Double Yarns Overs and Beyond

Making a hole in your knitting on purpose doesn’t have to be scary. Yarn overs are a great way to create open and airy stitch patterns, and you can make them in all sizes. In this video, lace knitting expert Jen Lucas demonstrates how to work different yarn overs and teaches you how to work the Bird’s Eye Stitch, a beautiful lace pattern using double yarn overs to create a knitted mesh fabric.

Jen begins by working a variety of yarn overs. She creates single, double, triple, and 4x yarn overs on a swatch of Stockinette stitch (knit on Right Side/purl on Wrong Side) fabric. On the Right-Side rows, she wraps the yarn around the needle the specified number of times. On the Wrong Side of fabric, she alternated purl stitches and knit stitches into the larger yarn overs to maintain the stitch count on the fabric. She also demonstrates what happens if you purl all the stitches into a larger yarn over – the result is one big, loose stitch that throws off the stitch count of the piece.

BIRD’S EYE STITCH

Jen then works the Bird’s Eye Stitch, a mesh lace pattern that is perfect for shawls and scarves.

Worked over a multiple of 4 stitches.

Row 1 (RS): K2, k2tog, *yo twice, ssk, k2tog; repeat from * to last 4 sts, yo twice, ssk, k2.
Row 2 (WS): K2, p1 (p1, k1) into double yo, *p2, (p1, k1) into double yo; repeat from * to last 3 sts, p1, k2.

Row 3: K2, yo, *ssk, k2tog, yo twice; repeat from * to last 6 sts, ssk, k2tog, yo, k2.
Row 4: K2, p3, *(p1, k1) into double yo, p2; repeat from * to last 3 sts, p1, k2.

Repeat Rows 1 – 4 for pattern.

ABBREVIATIONS

k: knit
k2tog: knit two stitches together
p: purl
ssk: slip a stitch as if to knit to right needle, slip a second stitch as if to knit to right needle, slip both stitches back to left needle and knit together through the back loops
st(s): stitch(es)
RS: Right Side
WS: Wrong Side
yo: yarn over

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