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How to Lace Diamond Stitch Pattern & Read Chart

Alright, we've talked about some textural stitches, some color work, now let's dive in a bit to lace work. Lace is a really fun thing to play with. Whether you want to go traditional and do something like a light weight scarf like I had on earlier, or if you want to go a little more funky and modern and really use, kind of bigger, chunkier yarns, and use the holes from the lace to sort of be, not only an interesting textural, or visual aspect, but also it adds a little light and air to an otherwise heavy piece. So, one of the bonus projects that you'll be getting for this course is a cowl. And it uses a diamond stitch lace pattern. I'm gonna bring this over here so you can see. But, because it's thick and chunky, you kind of have to come in for a closer look to see it, to reveal it. But, it's pretty cool. It's kind of almost architectural looking, I think. And, I really love how you think of something traditional, like when you think of lace, what you might think of doilies, or whateve...

r, but when you sort of turn that perception on it's side when you use something, first of all, neon and bright like this hot pink, and then also adding it with a bulkier weight yarn. And, another thing that's great about that is it also kind of adds a little bit of drape. Just having that air there makes it so it wouldn't, sometimes when you use really big, thick yarns, depending on the stitch pattern, the piece can become a little bit, maybe not necessarily stiff, but just not have as much body, not have as much movement. And adding the holes from the yarn overs that we have already learned, can really help with that. So, let's talk yarn overs for a second. So, the very base level lace stitch that you can do requires you to yarn over. So you're increasing a stitch, and then knit two together, so you're decreasing. So, you're increasing, decreasing, increasing, decreasing. And that piece, that would look something like this. It gives you more of, really it looks more like mesh than lace per se. But, this is a really good stitch. This would be really fun for, like, a farmer's market bag. I actually would totally rock this as, you know, as probably, like, a dolman, or, a big tunic with a tank top underneath it. And so this would just be, knit, yarn over, knit two together all the way across the row, and then purl it back on the wrong side, and then I'd probably alternate it. I'd probably, for that next row, I would knit two together and then yarn over. Just so they wouldn't be stacked on top of each other. And, it gives you, sort of, this angular look. So, that's just your very first step, I think I'm ready to look into lace weight. That's what that would look like. But, like I said before, what we're gonna go through today is, we're gonna go over the diamond stitch pattern. So, this is diamond lace. Not only is it part of the cowl, but it also, the other reason I wanted to use it to teach you today is it also is going to introduce a double decrease. So, we have decreases, usually they're left slanting or right slanting. But, sometimes you want a decrease that doesn't slant any way at all. And to do that, often, you need to do a double decrease. So, it's two stitches at once and it's gonna create more of a straight up one. So, I'm gonna be showing you that. But, for this particular swatch and lesson, I'm gonna go with you line by line for the stitch pattern so that once you have watched this lesson, you will 100% be ready to make that cowl. So, without further adieu, let's get started. So, I'm gonna pull in my pattern. And again, this is part of the bonus material, so you'll be able to download that. And, I have worked a repeat already on this swatch. Let's get this out of the way. So, this is an eight row stitch pattern. So, what that means when I say stitch pattern, versus stitch? A stitch would just be the actual individual movement, the individual stitch. So, it would be a knit stitch, or a purl stitch, or a yarn over. The stitch pattern is what is created when you use a combination of stitches and a combination of rows to create an overall look. In this case, that would be the diamond lace stitch pattern. So, let's get started. So, if you are going to be trying this out and you wanna just swatch before you dive in to making the cowl? What the instructions say here, is that all you need to do is cast on a multiple of six stitches. So just pick one, and then add one stitch. So that means that you would, you know, cast on 18, or whatever you decide you want, plus one. And that just is so that you'll have, sort of, a symmetrical, it bookends. It's an additional stitch to bookend it. So, whenever a pattern gives you that information, that's awesome, because it's a great license for you to use that stitch pattern to design yourself, or, you can just do a practice swatch like we're doing now. Alright, so row one, right side, we're going to knit one, knit two together, yarn over, knit one, yarn over, knit two together through the back loop, which is something new. I'm gonna show you how to do that. And then it says, repeat from the asterisks. So, that is your actual repetition. So you'll do that again and again, and that's your six stitches. To the last stitch, knit one. So whenever they said "multiples of six stitches," it's that little bit within the asterisks, that repeat, that's where they're getting that number from. And then, they told you the pattern, they, I told you to add an extra stitch. That's the knit one at the end. Alright, so let's do this. So we're knitting one. We're gonna knit two together, yarn over, that's creating one of those open holes, knit one, yarn over. Alright, now it says, "knit two together through the back loop," so I'm sure you've probably done a knit two together before, but through the back loop just means that instead of coming up through the two stitches on the left hand needle, you're going to come down through the back leg of them and then knit them as normal. That just twists them, it makes it slant a different way. So, now we've worked those two stitches into one. Alright, so it says, now we've finished that six stitch repeat, so we need to start again with knit one, knit two together, so that's a decrease slant in one direction, right? Which is right. And then yarn over, knit one, yarn over, knit two together through the back loop, this is so it slants to the left, and then knit one. The reason why the slants matter, is because we're creating a diamond here, right? So, we need one side of this piece to slant one way and the other to slant the other way, or else you wouldn't create that diamond shape. Alright, so all wrong side rows for this pattern are purl stitches. So, to be honest with you, I don't generally, and I lost all my stitches, I don't generally work on lace pieces that require, you know what? I'm gonna stop and show you what just happened, because that's something that can absolutely happen. So, I just accidentally pulled off all my stitches. And, the reason why I couldn't just, kind of pick them up again, because there are all of those yarn overs, I may or may not get them in the right place. So, I'm just pulling them off. And I'm gonna step back, and rework that part. So, I'm gonna count backwards to see where I was. So, that means the last stitch was a knit one. That's gonna be this one. And then I was supposed to knit two together through the back loop, and then before that I was supposed to do a yarn over. So, I know that I need to do a yarn over there, I'm gonna knit two together through that back loop, and then knit the next stitch and I'm back on track. That's really, really common to happen, so don't fret. Just take your steps backwards. Just retrace your steps, basically. Okay, so, like I was saying, most lace work patterns will, or at least most intermediate level lace work patterns, will have a purl row on the back, and that is like a wee vacation in between all of the chart reading, or in this case, we're not reading a chart, but there are a lot of instructions. Or really, just in my brain, it's just the time where you really have to focus. I'm the mom of three kids, and there's always crazy town happening around me. So, when I have to really focus on a pattern, it take a lot. It takes a lot, I'm not gonna kid you. So, it's kinda nice to have that little break in between. Alright, so we had our little break, and we're gonna come back. So, that was row two. Row three is, knit two together, that was just to start it off, and now we're at our repeat where the asterisk is. So, yarn over, knit three, yarn over. Now, we're gonna slip two, knit one, and then slip two. Okay, we're gonna slip two, knit one, and then this is where the double decrease action's happening. So, we're gonna take these two stitches that were slipped, and we're gonna pass them over the one that was just knit. And do it slowly so that you don't lose all of your stitches. And so you've just double decreased, which means you've turned three stitches into one. And you can also see that that creates the top of that diamond. Okay, so let's keep going. This is a repeat, and because I only have two repeats on this particular swatch, I don't need to do another one, because it said, "repeat to last five stitches." So I'm on my last five stitches, which means that I'm gonna yarn over, knit three stitches, and then knit the last two through the back loop. Alright so, you just learned a new skill. You now know how to do a double decrease. Keep that in your mental arsenal. Once again, that creates more of a, not only does it get rid of multiple stitches at the same time, which may or may not be necessary, but it also creates a decrease that is just straight up, versus slanting one way or another, which is what you want when you're working for a top of a diamond. So, we're on our wrong side row, which is just our vacation row, where we're just purling away. And, now we're gonna move to row five. Alright, so we're gonna knit one, yarn over, knit two together, oh, TBL, I should mention that. Through the back loop, that's the abbreviation for "through the back loop." All the abbreviations will be in the bonus material. So, you don't need to worry about memorizing that. But, just so you know now. Knit one, knit two together, yarn over, and we're gonna repeat that whole sequence until we get to the last stitch. And so you might notice that every time that we're doing a increase, which is a yarn over, we then have to counter balance that with a decrease. So, our knit two together through the back loop, knit one, yarn over, knit two together, knit one. Okay, so now we can flip that over. Because we're not trying to create any more fabric at all, that is the reason that you're going to be working an even amount of increases as you are decreases. Alright, so now this is row six. So that is another mental break row, where you're just purling. I love this stitch pattern, because I really, I'm super into geometric shapes anyway, and I think that this was fun to work on for a cowl, but I think it would be really cool as a scarf too. It would make a fun bag. It would be really nice as a pullover, or even a huge, chunky big cardigan. Alright, so we are now on our, let's see, that was row six, on row seven. This is our last lace row of this stitch pattern. So it says to knit two, yarn over, okay we're gonna do our double decrease, so that's slip two stitches, knit the next one, and then pass those two slip stitches over the one that was knit, yarn over, knit three, says repeat till the last five stitches, which I have just done. So, now we're going to yarn over. We're gonna do that double decrease again. We're gonna slip two, you can either slide them one at a time, or you could slide them both at the same time. Whatever you're the most comfortable with. We're gonna pass those two stitches over the one we've just knit, and then we end with a knit row. And then for the last row, that would be the row eight, you're just gonna purl all the way back, and you're gonna get this cool, open weave, geometric pattern. I can't wait to see how you put this stitch pattern into action by making the cowl that we have up as bonus materials. Please, please, please take pictures. I love seeing them. Tag @Vickiehowell, and @creativelive so that we can see you modeling your knitted fantasma. Alright, let's see what other trouble we can get into.