At home in my living room I sat surrounded by my newly acquired supplies for my lace baby sweater project.. I pulled out the pattern and began to read. Blah blah blah...2 to the 7th power blah blah square root of pi blah blah yarn forward blah blah blah. Huh??? What's that yarn forward term mean? Must be one of those new fangled lace terms. Have no fear, I will look it up in my trusty knitting tutorial. Not there... How about my 32 reference books written by mortal knitting goddesses?
Yarn Forward Under and Over
Monday, February 1, 2010
Yarn Forward??? What's that?
Maybe I can figure this out on my own. Let me look at that pattern again. Blah blah blah..knit back slip and pass twist. blah blah yarn forward.. blah blah knit two in separate but equal stitches...blah. Hmm.... I am wondering why it says yarn forward, but it never says put the yarn back where it came from...What?? For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction I mumbled. I think I am getting my techniques confused. I decided to put everything away and wait until my next guild meeting to ask my knitting buddy her advice. Sometimes things just come to me if I put it out in the universe and listen for a response.
At the next get together, my knitting buddy failed to show. and I was too embarrassed to put it out to the knitting universe that was my guild.. So, I relented and finally called her to ask.
"Yarn Forward? You must have a pattern that was written in England." I coyly checked the pattern while she was still on the phone. Published in the United Kingdom it said. "Yarn Forward is an English term for Yarn Over."
Why didn't it just say that? I muttered to myself. I know what a yarn over is. I thanked her and quickly hung up the phone..
Time passed, and it was time for my next guild meeting and my knitting buddy friend was there. Proudly I showed her my first lace sweater. It turned out nice, but it was more awkward to knit the stitches after the yarn over than I thought it should be. I have a theory that I say when I teach. If something feels awkward or hard to do ask someone about it. Maybe there's a better way of doing what you want to do..
"The holes are smaller than they should be. Are you sure you did the yarn overs correctly?" said my knitting buddy.
You take the yarn and put it over the needle and knit the next stitch. How hard could it be? I muttered to myself.
"You need to bring the yarn under the needle to the front then over the needle for the yarn over" she said.
Then why don't they call it a YARN UNDER AND OVER? I grumbled.. And that is how I learned that a Yarn Forward is really a yarn under and over instead of the equal and opposite reaction to yarn backwards.
Months later I was able to see the sweater on the beautiful baby girl. I don't think she will be wasting any time wondering if I used a yarn forward or a yarn under and over for the pattern.
Your Spinning Buddy
