Adding lace to a pattern: a tutorial on designing your own pattern

As promised last week, here is a brief tutorial on how to add a lace enhancement to the microplastic ban pattern. We are going to add a band of lace to it. To be more precise, we will do a outer garter band of 3 stitches and an inner band of lace, with the centre of the pattern in plain garter. It sounds more complicated than it is, so just bare with me. There is a simple pattern at the end of this post, I promise.

First, let us choose the simple lace stitch pattern we will use. Inspired by this pattern, I have chosen a modified version of the Lace Trellis stitch pattern (see A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, by Barbara G. Walker, p. 190). Here it is:

Garter Lace Trellis (right slant)

On an even number of stitches
Odd rows (WS): * yo, k2tog, repeat from *
Even rows: knit.

Note: the right and wrong sides of this stitch look very different.

Before, we continue, let me mention that the lace trellis pattern has a bias, which results from the slant of the k2tog stitch (which pulls the fabric to the right). This will result on the right side of the fabric in our pattern looking slightly different from the left side. This effect is unavoidable, but, the good news are, it is also very discrete. For completion, here is the left-leaning version of the same stitch.

Garter Lace Trellis (left slant)

On an even number of stitches
Odd rows: * ssk, yo, repeat from *
Even rows: knit.

Now that we have chosen our stitch pattern, let us deconstruct the microplastic ban pattern a bit. In this pattern, we have what I would call a 3-stitch eyelet selvage. These 3 stitches are: k2, yo, on the right side and k3 on the left side, where the first stitch of the k3 knits the yarn-over of the previous row. As mentioned in the first paragraph, we will add a 3-stitch garter band first and obtain: k2, yo, k3, something in the middle, k3, k3. Now we add a 3-eyelet garter trellis and some garter in the centre: k2, yo, k3, (yo, k2tog) x 3, garter stitch, (yo, k2tog) x 3, k2, k3. Notice the k2 near the end? This is important, because the k2tog stitch looks like a knit stitch (albeit a bit wonky one). So, the last k2tog should be considered part of the garter band (so that the garter bands at both sides have the same width).

Now that we have figure out the trickiest part of the pattern, let's write it all down:

Embellished Microplastic Ban Pattern

Increase region

Cast on 3 st.
Row a: k1, kfb, k1.
Row b: k2, yo, k to end.
Repeat row b until there are 12 sts on needle.

Row c: k2, yo, k3, * yo, k2tog, repeat from * to last 5 sts, k5.
Row d: k2, yo, k to end.
Repeat rows c and d until there are 22 sts on needles.

Row e: k2, yo, k3, (yo, k2tog)x3, k to last 11 sts, (yo, k2tog)x3, k5.
Repeat rows d and e until there are 40 sts on needles. You should end with row d.

Decrease region

Row f: k1, k2tog, k2tog, k2, (yo, k2tog)x3, k to last 10 sts, (yo, k2tog)x3, k5.
Row g: k1, k2tog, k2tog, k to last 2 sts, LI, k2.
Row h: k1, k2tog, k2tog, k2, (yo, k2tog)x3, k to last 10 sts, (yo, k2tog)x3, k2, LI, k2.
Repeat rows g and h until there are 21 sts on the needles. You should end with row g.

Row i: k1, k2tog, k2tog, k2, * yo, k2tog, repeat from * to last 4 sts, k2, LI, k2.
Repeat rows g and i until there are 10 sts on the needles.
Then continue only with row g until there are 6 sts on the needles.
Row j: k1, k2tog, yo, LS, k2.
Row k: k2, k2tog, k1.
Bind off this way: k1, k2tog, pass 1st over 2nd, k1, pass 1st st over 2nd again and pull yarn through. Weave in the ends.

LI: create a yo by lifting strand between previous and next st and knit it. This LI is exactly the same as a normal yo done in the previous round except that it uses less yarn and thus creates a smaller hole.

LS: slip st, lift strand to create yo and slip slipped st back to left needle, then k2tog.

This is already a pretty long post. So I'll end my tutorial on converting patterns for Portuguese-style knitting by converting this pattern on my next post.