I am working on a 1920’s UK pattern and came across some unfamiliar abbreviations. Yfm.,yon ,yfrn at first I assumed it was referring to yarn overs but the more I searched the more confused I became. The closest explanation I can find is each refers to a different way to yarn over, but no explanation of how to correctly do each one. Please can anyone explain
Welcome to KH!
These are forms of yarn overs, at least the yon (yarn over needle) and yfrn (yarn forward round needle). The important thing is that they create a hole or eyelet in your knitting and an extra stitch.
So here’s a conventional yo or yon
This video shows a yrn also called a yfrn or a yarn over before a purl stitch (:50sec in the video). It’s a yarn over and a half. It also shows a yo after a purl and before a knit (1:42min).
In all cases the important thing is to have created and extra loop over the right hand needle.
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Welcome to KH. I found this all so confusing and couldn’t quite get a grasp for a long time. Part of it for me is that I hold the yarn in my left hand (Continental) and these abbreviations are based on English style with the yarn held in the right hand. If you happen to be a Continental knitter you might find what Roxanne Richardson says about it helpful. She learned to knit in the UK and started out knitting English and was familiar with the British way of doing patterns. In this video starting at 36:39 she talks about what these things mean and why they’re used as they are. On her long videos there are links (on my laptop below the video) to jump to specific places.
Thank you very much for responding. I really appreciate it.
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