The Knitting Fiend

We’re having a heat wave. Is it any surprise I’m knitting lace washcloths?

I’ve just been flipping through Walker’s “Treasury of Knitting”, and finding interesting stitches to try. Yesterday, I decided to give “Italian Chain Lace” a try. I cast on 35 stitches using Symphonia cotton (left over from my interpretation of Christine’s Lelah), and discovered I needed to work a new-to-me technique.

When working row 2, I needed to yarn over twice in a row; when working row 3, I needed to “purl into front of 1st yo, purl into back of second yo”.

Of course, if you know how to work a yarn over, doing it twice in a row is fairly obvious; you just loop the yarn around twice. (If you don’t know how to work a yo at all, read my article on knitting a row of eyelets..)

Purling into the front of the 1st yo isn’t too confusing. You just purl into it. But, purling into the back or the 2nd yarn over? It turns out to be fairly simple. Here’s the whole sequence or row 3.

I began row 2 and worked in pattern until I arrived at the two loops formed when I yarned over twice when working the row below. As you can see to the left, the loops were just sitting there waiting for me to do something with them.

The instructions said to purl into the front of the first yarn over (yo). I stuck the right needle tip into the first yo as to purl — just as I normally would. I placed the fabric on the table and took the photo shown above and to the left. Afterwards, I yarned over — just as I always do to purl– and drew the loop from front to back. Naturally, I pulled the strand from the first yo off the left tip. Voila, a purl!

Next, I needed to purl into the back loop of the second yarn over.

Now, when you knit through a back loop, you will find you need to push the tip of the right needle in from the left to the right. I find I need to fold both needles away from me at an angle to get the tip to go in from the left side; so I took the photo with the needles still forming the angle. You should be able to see the tip is inserted from left to right through the back loop. The yarn over looks a bit twisted. That’s just right. To finish, yarnover (as you normally do when working purl stitch), and draw that loop through. Let the yo from the previous row drop down.

Ok, that’s the new-to-me technique. Yes, it makes a big hole, you can see the vertical column of holes in the large photo at the top of this article. (In case you’re wondering, that’s the wrong aka “ugly” side of the fabric. Needless to say, this stitch looks nice from both sides.)

I’m going to finish the dishcloth now. I hope to show off the whole thing tomorrow.

Ciao!