It has been a while since I knitted lace, but I got inspired this week. My daughter needed something to throw on quick for a instant “dress -up” affair. The first think I thought of was a lace tunic to throw over a tank top. It’s light, but elegant.
As I searched the net for ideas I ran across a beautiful diagonal lace tunic from Europe.
Perfect! It even had a chart for the lace pattern below the picture. The only problem was the symbols. They were not at all familiar, so I went on the web and search for all the international knitting symbols. I found them on “Knitting Fool.” However, when I match them to the pattern I knew something was wrong. How?
As any seasoned knitter will tell you, if you add and extra stitch or yarn over and you want to keep the stitch count even, you have to balance the count by knitting together two stitches somewhere in the course of the row, or the stitches won’t add up right. When I looked at the chart carefully there was no doubt that the stitch count had to be maintained.
Now what?
The yarn overs were represent be a large “U”, but the K 2 tog, looked like a symbol that indicates to make 2 stitches in one stitch, thus adding an additional stitch besides the yarn over- that wasn’t going to work. Then I notice in a close up that the ridges between the yarn over holes were more raised and defined than usual, so I sat down to work it out myself. I love this pattern.
Here is what I came up with. It involves a new stitch (for me, at least). I created the raised ridge by knitting deep and slipping the next stitch(right or left) over the top to achieve a SSK, and a K 2 tog.
The knit 2 tog (deep) is created by knitting in the stitch below, then placing that new stitch back on the left needle. Next, slip the stitch to the “left” of the new stitch over the new stitch and to the right, releasing it to lay at the base of the new stitch. Return the new stitch to the right needle and proceed with the chart.
When an SSK is required, the first stitch is slipped( knitwise) on to the right needle, next; knit deep(into the stitch below)into the next stitch to the left. Pass the slipped st on the right needle over the newly made stitch. It is not hard, just take s a bit of getting use to. I really like the affect.
Knitting “deep.” I learn this term from a German pattern that I had a while back. It simply means to knit into the stitch below the one you usually knit in. When you do this you can see that it makes a more defined hole in the lace, as it releases the stitch made in the previous row.
I have cleaned up the chart and have uploaded here. This swatch has 3 added edge stitches on each side.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Happy knitting- KT
Creative Knitting - Beyond Knit and Purl 
Leave a Reply