Eyelets are everywhere in knitting! They are created by pairing a YO (yarn-over) with a decrease stitch, like a k2tog (knit 2 together) or skp (slip, knit, pass). Here are some examples of simple eyelet stitches I’ve used in my knitting patterns:
The above examples are all simple eyelet stitches. More complex arrangements of eyelets are found in lace stitch patterns (lace and eyelets are basically the same thing, it’s just often referred to as “lace” when the arrangement of these eyelets create a decorative pattern). An example of a lace pattern is the Vandyke Lace Motif that is featured in my Lilac Trail Vest, an old pattern of mine that I just recently revamped to include more sizes.
How do you create an eyelet?
Below is a photo tutorial that shows you how to create a couple of basic eyelet stitches. In this example, I’m making a chevron eyelet stitch that’s featured in my square of the Ewe Ewe Yarn Celebration Blanket (I collaborated with Ewe Ewe to create this “Waving Hello” square as part of her 10 year anniversary blanket project!). If you’re looking for a video, you can also check out my simple eyelet video tutorial here – this was for my Raincheck vest where the eyelet is simply a YO (yarn over) and k2tog (knit 2 together).
In the below tutorial, I’m going to show you how to work the following row in this stitch pattern: k2tog, YO, k1, YO, skp (if you scroll to the bottom, I also provide links to video tutorials for each of these stitches).
Step 1: k2tog
Step 2: YO, k1
Step 3: YO, skp
Additional Tutorials
If you would like to see some of these stitches and steps in video-form, I have a few to recommend! Click the links below for more details: