My first encounter with it was in one of Elizabeth Zimmermann's books. I forget which one, though. It may have been Knitting Without Tears, but my copy was stolen so long ago that I don't remember.
Anyway, brioche stitch looks at first glance like single ribbing--not too exciting. However, it's very elastic and stretchy, and with a closer look you can see that the structure of it is different. It's a slip-stitch structure combined with yarn overs; the slipped stitch and the YO from one row are knitted together on the return row. That sounds more complex than it really is, though. Here's the pattern.
Cast on odd number of stitches. Slip all first stitches to give chain edge. Row 1: Slip first stitch, *YO, slip 1, K1*, repeat between *. End with K1. Row 2: Slip first stitch, *K tog the YO and the slipped stitch, YO, sl 1*, repeat between *. End with K1. Repeat Row 2 ad infinitum, or until your piece is the desired length.
It looks like this. http://knitting.about.com/od/stitchglossary/g/brioche-stitch.htm It's thicker than a 1x1 or 2x2 rib because of the yarnovers; the only way I can describe it is 'fluffy'. If you want to have a ribbed fabric, but thicker and with more elasticity than standard ribbing, AND you hate to purl, brioche is for you.
How am I using it? Well, all of us have those neat yarns in our stash that we bought ages ago for something, but we never really decided what it was for. I have a number of those. Among them are several balls of a dark-camel (?) almost-fingering weight, wool from Lane Borgosesia (now defunct, I think)that I must have bought in graduate school. My roommate Rebecca and I both bought a number of balls in a gorgeous rust shade, intending them for matching lace vests; I never did get around to knitting mine, but hers is stunning. I'm assuming I got this color too at the same time. There's no color name, just a number. 'Cork' or 'Caramel' might be good names for it, too. It's a warm medium brown, and I've never been able to decide what to use it for. It's quite fine, and I just haven't the attention span to make it into a fine-gauge sweater, which I think might have been my original hope for it.
Then I decided to try it out as a brioche-knit scarf, for the Rocky Mountain Weavers' Guild Sale next month. Nice! I'm really pleased with it, and I think it's going to be a handsome scarf, a guy's scarf even.
