Fishtail Lace Pattern

The Fishtail Lace stitch pattern is an extremely popular stitch pattern that is often worked both as an allover lace pattern and as a lace panel. In this video, Jen Lucas demonstrates how to work both forms of the Fishtail Lace stitch pattern.

Jen begins by showing both the allover lace pattern and the lace panel. She explains the directionality of the stitch pattern and how the directionality of the stitch pattern can be used to your advantage in your knitting projects.

ALLOVER FISHTAIL LACE STITCH PATTERN

The allover lace pattern is worked over a multiple of 8 plus 1 stitches. With 17 stitches on her swatch, Jen knits the Fishtail lace pattern as follows:

Row 1 (RS): K1, *yo, k2, sk2p, k2, yo, k1; rep from * to end.

Row 2 (WS): Purl all sts.

Row 3: K2, *yo, k1, sk2p, k1, yo, k3; rep from * to last 7 sts, yo, k1, sk2p, k1, yo, k2.

Row 4: Purl all sts.

Row 5: K3, *yo, sk2p, yo, k5; rep from * to last 6 sts, yo, sk2p, yo, k3.

Row 6: Purl all sts.

Rep from 1 – 6 for pattern.

FISHTAIL LACE PANEL

The lace panel of this stitch pattern is very versatile. Other stitch patterns, like four-stitch cables, can be added to either side. It can be combined with other lace stitch patterns to create a unique detail in a project. For her swatch, Jen is working the panel over 11 stitches, on a background of Stockinette stitch (knit on Right Side/purl on Wrong Side). She places stitch markers to mark the panel and works the lace panel in between the stitch markers as follows:

Row 1 (RS): P1, k1, yo, k2, sk2p, k2, yo, k1, p1.

Row 2 (WS): K1, p9, k1.

Row 3: P1, k2, yo, k1, sk2p, k1, yo, k2, p1.

Row 4: K1, p9, k1.

Row 5: P1, k3, yo, sk2p, yo, k3, p1.

Row 6: K1, p9, k1.

Rep rows 1 – 6 for pattern.

ABBREVIATIONS

k: knit
p: purl
rep: repeat
sk2p: slip 1, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over k2tog
st(s) stitches
RS: Right Side
WS: Wrong Side
yo: yarn over