Knitting with a new (at least new-to-me) yarn is always so inspiring! Yesterday I shared the cowl I designed with Wisdom Yarn Angora Lace using the ladder back Jacquard technique, which we explored in depth on Tuesday. But having this yarn on my needles, and seeing the colors that I received to work with, I couldn’t help but think of Neapolitan ice cream, you know the chocolate, vanilla, and berry flavor that comes in stripes?
So I have been working on a stole design and wanted to incorporate this (also new-to-me) lace eyelet technique. I’m afraid I don’t know whether there’s a name for this as a technique. I think it’s just more of a new combination of already existing stitches, but more on that later.
The Neapolitan Stole is a wide long scarf that is perfect for staving off the cold this fall.
Like other lace eyelets one knits, this eyelet is formed by a yarn over. With other lace patterns, we usually make a yarn over either before or after a k2tog or a ssk decrease. Of course, sometimes there are stitches in between the eyelet and the decrease that’s paired with it to keep the stitch count the same each row.
Eyelets are stacked and the columns of stitches next to them do not skew. Making a knitted stole using the knit through decrease for eyelets and Wisdom Yarns Angora Lace. Free pattern
One of the aspects of this eyelet is how the neighboring columns of knit stitches on either side don’t veer off to the right or left as they do with the standard k2tog or ssk decreases.
To make this decrease, which some call the knit-through decrease, you insert the right-hand needle tip into the first stitch as if to purl and then into the second stitch knit-wise, bringing the tip back out through the first stitch. Then you knit that strand and slip both stitches off the left-hand needle.
This is a different look than the [slip one, knit one, pass slipped stitch over] decrease, and indeed looks more like a wrap and turn stitch.
This lace panel shows vertically stacked eyelets and the columns of knit stitches beside them that don’t swerve to one side or the other.
Not every knitter will care about the slight difference between this eyelet and a standard one, but my mind loves to explore other possibilities. I’m not sure where further exploration of the eyelet made with a yarn-over and a knit-through decrease will take me. I really like the difference it makes to neighboring stitches and how easy it is to stack the eyelets in a grid-like pattern. Tomorrow, I’ll share the full pattern for the Neapolitan stole, knit out of Angora Lace yarn.
3 balls of Angora Lace yarn will make this 52″ x 20″ stole.
