Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
In this tutorial, weíre going to learn the basics of lace knitting. And while we do it,
weíre going to work on this simple lace scarf here.
Weíre going to go through things that youíll see in all lace patterns that you knit, including
learning how to read instructions from written instructions, as well as reading charts, how
to keep track of where you are, and how to run lifelines through your work, and then
all the way to how to block your lace including how to use blocking wires.
Like I said, the techniques in this video will set you up to knit a lot of different
lace things, including things that get really complicated, like this lace scarf here.
Itís really all the same techniques.
But if youíd like to follow along with this lace scarf pattern here, itís available for
purchase and download over on my website.
First up, weíre going to learn how to read the pattern.
Most lace patterns come with either written instructions or chart instructions, itís
lucky if you find one that comes with both, because most people have a preference one
way or the other.
Weíre going to take at both of them, and see how to work from both ñ from either written
or chart instructions.
First, letís take a close up of the scarf that weíre knitting.
Hereís the pattern, and itís kind of a zigzag trellis pattern using yarn overs to create
this.
Now you see what it looks like, we can take a look at the pattern and how itís written.
Here we are first with the written instructions. I have the first two lines of the pattern
here.
And Row 1 says that itís the right side of the work. Itís knit 6, yarn over, knit 2,
knit two together, knit two, and youíll notice there are asterisks around this part right
here.
Thatís the pattern repeat. You do this over and over again to the last seven stitches,
then you yarn over, knit two, knit two together, knit three.
Then Row 2 is of course, going to be the wrong side of the work, you knit three, purl to
last three stitches, and knit three.
So letís take a look at how this looks in the work.
Okay, Iíve already done a little bit here.
First thing Iím going to do is knit six.
And the next bit of instructions tells me to yarn over.
So, I just pull the yarn forward like that, knit two, knit two together, knit two.
And that was the pattern repeat.
So Iím going to continue to yarn over, knit two, knit two together, knit two, all the
way across.
Okay, letís take a look at the chart instructions now.
Here I have again the first two rows of the chart, with the key here to the symbols.
And this is a nice way of seeing visually what the scarf is going to look like.
These gray squares here are knit on the right side, purl on the wrong side.
These dashes are purl on the right side, knit on the wrong side.
The ìOî is a yarn over, and this slash is a knit two together.
So when youíre looking at charts, visually we can tell that we have a border here of
garter stitch, and then we have a stockinette pattern on the inside, meaning that between
the border, itís all going to flat knitting.
With a smooth side on the right side, and a bumpy side on the wrong side.
So, the beginning of every row, as you can see, you always knit three.
At the beginning and the end of every row. On the wrong side, you knit three, knit three.
Now you noticed what I just did. I have my first row starts here, and my second row starts
here.
That is a normal way of reading charts.
Youíre going to work from what you see this way on the odd numbered rows, and this way
on the even numbered rows.
If we were working in the round it would be different, but weíre knitting this piece
flat.
So Iím going to read this way, and then this way.
And all of my odd numbered rows will read this way, and all of my even numbered rows
or wrong side rows will read this way.
Now you also see that there is a big black box around this section.
This is the pattern repeat. It is the same pattern repeat that we have here, between
the asterisks.
Thatís the pattern repeat, weíll do it over and over again, just like it said in the written
instructions, to the last seven stitches, and then this little bit right here is this
little bit right here, how you finish up the row.
So looking at this visually, Iíve already done some of the work, but now I have yarn
over, knit two, knit two together, knit two.
Itís all there, just like the written instructions.
And Iíll just keep repeating that part until I get to the last seven stitches.
Itís really just a personal preference.
I go back and forth. I sometimes like reading charts, and I sometimes like reading the written
instructions.
Okay there is more to this pattern, of course, than what you see here. This is just the first
two rows.
But the rest of the rows are going to work just like this, with the way that youíre
reading the chart or the written instructions.
Next up weíre going to take a look at where you are in your work, avoiding mistakes, and
running lifelines.
When youíre knitting lace it can be kind of confusing, because you have a lot of different
things going on with yarn overs, and knit two togethers, and sskís and everything.
And you can be worried that you can lose your place, and itís difficult to rip out the
work if you lose your place, because you end up, of course, with a lot of live stitches
that are hard to pick up, but itís even harder to pick up things like yarn overs, and undo
decreases and everything else.
So there are tricks you can do to make sure youíre on track, so you can recognize a mistake
before you get too far into what youíre knitting.
For this simple scarf, youíll recognize if thereís a mistake right away. And, um, Iím
going to show you some of the tricks you can do to make sure that youíre on track with
these things.
And then when you get into knitting things that are more complicated like this, youíll
know what to look for.
Youíll already have the skills that you need to not make mistakes in your work, or to be
able to correct them if you do.
So, first up, letís take a look at how weíre going to keep track of our work.
We talked about before, we have this series of yarn overs that are doing this zigzag.
And youíll notice that the yarn overs all line up on top of each other.
If while youíre working, you come to a spot where you think in the pattern that your yarn
over belongs here, or something, in the row, you know that something is wrong.
So letís go ahead and take a look at this.
While youíre working, you know that the first three stitches are going to be knits. Because
we already covered that in here.
The first three stitches of every row are knits.
And then we have ñ well this one is actually six. We have yarn over, your yarn overs are
all lining up like this.
Knit two, knit two together, knit two, hereís another yarn over, you can see how thatís
lining up.
Knit two, knit two together, knit two.
Now you can tell the difference from a yarn over and the other stitches, because thereís
no knot under the yarn over.
Obviously, thatís whatís giving us the holes in the work in the pattern that weíre following.
So, thatís a good way to make sure youíre on track, is that your yarn overs are all
lining up with each other.
And when youíre looking at something, just to show you here, this lace pattern that I
keep pulling out thatís much more complicated.
When I was knitting this, I recognized after a couple of rows that there is a decrease
that lines up here.
So every time I worked this decrease, I made sure the row below matched what I was knitting
in the current row.
And that helped me feel confident that everything was lining up each time.
And when you knit something, youíll get a couple of rows done, and then you can find
what it is thatís lining up.
So you stay on track.
The other thing I highly recommend is a row counter.
And this is a really good kind because it has a lock on it, which keeps you from registering
rows while itís in your knitting bag, so you always know where you are.
And since this is a twelve ñ a twelve row pattern, you want to keep track. Because thatís
too many rows to keep in your mind.
Okay the last thing I want to show you about keeping track of things is how you can confidently
move forward with your knitting by using something called a lifeline.
A lifeline is stringing a piece of scrap yarn. And I have smooth sock yarn here that Iím
going to use.
I donít know if youíve noticed, but the sample piece that Iím knitting here is on
really big needles using much thicker yarn than the pattern calls for.
I just did that so that itís easier for you to see.
Stringing a lifeline means taking this scrap yarn and stringing it through all of the stitches
on the needle.
And, you can do this as often as you like in the work.
Because Iím just going to leave this sock yarn there in the work, and keep going as
if it wasnít there.
And then ñ well, let me get to the end here.
Okay.
I can just keep knitting this with that sock yarn in place, and not take it out until Iím
completely finished with the scarf.
But the thing is, this is a safety net.
As I keep knitting, if I notice a mistake, I can rip back to this point and all these
stitches are going to be super easy to pick up, because theyíre held on this scrap yarn.
If I take my needles out right now, these stitches arenít going to unravel because
the yarnís going to hold them in place.
So if youíre not feeling very confident about working a lace pattern, you can string a lifeline
every inch or so, so that you know if you make a mistake, you never have to rip out
more than a few rows, each time you go.
It makes a lot of people feel a lot more confident about complicated patterns.
Next up, weíre going to talk about blocking.
Once youíve finished knitting your lace piece, youíre going to want to block it.
And blocking is really, really important with ñ well, itís really important with everything
that you knit, but itís especially important with lace, because you canít even see what
it looks like until after you block it.
Iíll tell you something that I do. I get really excited while Iím knitting lace to
actually see the pattern thatís emerging.
So I will oftentimes steam out what Iím knitting, while I only have a little bit of it done,
just so I can see the pattern.
But in this case, Iím going to show you how to block once everything is completely knit,
and youíve bound off, and youíre going to do it all at once and see the pattern emerge
all at once.
First, letís take a look at the finished scarf thatís blocked.
You can see that this is flat, and you can clearly see the zigzag pattern, and itís
very pretty.
Now, letís take a look at this sample piece that is unblocked.
And it is a lumpy mess.
Itís not even a rectangle.
[laughs]
You only have kind of a vague idea of what itís going to look like when itís blocked.
Thatís why blocking is so exciting.
So, to block this, Iím going to use wool soap, and Iím going to follow the instructions
on the bottle of wool soap for the kind that Iíve bought.
I personally like to use the kind that doesnít require rinsing.
Iím going to fill the sink with lukewarm water and some of the wool wash, and then
Iíll squish it around and really work the soap into the scarf.
Let it soak for a half hour or so, and then Iíll drain the sink and squeeze out the excess
water.
I will have a towel ready on the floor, and drop this into the towel, and roll it up like
a burrito, and step all over it.
And thatís a safe way of squishing out a lot of the extra water from the piece.
And the last important part of blocking this is to pin it out, or use blocking wires, because
you really want to stretch the lace pattern so it shows.
And thatís what weíre going to cover in the next video.
Now that your lace scarf is clean and wet, itís now time to block it out while itís
still wet, so that it dries flat with the lace pattern really showing.
And youíll see here that I have my blocking board out.
This is a really handy thing to have for just about everything that you knit, but itís
going to be especially handy since Iím going to want to stretch this a bit to pin it out.
If you donít have a blocking board, you can always pin directly into a bed or futon or
something, that works fine.
Iím also going to be using these blocking wires. And these arenít completely necessary,
but they are really helpful when youíre blocking something like lace.
These come in different gauges, I guess. These are pretty flexible. I like these because,
um, the stiffer ones you really limit yourself to using them in things like scarves.
With this, I can use a blocking wire to block out the top of a sleeve, or to do the bottom
of a scarf if itís got ñ if itís kind of shaped like this. Thatís no problem.
So, lets ñ Iíve already got one blocking wire in. So letís go ahead and take a look
at what I have.
This is, like I said, this scarf is very wet.
Hereís the blocking wire, whoops, hereís the blocking wire that I already have in.
Iím going to string this next blocking wire.
Itís just kind of like picking up stitches.
Iím going to start here on the very corner, and Iím not going to split any stitches.
Iím just going up like every two stitches in the hole next to the stitch. Remember these
are all knit stitches on the side.
If you donít have blocking wires, it just means that youíre going to be using a lot
more pins.
And Iíll demonstrate that for you.
Now since these blocking wires are only about three feet long, for a scarf youíre going
to need to use a couple of them along each side.
There we go.
Now I have both sides.
Okay, you can see how easy it is to stretch this out now.
The blocking board comes in handy because I have a grid on here, and I can make sure
that things are very straight and the same width all the way across.
Iím not going to need to use very many pins since I have the blocking wire.
Iím going to pin that there, and there.
And then, nine inches sounds about right for this.
I could make it a little narrower, if I wanted to, but this seems to want to block out to
about nine inches.
I can put pins in here.
Course, this little sample piece is going a lot more quickly than the full length scarf
does.
Now, for the ends that donít have blocking wires, I could string blocking wires in either
side here.
Or, I can just smooth them out. These are going to smooth out fine, the top and bottom
border of the scarf.
Okay, whoops ñ I did not follow my grid line! There we go.
You can see how nicely thatís going to block. And it will actually dry really quickly, especially
if you put it in a room under a ceiling fan.
Now if you donít have blocking wires.
Let me go ahead and show you what that is like.
Iím going to take this one out.
You will just want to use a lot more straight pins.
And really stretch out the work, of course, just like you were with the blocking wires,
so that you can see what youíre doing.
And place enough pins ñ let me show you a mistake. Place enough pins so that you donít
see scalloped edges like this.
You see how Iíve got this here? Iím going to want to place a couple more pins right
in there.
And really work on squaring out your corners, too.
Okay.
So thatís how youíre going to do it without blocking wires. Youíre going to need a LOT
of pins if youíre going to do a full scarf like this without blocking wires.
This actually almost feels dry already.
So thatís how youíre going to block out your scarf, either with or without blocking
wires.
Youíll want to have this in an area where you can keep the pets away while itís drying.
It wonít take very long, but if you have a ceiling fan in the room, it will cut the
drying time in half almost.
It really does cut down the time.
This is also what youíll do every time you wash the scarf. A wool scarf like this really
wonít require washing very often, I usually just do it once a season, but after you wash
it you will want to block it out like this every time.
Youíll get used to it. It goes pretty quickly.
So these are the things that you need to know when youíre knitting pretty much any lace
pattern, including this lace scarf.
Good luck!