Living

My wife says “That’s what I do the best!” and it’s because she loves it so much. So this is going to be a lot of fun. Basically, lace knitting is a method of knitting that uses extra loops and decreasing compensating loops to create openings within a pattern.

What Is Lace Knitting?

Let’s start lace knitting with the term ‘yarn over’ which is an extra loop added on the right needle before you stick the right needle into the left needle loop. For knit stitch, the yarn over goes clockwise and for the purl stitch the loop goes counter clockwise. There are unlimited possibilities with the use of a ‘yarn over’ in combination with the use of two stitches knit together to compensate for the extra loop created with a yarn over. The resulting effect is very nice and also pretty and lacy. Wherever the yarn over is placed a hole appears and we call it lace - the whole process is lace knitting.

Sometimes, two yarn overs will be compensated by stitching three stitches together with a different lace knitting effect. The basic rule to remember is that in a rectangular project you have to keep the number of stitches the same to maintain the same width throughout the piece.

Styles and Patterns

Lace knitting is great for creating effects, allowing a wide variety of styles and patterns to be experimented with. One might imagine that this was a thrilling experience for women living in a time when their personal expressions were not even allowed in many areas of adult life.

In lace knitting there are seven basic patternings done with yarn overs. They are between two knit stitches, between two purl stitches, between a knit and a purl, between a purl and a knit, at the beginning of a knit row, at the beginning of a purl row and finally, there are multiple yarn overs.

A multiple yarn over creates a very large hole that can function as a button hole.

Knitting Needles

Not to overlook the basics, the size of knitting needle plays an important role in lace knitting, as does the thickness of the yarn. The gauge is how size and thickness come together.

You see, lace knitting is not just for grandmas. It’s fun, so get started now and don’t be intimidated! Just visit your local hobby store and get started to have the time of your life.