I am having difficulty managing the lace portion of a pattern for a neckerchief. There is a 12 row repeat of mostly garter stitch. On row 11 you do two YOs between each garter stitch and in row 12 you drop the YOs and knit the knits. I am having difficulty moving the YOs as I queue them up in the row 12. They start out beautifully lined up but, no matter what I’ve tried, some of them leapfrog over others, as they slide along the needle. Do I need to make the YOs tighter or advance them along the needle one by one? I go slowly and I’ve tried coaxing them by rotating them on the needle shaft and that works sometimes but I still need help. Any suggestions? This becomes more difficult with each set of eyelets. I’ve done four and I want to make a fifth, but I’m dreading it. I’m fairly new to knitting so, no doubt, I’m missing something.
Double yarn overs give me trouble too. I wonder if you could ‘condo knit’ it and use a larger needle on the yo rows and use ordinary yo’s. I’ve no idea but might try it if I were doing something like this. Would the technique of intentionally dropping rows of stitches work instead? I’ve seen videos for this before but don’t know the terms to search for one.
It looks like the double yarn overs get dropped in the following row. If that’s the case then it really doesn’t matter if they stay next to each other or cross each other. They’re just one big stitch and the double wrap will come off on the next row anyway.
Thank you, @salmonmac . The video you posted is interesting. It has you include the YOs in the stitch whereas I have just been knitting the stitch and doing two YOs between that stitch and the next so the YOs aren’t anchored. You’re right that it doesn’t matter if the YOs cross each other insofar as they will both be dropped in the next row. However, the problem is that the stitches and YOs won’t slide down the needle when they are crossed. Also, often one of the YOs leapfrogs the actual stitch so that I have to be very careful to knit the correct one. Just getting the stitches and YOs up to the end of the needle where they can be knitted is my main problem.
Ah yes, that’s a problem. This happens with yarn overs even single ones that can slide under or over some sts.
Does the pattern define the double yarn over between sts or as part of a stitch? In the end it won’t matter as the extra yarn betwen sts gets pulled into a stitch. You might try it as in the video and see if it’s easier to slide and work.
Yes, the pattern says to do two YOs between consecutive knit stitches and, yes, I think doing it as in the video instead might help. I think the shear number of yarn overs is what makes this particularly difficult. There’s a YO, k1 repeat across almost the entire row. I’m also going to try to feed the stitches and YOs very, very slowly and carefully from the cable to the needle and along the needle for the row in which the YOs are dropped.
That sounds like a good plan. It may also help to name the sts as you work the next row, the k1, the 2 yarn overs and so on. That should ensure that you find any errant yarn overs.
Are you working on a long enough needle that these sts aren’t too crowded?
Some lace knitters don’t use circular needles (even back and forth) for this reason. The YOs and stitches more easily lose thir position and size on the cable making it hard to get them up the needle. You might try straight needles if you have any or bunching the stitches on the shaft of the needle and preventing them spreading onto the cable.
When knitting lace, I always use life lines in case I have to rip out. Life lines work well and in the end can save you a lot of time. Here is a link:Google Search
Thank you, @salmonmac . @Creations@Kaygreen I appreciate all of the advice! The needle is not crowded and I am being very careful about knitting the stitches in order, it’s just advancing them along the needle, once they’ve left the cable, that is causing me problems. I’m going to place a lifeline before the next set of lace and try advancing the stitches extremely slowly along the hard needle. If it still fights me I’m going to skip the last row of lace and figure out something else, maybe a different kind of lace, so that it is long enough to fit around my neck.
My aim in making this scarf is to test my sensitivity to the yarn. I find that I am sensitive to a lot of fibers if they rub on my neck - but not elsewhere - so I make a little scarf with fibers that are new to me. I’ve done a lot of Sophie scarves so I wanted to try something new but still pretty fast and small.
Sounds like a very good approach. Once you get into the repeat of drop the two yarn over, k1 and say the sts out loud it’ll help you find those hidden or out of place yarn overs. Let us know how it goes!
One more thought. If you have interchangable circulars you could try changing the left needle to a lightly smaller needle size, it may help the stitches move along. The working needle needs to be the correct size of course.
It’s a good idea making these small fibre test pieces.
Hi friends, @salmonmac@GrumpyGramma@Creations and @Kaygreen ! I want to check back to let you know that, thanks to your help, I completed this lace neckerchief and am very happy with the way it turned out. I did the final row of those pesky double yarnovers without drama. I went extremely slowly and counted as I advanced stitches onto and along the hard needles. That was the main thing. I didn’t give a single stitch or yarnover a chance to leapfrog another and this allowed me to slowly slide them in order. It was a slow process but it allowed me to keep things sliding so there was no stress involved. Many thanks!
