last st, k1.
Row 6 (WS) With A, purl.

How to Work Knit 5 Below (K5B)

Why do we need to unravel those rows when knitting 5 below, but there was no unraveling needed when knitting 1 below? That single stitch will unravel by itself when subjected to the normal pull and stretch of knitting. But a 4-row column of stitches won’t unravel so easily, unless you’re working with a particularly slippery yarn.

Tuck Stitches: Brioche Knitting Gone Wild

I had to see if I could replicate the Windowpane Stitch using brioche knitting techniques. In her book Tuck Stitches, Nancy Marchant shows a close cousin of our Windowpane Stitch under the name Quadruple Tuck Stitch 67. Marchant’s Quadruple Tuck Stitch works Row 6 as a knit row instead of a purl row, making a garter stitch ridge.

Here’s what I did:

Window Pane with Tuck Stitches

With color A (purple), CO a multiple of 4 sts + 5. Our sample is worked over 17 sts.

Set-up row (WS) With A, purl.
Row 1 (RS) With B, k4, *sl1yo (Photo 1), k3; rep from * to last st, k1.
Row 2 (WS) With B, p4, *sl1¹yo (Photo 2), p3; rep from * to last st, p1.

Row 3 (RS) With B, k4, *sl1²yo, k3; rep from * to last st, k1.
Row 4 (WS) With B, p4, sl1³yo, k3; rep from * to last st, p1.
Row 5 (RS) With A, k4, *brk⁴ (Photo 3), k3; rep from * to last st, k1.
Row 6 (WS) With A, purl.

Did it work? See for yourself.

The structure of the two fabrics is identical, though my gauge is bit tighter in the swatch made using Knit 5 Below (on the right).

The Choice is Yours!

Which method is better? You need to answer that question for yourself. Personally, I’m more comfortable with the knit below method, especially for the Windowpane Stitch. I find the buildup of yarnovers on the needle cumbersome. But I encourage you to make your own swatches to see which method suits you best.

Thank you to Ancient Arts Yarns for providing the yarn used for these samples. This sample was made with Herlig.

Sandi Rosner is the technical content editor for all things yarn at Interweave. When she isn’t knitting, she usually has her nose in a book. You’ll find new technical content from Sandi nearly every week at www.interweave.com.