Stitch · Lace · Some experience
The lace pair: yarn over plus a leaning decrease
Lace is arithmetic. Every yarn over adds a stitch and every decrease removes one, so a lace motif is a stable fabric only when the two are balanced. This entry covers the left-leaning pair, how to read the diagonal lines it produces, and the blocking that finishes the job.
Published Abbreviation yo + ssk
- Vknit
- Oyarn over
- ^decrease
At a glance
- SymbolO
- Abbreviationyo + ssk
- TypeStitch
- FamilyLace
- LevelSome experience
Working chart
| Step | Round / row | Stitches |
|---|---|---|
| Cast on 18 sts for two repeats of an 8-stitch motif Lace charts need edge stitches; they are not part of the motif. | - | 18 |
| Row 1: k2, (yo, ssk, k4) twice, k2 One yarn over and one ssk cancel out. | 1 | 18 |
| Row 2 and all even rows: purl Purl the yarn overs to keep the openings. | 2 | 18 |
| Row 3: k2, (k3, yo, ssk, k1) twice, k2 Shifting the pair right by one makes the line travel diagonally. | 3 | 18 |
| Repeat rows 1-8, then block hard Pin out to 20% wider than the relaxed measurement. | 9-32 | 18 |
Measurements
| Needle (mm) | Sts / 10 cm blocked | Eyelet density |
|---|---|---|
| 3.25 | 24 | high |
| 4.00 | 20 | medium |
| 4.50 | 18 | medium |
| 5.50 | 14 | low |
Yarn and yardage
| Yarn weight | Metres / 100 g | Blocking gain in width |
|---|---|---|
| Lace (2-ply) | 800 | 25% |
| Fingering (4-ply) | 400 | 20% |
| Sport | 300 | 16% |
| DK | 220 | 12% |
The accounting
A yarn over adds one stitch; ssk removes one. Placed next to each other on the same row they leave the stitch count untouched, and the only visible result is a hole with a column leaning towards it.
Every row of a lace chart balances this way. If you finish a lace row with a different stitch count than you started, you have missed either a yarn over or a decrease - check the row before it rather than guessing, because a missing yarn over is almost always caused by the previous row's purl.
Which way the line travels
Yarn over followed by ssk leans left. Yarn over followed by k2tog leans right. A pair of them, one of each, forms an inverted V; two of each placed back to back forms a diamond.
The classic leaf motif is built from exactly this: a central column of k1 or k3 kept straight, with a left-leaning pair on one side and a right-leaning one on the other, repeated every eight rows.
Blocking is not optional
Lace off the needles looks like crumpled string. The pattern only appears after wet blocking, when the fibre relaxes and the yarn overs open into their intended shapes.
Soak in cool water for 20 minutes, roll in a towel to remove excess water, then pin out to the finished measurements. Expect 20-25% extra width in lace weight and 12-16% in DK. A shawl that measures 120 cm relaxed will pin out to 150 cm.
Counters and lifelines
Lace requires a row counter and a lifeline. Thread a smooth waste yarn through a completed row every 10-20 rows so that a mistake can be ripped back to a known-good state instead of to the cast-on.
Place a marker every motif repeat. Reading a chart with markers is far faster than counting stitches in a 200-stitch row, and it localises a mistake to one eight-stitch repeat instead of the whole row.