Very few things are more frustrating than discovering an unwanted yarn over that’s been accidentally made in the previous row or round. It is especially painful when we have many stitches on the needles.
The common approach in this situation is to drop the sneaky yarn over and continue to work on the project as if nothing happened.
This solution is much more efficient than tinking back the previous row or round to get rid of that extra strand of yarn.
But dropping a yarn over and redistributing the yarn between the neighbouring stitches forms a section of looser fabric that doesn’t look good in most textures, but is especially noticeable in stitch patterns with a smoother texture, like stockinette stitch.
Over the years, I’ve been testing several ways to make a neater fix of an accidental yarn over. Eventually, I settled on the way explained in this tutorial.
Here’s how it works step by step. Watch each step in a video tutorial:
STEP 1
Work to one stitch before the unwanted yarn over.
STEP 2
Slip this stitch from the left needle to the right needle.
If it is a knit stitch, bring the working yarn to the back of the work and slip this stitch knitwise (insert the tip of the right needle into the stitch from left to right).
If this stitch is a purl, slip it purlwise (go into the stitch from right to left).
STEP 3
Twist the accidental yarn over.
In some cases, the right leg of the yarn over is at the back of the left needle.
Insert the tip of the right needle into the yarn over from left to right.
Slip it off the left needle.
Then return it back to the left needle purlwise.
In other instances, the right leg of the yarn over is at the front of the left needle.
In this case, insert the tip of the right needle into the yarn over from left to right, but go from the back of the stitch.
Slip the yarn over off the left needle and instantly return it back, inserting the tip of the left needle into the stitch from left to right.
STEP 4
Return the stitch that we slipped in step 2 back to the left needle. Do it purlwise without twisting the stitch.
STEP 5
Knit the stitch and the twisted accidental yarn over together through the back loop.
If the stitch in front of the yarn over is a purl, purl this stitch together with the twisted yarn over as usual, through the front loop.
The beauty of this method is that it does not let this unwanted yarn over mess up the tension of the fabric. As you work a few more rows or rounds, you will hardly be able to recognize the spot where you had to fix the accidental yarn over.
It is a big improvement compared to the clearly visible loose section that is formed when we simply drop the yarn over and redistribute the yarn between several stitches.
Accidental yarn overs are not the only reason we get unwanted holes in our projects. The holes also appear when we knit under the strand between two stitches, or turn the work mid-row after being destructed. To see how to deal with those issues, take a look at the tutorial called “Unwanted Holes”
SAVE IT FOR LATER:
This and 41 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #6.
