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First Time’s a Charm Knit Blanket – Part 3: How to Knit Lace

Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

Another free knitting pattern! A lace afghan square

Hi friends! I’m back today to share the last square that makes up my “First Time’s a Charm Blanket.” This is what I call the eyelet square because it reminds me of eyelet lace. This is a very basic, beginner lace pattern. Trust me, if you’ve done the other two squares, you can do this! My goal today is to walk you through it.

First, something neat happened when I started stitching the squares together. I hadn’t really planned it this way, so it was neat when it happened! The diagonal lines of eyelets are just right so that when two squares are side by side, the lines continue from one square to the next, looking like they were meant to do that. This was actually just a happy coincidence! Anyhow, on with the knitting!

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Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

First Time’s a Charm Blanket: Eyelet Square

Design by April Garwood

As with all my patterns, please do not make paper or digital copies for others. Instead, please direct them to my site to get their own. Thank you!

Finished Measurements: About 6 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ (16.5 cm x 16.5 cm)

Yarn: Brown Sheep Company Cotton Fleece CW-767 Hawaiian Sky (80% Cotton, 20% Merino Wool; 215 yds or 197 m; 3.5 oz or 100 g; Weight Category 3 or light).

Needles: US Size 8 or 5.00 mm, or size needed to obtain gauge.

Notions: Yarn needle

Gauge: 17 sts x 22 rows = about 4″ or 10 cm

Eyelet Square

CO 28 sts.

Row 1: Sl first st, K all remaining sts — 28 sts.

Row 2: Sl first st, P all remaining sts.

Row 3: Sl first st, K4, *k2tog, yo, K3, repeat from * 3 times, k2tog, yo, K1.

Rows 4-6: Repeat Row 2, repeat Rows 1-2.

Row 7: Sl first st, K3, *k2tog, yo, K3, repeat from * 3 times, k2tog, yo, K2.

Rows 8-10: Repeat Row 2, repeat Rows 1-2.

Row 11: Sl first st, K2, *k2tog, yo, K4, repeat from * 3 times, k2tog, yo, K3.

Rows 12-14: Repeat Row 2, repeat Rows 1-2.

Row 15: Sl first st, K1, *k2tog, yo, K4, repeat from * 3 times, k2tog, yo, K4.

Rows 16-18: Repeat Row 2, repeat Rows 1-2.

Row 19 Sl first st, *k2tog, yo, K4, repeat from * 3 times, k2tog, yo, K5.

Rows 20-22: Repeat Row 2.

Rows 21-35: Repeat Rows 1-15.

Row 36: Repeat Row 2. Bind off.

Or, if you are a visual person, here is a chart for you to work from. I went in to chart-reading a little bit in Part 2 of the “First Time’s a Charm Blanket” posts. Also, if you need a refresher on the basics of knitting, please look again at Part 1. I included video tutorials there for casting on, knitting, purling, and binding off.

eyelet square chart

How to put all your knit squares together

You now know how to make all three squares. The next step is to join them all together. When you’ve made all your squares, decide how you want to arrange them. Next, you’ll use a yarn needle and yarn to whipstitch the squares together, or you can use a crochet hook and yarn to slip stitch them together. I used crochet to put mine together. I prefer this method, because you don’t have to pre-cut a length of yarn to work with, so you wind up with many fewer knots and ends to weave in.

You hold 2 squares right sides together and stitch through both thicknesses. Once you’ve done that set of squares, you can continue right to the 2 squares that come next along that same seam line.

Once all your squares are joined you can edge it as you like. You can do something as simple as rows of single crochet stitches, you could use applied i-cord, or you can search through books of edgings and pick one you like. Just keep in mind that you need to increase around the corners. I basically crocheted my edging like so:
Rnd 1: *Sc, ch 1, skip next st, repeat from * around.
Rnd 2: Sl st in first ch sp, ch 2, *2 dc in each ch sp to next corner, 4 dc in corner ch sp, repeat from * until you get back to the beginning, then join with a sl st.

It’s important to work evenly around. If your work is bunching up or puckering, then you may need to adjust how spread out your edging stitches are.

Now, if you’ve never made lace before, I have some photos below to walk you through the two stitches that are new to this knit square: knit 2 stitches together (k2tog), and yarn over (yo). And if you’d like a video tutorial for knit two together (k2tog) you can find that here.

First, lets look at how to k2tog. This is a decrease stitch. It takes 2 stitches and makes them into 1 stitch. Typically when making lace you will use lots of decrease and increase stitches. See, right after this k2tog, we are going to yarn over (yo) in order to make a “hole” in the fabric. A yarn-over is an increase stitch. It adds a stitch where there was not previously a stitch. Thing is, I want my piece to remain square. I don’t want it to get wider as I work. I began with 28 stitches; I want to end with 28 stitches. So, it is necessary to decrease (k2tog) just before you increase (yo) so that the total stitch count stays the same.

Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

To begin the k2tog you will insert your right needle just as you would for a regular knit stitch, except that you will insert through 2 stitches, instead of just 1.

Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio
Hands holding knitting needles and a small knit swatch, demonstrating knit two stitches together, or k2tog.
Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

Then, wrap the yarn around your right needle just as you would for a regular knit stitch.

Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

Pull the new stitch through the two old stitches.

Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

Pull the two old stitches off the left needle.

Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

Now you have one new stitch on your right needle, and the two old stitches can be seen there grouped together under the right needle.

Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

Now, to yarn over, wrap your yarn around the front of your right needle. My sister once helped me out when I first started knitting. I was doing all my yarn overs backwards. She told me that when you yarn over, you wrap the yarn the same direction as if you were working a knit stitch.

Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

I hold that yarn-over in place for a moment.

Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

The next stitch in this square is a knit, so I hold the yarn-over in place as I begin the next stitch.

Free pattern for a knit blanket, how to knit lace, pattern and tutorial by April Garwood of Banana Moon Studio

Now I have completed the k2tog, the yo, and one more knit. The orange arrow here points to the space under my yo. This will be one “eyelet” in my lace square. The big hole to the left of it is just a stretched open knit stitch that will close up when I stop pulling on it. The eyelet will remain open.

And there it is! You can do this too!

Happy knitting,

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Knit blanket squares with beginner-friendly tutorials, from Banana Moon Studio.

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