Recently I had a request to share how to do a K2tog YO on a knitting machine. In a perfect world I would have a diagram and/or photo to illustrate what I’m about to attempt to describe, but I am in the process of moving and my knitting machines are packed up.
Cast on your knitting machine the number of stitches required.
- K2tog: With your hand tool remove the loop from the needle immediately before the K2tog and transfer it (either to the right or left) to the neighboring needle. You will now have two loops on one needle.
- YO: Leave the needle you just transferred the stitch from, empty. When you pass your carriage across the needles, it will knit this empty needle, but will leave a hole since you removed the stitch it would normally have knit.
- Pass your carriage across when you’ve completed the correct numbers of K2tog YO, making sure your needles have all been returned to the correct position if you’ve moved any of them out further for easy access. (When doing fishnet, I pushed every other needle out into the C position for accessibility.)
If you do 1-3 repeatedly across the entire row you will create a fishnet effect. On a large scale I found this extremely tedious and I was able to knit this by hand faster than transferring 100+ stitches for 48 inches.
If you’re looking to do edge shaping without a YO, transfer your edge stitches to their nearest neighboring stitch and then push the empty needle into the passive position, often known as position A. This is how you can decrease stitches without leaving a lacy hole.
If you’ve read these instructions and tried it, let me know if they were clear enough or if I should include pictures and try again… when I unpack my machines. I miss having easy access to all my yarn; hoping to be settled soon.