In this tutorial I hope to help you understand how the placement of yarn overs and decreases and which yarn overs and decreases you use will change the lace’s structure.
*Note* For all of these charts, the legend can be found here.
If you missed it, click here for Part I: Directional Decreases or here for Part II: The Shape of the Fabric.
Part III: Patterning on WS Rows
In all of the previous swatches, the patterning has only been on the right side rows. So what about patterning on the wrong side rows, eh?
Swatch 12
This is the same basic pyramid as Swatch 1, but we’ve removed the non-pattered WS rows to make patterning on every side. As you can see, the pyramid is completed in fewer rows and the angle of the line of decreases is more steep.
When working in the round, patterning on every side is easy because you are looking at the right side of the fabric at all times. But when you are working flat, it gets tricky.
Charts are usually made to look like a pictorial version of what the finished piece should look like from the Right Side. That is why a left leaning decrease is a left leaning line and a yarn over looks like a round hole. If you will notice in the chart above, the decreases on the wrong side rows (2, 4 & 6) still look the way they will look when you view the piece from the right side of the fabric, but when you work them, you have to work them in a different way to make them appear correctly on the RS. If you worked a k2tog on the back of the piece, it certainly wouldn’t look like a k2tog when you flipped it back over to the RS.
But because knit and purl are just opposites (a purl is a knit when looked at from the other side and vice versa), you can still work decreases on the WS that will be the same as the RS decreases when viewed from the RS. In fact, each decrease has its WS counterpart. Some of them are easy to remember and easy to work, while some are more complicated and tricky to remember. But here’s a table for reference.
For the table, the Right Side shows the stitch as it is worked on the right side, in the Wrong Side column, it shows the equivalent stitch to be worked on the WS to equal the RS stitch.
The stitch position column for the double decreases assumes that you are counting stitches from right to left on the RS of the fabric so the first one you encounter as you are knitting is 1, the next is 2, etc…
Clearly, some of these will hardly ever be used by the average knitter, but try out some swatches some time and see what you find.
A Note about Twisted Stitches.
I cannot finish this tutorial without addressing the issue of twisting stitches. Mary Thomas’ Book of Knitting Patterns says that each slipped stitch in a decrease must be slipped as if to knit or else they will be twisted. You will also notice that I have included an “easy out” for the single decreases on the table above. These are decreases that will give the correct directional leaning, but are not truly the reverse of the RS decrease. A P2tog tbl, while faster to work than the given decrease, twists the stitches in the process of decreasing them. While there is nothing inherently wrong with twisting stitches, the problem arises when you block the finished piece. Especially with lace, if you have a twisted decrease paired up with a non-twisted decrease, the lines created in the final lace WILL NOT BE THE SAME. They won’t block out to look the same and for myself, they would drive me crazy! If you were using these decreases in a sweater that wouldn’t be blocked severely then it wouldn’t make such a difference, but with lace, it becomes more obvious because of the larger needle size, space between strands of yarn and the blocking process.
For this reason, I disagree with many designers that a k2tog tbl can be used as a left leaning decrease in place of an ssk or sl1, k1, psso. Twisting stitches fundamentally changes the tension in a piece of knitted fabric. By twisting a stitch, it stands out more from the work, the stitches around it are pulled in ways they would not be if the stitch wasn’t twisted, and the twisted stitches (and the area around them) will block differently than the non-twisted decreases.
Knowing the different ways to manipulate stitches will seriously increase your understanding of your knitting. And when you understand the way the yarn moves to create the stitches and the variations that are possible, it’s much easier to adapt a pattern, tweak some shaping, and design something from your imagination than it would be otherwise.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. I’d love your feedback in the comments.
Click here for Part I: Directional Decreases
Click here for Part II: The Shape of the Fabric
Comments 23
Thank you! This is a wonderful tutorial. I’ve been knitting lace for a few years now, and knew much of this, but never have the specifics been explained so clearly. Especially the part about the effect of blocking on paired and not-quite-so-paired decreases.
BTW – I just finished my first Icarus (and there WILL be another), and I’m ready to block. The lovely butterfly will emerge from the cocoon!
Posted 20 Mar 2007 at 8:22 AM ¶Mim, this is a fabulous series! Thanks for all the hard work!
Posted 20 Mar 2007 at 10:57 AM ¶Wow! That tutorial gets the bookmark for certain! So much vital information all in one spot – thank you for the work.
Posted 20 Mar 2007 at 2:32 PM ¶Are you tired of designing lace? Trying to convince us to do the dirty work for you?
Thanks. This has been so informative. I am going to have a go at designing my own lace patterns soon.
Trouble is how to come up with something new when nearly every conceivable combination seems to be already covered by Barbara Walker!
Posted 20 Mar 2007 at 3:44 PM ¶This has been just wonderful! Even though I have no desire to design lace (I’m too busy knitting other people’s designs), it’s helpful to understand the ins and outs.
Will you post links to this over in your sidebar, so we can find them when we need them, please?
**Added my Mim:**
I plan to.. but I’m still working out the best place to put the links.
Posted 20 Mar 2007 at 4:10 PM ¶Thank you! I’ll second that vote for a sidebar link — I have a feeling I’ll be re-reading this series a few times. Bless you for your right-side/wrong-side decreases chart.
Posted 20 Mar 2007 at 4:53 PM ¶Thank you again for this great tutorial. You have such a clear, direct writing style that it’s not only easy to understand, but a pleasure to read.
Posted 20 Mar 2007 at 4:55 PM ¶I would’ve described the patterning-on-every-row triangle as having shallower angles on the sides, not steeper angles. Other than that, though, these tutorials are wonderfully clear. Thanks for posting them. (You’ve included a bunch of types of samples that I keep intending to make for myself…)
Posted 20 Mar 2007 at 5:12 PM ¶Thanks, Mim. Your tutorial was very clear and well-written, and will be very useful. Even if I don’t design my own lace, a better understanding of the effect of the different increases and decreases will help “improve” other patterns, where I might want to choose a method other than what’s specified. Great job!
Posted 20 Mar 2007 at 9:51 PM ¶Thank you for a very helpful tutorial. The table of decreases is particularly useful – I’ve never been very pleased with my purl decreases and now I know why!
Posted 21 Mar 2007 at 2:49 AM ¶I loved this whole series, but this last one especially. I like lace and I want to knit lots of it and these explanations, especially the chart, are fabulous. I’ve never seen it laid out so clearly as in your chart. The only thing I’d add (and I’ll include the link because it’s been said) is a word on YOs after a purl stitch.
Posted 21 Mar 2007 at 2:21 PM ¶http://explaiknit.typepad.com/let_me_explaiknit/2007/02/coming_around_a.html
Thank you for the chart on working the decreases on the wrong side – I’ve seen these details scattered around online, but it’s nice to have the info all in one spot!
Posted 22 Mar 2007 at 12:36 PM ¶Mim, thank you for your tutorial – I’ve not really dived into lace yet, and knowing in advance what I should be looking at really helps me feel more confident about trying something more tricky.
Posted 26 Jun 2007 at 1:35 PM ¶Wow, great tutorial! I liked part 2 in particular.
Posted 02 Aug 2007 at 6:03 PM ¶Hi Mim, I just came across your very elaborated tutorial about directional decreases when knitting lace patterns. I never saw such tutorial before and bookmarked it already – it will be a great help, I think. Thanks a lot!
Posted 18 Jan 2009 at 3:11 PM ¶Anne
Thank you so much for your excellent tutorial!!!!
Posted 19 Jan 2009 at 1:22 AM ¶Wow, I can’t believe I just found this series (as well as the rest of your lace reference) – thank you so very much for this and all of the other links (the twisted stitches has been one of my pet peeves as well).
Posted 11 Dec 2009 at 11:47 AM ¶Thanks SO much for your lace tutorial. It’s amazing how difficult it is to find a straightforward presentation of this information. You did it!
Posted 13 Dec 2009 at 3:10 PM ¶Sarah
Fantastic tutorial. Thanks for your very clear explanations and excellent illustrations. I also found the twisted stitches sidebar particularly illuminating.
Elizabeth
Posted 04 Oct 2010 at 2:49 PM ¶Thank you so much for this tutorial!
Posted 15 Aug 2012 at 9:27 AM ¶Hi Mim,
Posted 05 Mar 2013 at 9:20 PM ¶These lace tutorials are wonderful. I just stumbled upon you on Knitty and I’m so glad. I have a puzzlement which I hope you will understand because I’ve been searching everywhere for answers and I’m starting to feel a bit crazy.
I am knitting a top-down raglan in various lace patterns with bands of one to several inches of each lace pattern. I’m choosing my patterns as I go from the myriad of stitch pattern books that I have. Most charts are written to be read from the bottom up, of course, and I thought knitting them from the top down would be no big deal but I cannot get them to look as intended. I’ve knit them row by row from top to bottom, I’ve done the same except reversing the slant of each decrease, I’ve turned the charts upside down and knit from bottom to top yet I can’t get the decrease ridges to show no matter what I do. Is there a magic trick to this or should I just resolve myself to using patterns that look fine up-side-down? I’ve spent many mind-numbing hours trying to sort this out!
Thanks for your time. I will enjoy perusing your entire site over the coming weeks.
Best,
Libby
Hi Libby, It’s super difficult (and in some cases impossible) to reverse engineer a stitch patter in this way, and there aren’t any hard and fast rules that I’ve found. Really, your best bet is to search through your stitch dictionaries upside down. You’ll find you see things in a completely different way
M
Posted 12 Mar 2013 at 7:50 AM ¶Thanks for that. At least I know I’m not crazy. I actually did start holding my books up-side-down, but not in public!
Posted 18 Mar 2013 at 8:54 PM ¶I’m almost done with my sweater and liking it very much so all’s well that ends well.
Thanks again,
Libby
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