Revisiting the Yarn Over (YO)

I recently started working on a beautiful, open-work cowl. The pattern is called A Nobel Cowl, by Emily Kausalik, and is published for free on Ravelry. It has the most beautiful shield pattern, and I knew it would be perfect for the the Classic Elite Lush that I had picked up over at Article Pract (which is sadly closing within the year). It also looked fairly easy to make, though it was marked intermediate*.

I knew (or thought I knew) how to do most of the stitches, and just went to YouTube to learn how to ssk, or slip-slip-knit, a decrease stitch. I was confident enough in my ability to perform the k2tog and yo to get started without much hesitation.

The pattern states that it is in sets of fifteen. Having only one skein of yarn, I decided to reduce the number of stitches to 105, and make mine a bit shorter. I got started, but noticed that I was working in sets of nineteen, and that by the time I made it to the end, I was only able to get ten of the last set of "fifteen" in... I reached out (kind of... more like complained on Instagram), and was told that the pattern was indeed worked in sets of fifteen stitches, not the nineteen that I was getting. I was completely perplexed, but just kept going for the full twenty-eight rows of the pattern, only to see this mutant looking merger where the whole patter meets half a pattern. You can imagine my disappointment, confusion, and frustration.

Full pattern (left) meet half patter (center). 

I decided to leave it be and head over to the shop where I got the yarn. I knew they would be able to help me, and I was also hoping to get one more skein of the yarn as it was becoming clear it would need to be even smaller than I thought if I had just the one skein.

At the register with my second skein (plus a few more), I asked for help and pulled out my project and the printed pattern. She confirmed it was fifteen, and I protested that I saw nineteen. She asked me to count out for her, and stopped me when I got to the yarn over. I was counting it as two stitches.

"Why are you counting two stitches at the yarn over?" she asked me.

"Because you get one stitch from wrapping the yarn around and a second with the following knit stitch," I said.

To my knowledge, the yarn over was wrapping the yarn around and then making a knit stitch. Every yarn over video I had watched had the yarn over followed by a knit stitch, and so I just assumed that that was the way it worked. And even though the yarn over is to add a stitch, I never thought about the fact that I was producing two. That day I found out that the yarn over is just wrapping the yarn around... I had been adding an extra stitch at every yarn over!!

Also from Classic Elite Yarns, this beautiful Baby Alpaca and Bamboo blend.

First there was a brief feeling of embarrassment, and then relief and clarity washed over me! I felt wonderful! I felt like I was re-impowered to go out and do lace work! I thanked the girl at the counter many times. I told her how I've been learning from YouTube and somehow this was not clear to me. I told her I was so happy that she had helped me and that I had learned this on a small project and not on a sweater, or something where stitch count is crucial.

The next thing that popped into my head was, I need to write a blog post and make another video on yarn overs!  Which brings me to now.

Though I would love to make a new video, today, the weather is keeping the lovely sunshine I need away.  But, that's okay. Perhaps I will make one on working this pattern, instead, or as well. Anything to make this a more pleasant experience for you than it was for me! But don't think I am too down about it... this was a great learning experience, and I am so glad that it happened!


If you have any questions, feel free to post them below. If you'd like to watch the process of the new cowl, be sure to follow me on Instagram, (at)workingyarns.


* Even though this pattern is marked "intermediate," I do believe that this piece is a great transition into more intricate work for the beginner. And, if you are a beginner and have read this whole post, you should be pretty ready to give it a try.

Ravelry Tip:  Sometimes a good way to check your work when in doubt is to look at other Ravelrer's work on the same project, or with the same yarn (if the yarn is the problem). In this particular case it wasn't super helpful, as people weren't posting enough detail, but there have certainly been other times when it has helped a lot!