I've been knitting for 8 years but I've never tried brioche and after being blown away by my friend Danielle's beautiful hats, I decided to take the plunge. I gave myself a little challenge where I relied only on written directions to learn the brioche stitch and after a couple rounds those iconic herringbone ribs appeared, a testament to a very clearly written pattern.
Pattern: Skipp watchcap variant by Brooklyn Tweed. Knit in BT Loft in Old World and Amaranth
New skills: Brioche knit, purl, decrease
Lessons: Don't break the wrong/working strand of yarn after your cast on and foundation rows, otherwise you'll end up with a lot of ends to weave in.
Learning brioche is much easier using two different colors.
Loft is a woolen spun yarn which mean it can be prone to splitting when weaving in ends, so proceed with caution.
What I'd do differently: When casting on, I'd place a stitch marker every 10 stitches so that I can keep track of whether I'm casting on a knit or purl. I ended up with a mistake somewhere in my ribbed cast on that I didn't notice until too late.