Knitting - UK (2021-07)

knittingmag.com 17

JAPANESE LACE

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KNITTING THROUGH THE BACK LOOP
Japanese designers aren’t the only ones to use twisted stitches, but
the striking effect of these tightly defined stitches really stands out
in these patterns.

1. The two sides of a stitch
   coming down on either side of
   the needle are called its legs,
   and the front leg tends to sit
   slightly ahead of the back leg.
   2. This makes it easy to knit a
   stitch through the front loop,
   like this.


2. If, instead, you knit this
   stitch through the back loop,
   it will be twisted.
   4. In a twisted stitch the back
   leg sits ahead of the front leg.


3. You can purl through the back loop in a
   similar way, and in Japanese patterns you
   will often twist every stitch in a row to
   create a defined line of twisted stitches.

DECREASING ON THE WRONG SIDE

One of the things that makes Japanese lace patterns especially

intricate and beautiful is that yarn overs and decreases are often made

on all rows, rather than only alternate rows. When knitting in the

round that won’t make any difference, as you are only working the

right side of the piece, but when you are working back and forth this

means making right and left-leaning decreases on the wrong side.

P2tog, or purl two together, is pretty straightforward – simply

the purl version of knitting two stitches together, and it creates a

left-leaning decrease on the wrong side so a right-leaning one on the

right side. Its mirror image, ssp (slip, slip, purl) or p2tog tbl (purl 2

together through the back loop), is a little bit trickier.

1. Start by slipping the two
   stitches to be worked together
   one at a time, kwise, to the RH
   needle. This reorients or twists
   the stitches.
   2. Then slip them back to the
   LH needle pwise.


2. Here you can see the two
   stitches sitting on the LH needle
   twisted, with the back leg
   slightly ahead of the front one.

4.Now insert the RH needle tip

through the back loop of those

two stitches, so you are coming

from left to right through the

stitch before the RH needle tip

comes in front of the LH tip

ready to purl the 2 sts together.

5. Here you can see the
   resulting right-leaning
   decrease on the WS of
   the work.
   6. This image shows the
   decrease on the RS, leaning left
   in line with the ssk decrease of
   the previous row.

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