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tutorial – working a double yo

A yarn over (abbreviated as “yo”) is a simple way to increase stitches and deliberately make a little hole in your knitting. I wrote all about it in this tutorial. A double yarn over is exactly what it seems to be: a yarn over that creates two new stitches instead of a single one as with a regular yarn over. And yes, the hole that it creates when using this stitch in lace is bigger as well. In patterns, it’s sometimes referred to as “yarn over twice”.

This tutorial will give you step-by-step instructions on how to work the “double yarn over” increase.

Materials used

Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 155 Vintage Pink.

Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working a double yo step by step

For this tutorial I made a little swatch in stockinette, with garter stitch borders to prevent it from curling.

1. First, work your way across the row until you’ve reached the point where you want to make the increase. In this case, I will be making the double yo increase 2 sts in from each of the garter stitch borders. But, I don’t want to increase the total number of stitches on my needles. This means that for every double yo worked, there should also be 2 stitches decreased. In this example I’ll be working a k2tog before the double yo and an skp after it.

2. In the below picture I’ve worked the k2tog decrease.

3. To make the double yo, wrap the yarn around the right-hand needle twice. To do so, do the following twice: move the working yarn from the back to the front between the needles and then over the right-hand needle back to the back of the work.

Wrapping the yarn around the needle twice

4. In the following picture I worked the skp decrease directly after the double yo.

5. This is how it looks after working the entire row, with one more repeat of steps 2-4:

The wrong side steps of working a double yo

6. Now we’re going to work the wrong side of the fabric. This is where the magic for making a double yarn over really happens. First, work to the point where you encounter the double yo loop.

7. The trick with working the double yo on the wrong side row, is to work both a knit and a purl stitch into the double yarn over loop. Both are needed to allow the second stitch to remain a separate one. The order, however, doesn’t matter. I prefer to start with a purl stitch when working stockinette, because that takes out the counting: just purl along until you encounter a double yarn over loop, then work a knit stitch as your second stitch into the loop. In the picture below, I just worked the purl stitch and moved that part of the loop off my left-hand needle.

8. Next, I worked a knit stitch into the second part of the double yarn over loop:

9. This is how it looks after the complete WS row has been worked:

10. In the below picture a few more rows in stockinette have been worked. Do you see there are 2 columns of knit stitches above each double yo?

Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.

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blue duck

You know that gorgeous blue-green that male ducks have? That is what this lovely lace-weight mohair yarn reminded me off. What better way to show it off than with all-over lace? Of course, the Blue Duck shawl can also be knit in fingering-weight yarns; just adjust the needle size a bit!

The Blue Duck shawl is knitted in lace patterning from the top-down in one piece, starting at the neck edge with a garter tab. The instructions are, of course, provided charted and written out.

Pay what you want: (minimum €6.50)

€

Difficulty level

Knit this triangle-shaped shawl from the top-down, starting with a garter tab cast-on. Stitches used include knit, purl, k2tog, skp, yo, double yo, and a centered double decrease. Therefor, this pattern is suitable for the intermediate to advanced knitter.

Sizes and finished measurements

Finished dimensions of the sample shawl: span width of 190 cm (74 ¾ inches) along the upper edge and a depth of 81 cm (32 inches), measured after blocking.

Change the size of the shawl by using heavier or lighter weight yarn and/or working fewer (or more) repeats of the body section. This will, of course, change the amount of yarn needed.

Pattern details

Gauge: approx. 12.9 sts / 21.8 rows = 10 cm (4 inches) over body pattern, measured after blocking.
Pattern languages included: English and Dutch (Dit patroon omvat zowel een Nederlandse als een Engelse versie)
Digital PDF has 5 pages (letter size)

Materials

Yarn: 400 m (438 yds) / 40 g GGH Kid (65% Mohair, 30% Nylon, 5% Wool; 250 m (273 yds) / 25 g) in the color 124 duck blue. Substitute any mohair type yarn with a halo of a similar weight for a similar result.
Size 5 mm (US 8) / 80 cm (32 inches) circular needles.
Yarn needle.
4 stitch markers to indicate the center stitch and the edge stitches.
Stitch markers to indicate repeats in the lace patterning (optional).

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tutorial – knit the knits and purl the purls

Sometimes in patterns you may encounter the phrase “knit the knits, and purl the purls”. Besides the abbreviated versions of this, you may also encounter “work the stitches as they appear”. Especially if you’re a new knitter, it may be confusing what is exactly meant with this. No stress though! In this tutorial I’ll tell you all about it.

What it all comes down to, is being able to “read” your knitting. If you can correctly determine whether a certain stitch on your needle is a knit or a purl stitch, the instruction tells you exactly what to do next:

When you identify a knit stitch, it is to be knitted.
If you identify a purl stitch it is to be purled.

The important thing here is to remember is this: You only have to look at what the stitches look like on the left-hand needle while you’re working the new row or round. This can be confusing. What looks as a knit stitch on one side of the fabric, looks like a purl stitch on the other side. Ignore the side of the fabric facing away from you and focus only on the side facing you.

Below I’ll show you how to go about identifying your stitches, with the help of a swatch in 2×2 rib. (Ribbing formed by repeating (k2, p2) across your piece.)

Materials used

Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 155 Vintage Pink.

Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Identifying a knit stitch

In the picture above the next 2 stitches on the left-hand needle are knit stitches. Do you see how they form little V-shapes? Therefore, if the first stitch on the left-hand needle has a V hugging the base of it, then it is a knit stitch and you knit it.

Identifying a purl stitch

In this picture the next 2 stitches on the left-hand needle are purl stitches. The characteristic to identify it, is the little horizontal bar or bump just below where the stitch joins the needle. Therefore, if the first stitch on the left-hand needle has a horizontal bar hugging the base of it, then it is a purl stitch and you are to purl it.

And that’s all there is to “knit the knits and purl the purls”!

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tutorial – working a bobble from 3 rows below

Bobbles are a lovely way to add texture to a knitting project. I’ve used them myself to add interest to an otherwise rather plain stockinette shawl body in my Moerbei shawl. They’re also rather popular as an extra design element on cabled sweaters.

In the basis a bobble is nothing more than a single stitch that is increased to a collection of stitches (usually 3, 5, or 7 stitches), worked back and forth and then decreased back again to a single stitch. There are, however, many ways to go about this.

In this tutorial I’m focusing on a specific kind of bobble that is described in the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible by Hitomi Shida. It’s worked in stockinette stitch on a background of reverse stockinette by working in a stitch 3 rows down. Read on for more details!

Materials used

Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 142 Tea Rose.

Needles: KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working a bobble from 3 rows below step by step

1. First, work in your piece of knitting to the point where you want to make the bobble. Remember, this bobble is worked on a background of reverse stockinette, so the purl side is the right side of the work.

2. Next we have to insert the right-hand needle into the center of the stitch, 3 rows down from the next stitch on the needle. I’ve indicated it with the yarn needle.

3. Move the working yarn to the back of the work (we’re working the bobble itself in stockinette, not in reverse stockinette!) ….

4. … and insert the right-hand needle right through the stitch to the back of the work!

Working a bobble from 3 rows below step 4

5. Now wrap the yarn around the needle and pull up a loop through the fabric.

Working a bobble from 3 rows below step 5

6. Wrap the yarn around the needle to form a yarn over.

Working a bobble from 3 rows below step 6

7. Repeat steps 4 and 5 once to make a 3 stitch bobble, or repeat steps 4 to 6 followed by steps 4 and 5 once again for a 5 stitch bobble. Pictured below is how it looks after working these steps for a 5 stitch bobble.

8. Next, drop the next stitch on the left-hand needle. It won’t ladder down below the bobble, because the stitch is secured by pulling the yarn through the fabric in the steps above.

9. Now work in pattern to the end of the row. You can see in the picture below, that I worked a 5 stitch bobble on the right and a 3 stitch bobble on the left.

Onwards to the next row

10. Turn the work and again work in pattern (knit) until you reach the bobble loops. Those we work in purl, because we’re looking at the wrong side of the work here.

11. This is how it looks after working this row. You can see the bobble stitches more easily now, because they are purled.

12. Again work in pattern to the bobble stitches. Now we have to decrease these 5 stitches back to 1 stitch. To do so, I have slipped the first 3 stitches together knit wise to the right-hand needle, worked a k2tog, and then passed the 3 slipped stitches over the result of the k2tog. This is the result of that decrease:

14. For the 3 stitch bobble I worked a sl2-k1-p2sso decrease. This is the result:

15. And this is how these bobbles look after 2 more rows in reverse stockinette have been worked. See how much fatter the 5 stitch bobble is when compared with the other one? You can, of course, work even fatter bobbles this way. Just repeat steps 4-6 twice or thrice instead of only once.

And this how to do it!

Found this tutorial useful? Tag me with @la_visch on Instagram or @lavischdesigns on Facebook if you’ve used it in a project!

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ribbon turquoise

The Ribbon Turquoise shawl is not only named for the wavy ribbons of brown and turquoise shown. The name also refers to how the semi-precious stone is cut. Turquoise forms in veins of various widths within the surrounding rock. It’s called “ribbon turquoise” when the stone is cut to show the mother rock as the main feature with the original vein or ribbon of turquoise running through it as an accent.

Ribbon Turquoise is a triangle shawl worked from the top-down in one piece, starting at the neck with a garter stitch tab. The instructions for the lace are provided both charted and written out.

Pay what you want: (minimum €6.50)

€