I am swatching for a slip from a vintage pattern (not available online), and I’m a little confused by the stitch pattern. They use the abbreviations WF and WB (wool forward and wool back), which I thought basically translated as YOs, but that doesn’t quite fit with the pattern. It really doesn’t help that I’m a continental knitter and most of the explanations for WF/WB out there are for english knitters, so really hard for me to convert in my mind. The stitch pattern goes:
"Lace rib"
Row 1: Sl1, k4, *k2tog, [B]WF[/B], k1,[B] WF[/B], k2tog tbl, k9, repeat from *, ending last repeat with k5.
Row 2: Sl1, purl to last st, k1
Row 3: Sl1, k4, *Sl1 purlwise, k1, [B]WF[/B], Sl1 purlwise, [B]WB[/B], K1, Sl1 purlwise, k9, repeat from *, ending the last repeat with k5.
Row 4: Same as row 2.
On row 1 YOs would seem to work fine, but on row 3, there are no decreases to compensate. On row 3, are you supposed to hold the yarn forward [I]while[/I] you slip the stitch, then bring the yarn to the back (essentially wrapping it around the front of the slipped stitch)?
Yes, that’s exactly what you do. So because the yarn (wool) isn’t going over the needle there are no increases on row 3, and hence there is no need for balancing decreases on row 3.
You’re right in thinking that WF/WB (YF/YB in modern patterns) can translate as YO, as used in row 1 where the WF instructs you to bring the yarn to the ‘purl’ position and the K1 forces you to take the yarn back over the needle to the ‘knit’ position to work the stitch.
