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This week in the Fancy Stitch Combo series I'm going to show you how to work the Pillar
Lace stitch.
Probably introduce you to the Pillar Lace stitch.
This is a new stitch for me, but I was excited to find it, because it can look really different
depending on the yarn and needle size that you use, and it's another stitch that lies
flat.
So it's appropriate for anything that you need to lie flat, that's not knit in-the-round,
like a scarf or a dishcloth, or anything else that's not knit in-the-round.
Let's go ahead and take a look at the stitch.
Here is the lace stitch in bulky yarn, knit on size 10.5 US needles.
This has been blocked out.
And you can see why it's called Pillar Lace, you have these pillars with the lacy bits
in between.
And the back of the work is nice, too.
The back of the work looks like the back of the work, but it's nice. I think it's a nice
pattern.
But this is where all the action is.
So, let's take a look at it...well, let me show you this.
Not very stretchy.
So, maybe not appropriate for a hat, or anything like that. Not much give to it.
At least in this blocked state.
Now, I'll show you something very interesting! [laughs]
This is pre-blocking.
This is the exact same as this sample, exact same yarn, exact same needles, only difference
is I did not block it.
And, if you don't block it, you get a parallelogram!
Once you get it wet, or with steam, you can pin it out and let it dry straight.
I'll tell you this, if you use this in a scarf, your lines will just be different.
You'll end up with these angled ends on your scarf, nothing wrong with that.
The pillars are still lining up nicely.
You can block it out that way, too.
I'll tell you that even though this has been blocked, this still kind of wants to be a
parallelogram.
So it's always going to have that to it.
But, no problem! It kind of adds some interest to a scarf or something like that.
So this is the chunky yarn.
On size 10.5 needles.
And on this sample, I used a worsted weight yarn and size 10.5 needles.
Still, this is also blocked, and it's still trying to be a little bit of a parallelogram,
but you can see how much lacier this gets when you go up a needle size, or down a yarn
size.
The pillars are still there, it's still nice looking, but the lacy bit between is longer,
and you can really see how this looks when it's spread out.
Now this was a stronger parallelogram, a little bit smushed together right after I did it,
but it blocked out really easily in this wool yarn, to look like that.
Okay.
Let's get started on how to work this.
The written instructions for working this both flat and in-the-round are in the description,
just below the video, also on my website.
This is a multiple of 3 stitches, plus 2. So I've cast on 14 stitches to demonstrate
for you.
And I'm going to start of Row 1 as a wrong side row, which is how I have it written out.
And I like to do that, because I like this bumpy side of the cast on to be the wrong
side, because I like this flat side of the cast on to be the right side of the work.
So, on Row 1, wrong side, I'm just going to purl across all these stitches.
Easy enough, the first row of this is not difficult.
But the cast-on row is always the most difficult to work into, usually the stiffest row.
Okay.
We're ready to work the action row here.
This is just a two row repeat. All wrong side rows are going to be purl rows, like that.
Okay.
We start off with knitting one stitch, and then we start the pattern repeat.
You yarn over, which means you pull the working yarn forward between the two needles, giving
you kind of a fake stitch on the needle there.
You slip 1 stitch as if to purl.
This would be slipping a stitch as if to knit.
You go in as if to purl, and slip that stitch over without working it.
Then you knit 2.
Okay.
So there's a knit stitch you just worked, there's a knit stitch you just worked.
And this stitch here, that's kind of sticking together with the yarn over, is the stitch
that you slipped.
You want to take this slipped stitch and bind it off over the other two.
So take the tip of your left needle and grab that stitch.
This is just like binding off.
Pull it over the other two stitches.
Okay, that's the pattern repeat.
Yarn over, pull the yarn forward between the two needles.
Slip one stitch.
And usually in every pattern, you're always going to slip purl-wise, as if to purl, unless
the pattern tells you otherwise.
So I'm going to slip that stitch, knit 2, and then count 1, 2, 3, the third stitch was
the slipped stitch.
So I'm going to bind that off over the other two.
A little tension on the working yarn here will make that easier to pull over.
Let's do it again.
Yarn over.
Slip one.
Knit two.
Count 1, 2, 3.
Grab that stitch to bind it off over the two knit stitches, with some tension on the working
yarn to make it easier.
Yarn over.
Slip.
Knit two.
Count 1, 2, 3.
Grab that stitch, tension on the working yarn, bind that off.
And you will be left with one stitch, which you will just knit.
That's he pattern.
I can already start to see the lace coming through there.
And like I said, all the wrong side rows are purl.
That's pillar lace.
You'll get really different results knitting this with different yarns, especially different
fiber types.
Fuzzier yarns and smoother yarns, different needle sizes.
Good luck.
[whooshing sounds]
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