One of the easiest and most common ways to create an extra stitch in knitting is with a yarn over. Not only does this technique increase your stitch count by 1, yarn overs also leave you with a neat little eyelet that can be a decorative increase, an element in lacework, or even a buttonhole. Our Yarn Over (yo) Tutorial teaches you everything you need to know about this very handy increase!

The most important thing to know about a yarn over is that it is simply the act of moving the working yarn from one place to another. It does not include the actual knitting or purling of a stitch. A yarn over creates a stitch only when you work the next stitch, but by itself, a yarn over does not make a stitch.

Here’s a video of how to work a simple yarn over between two knit stitches, as well as some slightly more complicated yarn over situations, followed by the same thing written out!

YO: Video Tutorial

Click To See Video Transcript

Hey guys, this is Laura from Purl Soho, and today I want to show you how to yarn over. Yarning over is a method of increasing, and it creates a decorative hole in your knitting. I have started this swatch, and I have a portion of stockinette stitch, a portion of ribbing, and a portion of reverse stockinette stitch. I did this on purpose to show you how to yarn over in a variety of different situations. The first way I’m going to show you is doing a yarn over between two knit stitches. I’m going to just take a few stitches into my swatch before I show you.

So when you’re doing a yarn over between one knit stitch and another knit stitch, all you want to do is take your working yarn, which is in the back because we’ve been knitting, and bring it to the front of your work. Then you can continue your work. You can keep knitting. I’m going to show you one more time. Something to remember is that the yarn over is just the movement of the yarn. It does not include the next stitch you do after the yarn over. This can often throw people off in patterns and it’ll mess up your stitch count. So if you just remember that yarning over is just the motion of your yarn and not working the next stitch, you’ll be okay. So again, when you’re doing a yarn over between one knit stitch and another knit stitch, you have your working yarn in back and you just want to bring the yarn between your two needles to the front of your work. So now I’m going to continue knitting, and you can see a little yarn over we created right here, and this is the first one we made down here. 

I’m going to take a few more stitches and then show you how to do a yarn over between a knit stitch and a purl stitch. So we’ve just done a knit stitch and our working yarn is in back. And normally to do a purl, you would bring your yarn to the front. So in order to create a yarn over between this knit stitch and this purl stitch, what you want to do is take the working yarn over the top of the needle to the front of the fabric. Again, I’m going to go ahead and purl this stitch. I’m going to bring the yarn to the back just so you can see the yarn over we’ve created. I’m going to show you that one more time. So I’m going to take a few stitches and one more time a yarn over between a knit stitch and a purl stitch. You bring the yarn between the needles to the front, over the top of the needle and to the front of your work again. 

Now I’m going to take a few more stitches and I’m going to show you how to do a yarn over between a purl and a knit. So we’ve just done a purl stitch and oh, I’m going to take one more purl stitch so I don’t break my pattern up just on a purl stitch, and I want to do a knit stitch next. This is probably the easiest way to do a yarn over, and I think it’s probably how people learn first accidentally. So when you’re purling and you have your yarn in the front without moving your yarn, you just go and knit the stitch, and in doing so, the yarn comes right over the top of your needle like that.

I’m going to show you one more time. So, if you’re between a purl stitch. There we go. We just purled our yarn is in front, and our next stitch is going to be a knit stitch, and we want a yarn over between them. Instead of taking your yarn to the back like you normally would to knit, you leave it in the front and you put your needle into knit, carry your yarn over the needle, knit that stitch. It’s a yarn over. 

Okay, the last way I’m going to show you is between two purl stitches. I’m going to take one more purl stitch. Here we go. So we’ve just purled our working yarn is in front. We want a yarn over between this purl and this next stitch. And so what we want to do is bring the yarn over the top of the needle into the front, and then you can continue purling. I’m going to show you that one more time. So a yarn over between a purl stitch and a purl stitch, your working yarn is in front. Bring the yarn over the top of the needle back to the front of your fabric, and you can just continue purling. 

I’m going to purl to the end of this row and turn my work and show you how to work your yarn overs on your next row. The beauty of it is, is you work them just as you would any stitch. So I’m working in pattern, so I’m just knitting right now. I’m working and we’ve reached our first yarn over. You can tell by this lovely hole that’s here, and you just knit it as you normally would. It’s as easy as that. So that’s yarn overs in many of their different forms. It’s such a lovely, lovely increased method. And there you go.

YO: Step-By-Step Tutorial

Between Two Knit Stitches

To work a yarn over between two knit stitches, bring the working yarn from the back of the work to the front by moving it between the two needles. Bring the working yarn over the top of the right needle as you knit the next stitch as usual. On the next row, that strand that came over the top of the needle will be worked as a normal stitch… And a stitch is born!

Two Yarn Overs In A Row, Between Two Knit Stitches

To work two yarn overs in a row, you bring the working yarn forward between the needles as you would for one yarn over, then wrap the yarn over the top of the right needle and bring it back forward between the needles again, in essence wrapping the yarn once around the right needle. As you knit the next stitch, the yarn will naturally wrap over the right needle again, making a second wrap (i.e. yarn over) on the right needle. On the next row, you will treat these wraps as two stitches.

Between Two Purl Stitches

To work a yarn over between purl stitches, all you have to do is bring the yarn from the front of the work (where it already is from having just purled) over the top of the right needle, then between the needles to the front of the work, ready to purl.

After A Knit + Before A Purl

To work a yarn over after a knit and before a purl stitch, bring the working yarn forward into the purl position. Next, bring the yarn over the top of the right needle, then between the needles to the front of the work, ready to purl.

After A Purl + Before A Knit

To work a yarn over after a purl and before a knit stitch, you simply leave the working yarn in the forward purl position, then knit the next stitch as usual. As you knit the stitch, the yarn will automatically come over the top of the right needle, creating a new stitch!

Remember!

A yarn over is just the act of moving the yarn, not the act of knitting or purling a stitch. What this means in real life is that when a pattern says, for example, “k3, yo, k3,” there are only 6 stitches to work, and you knit the first three, make a yarn over (i.e. bring the yarn forward between the needles), then knit the last three.

Give your new skill a try with our lovely free Eyelet Cowl pattern in our laceweight Spindle yarn!

Yarn Over (yo) | Purl Soho

Let us know if you have any questions and good luck with your yarn overs, wherever you meet them!

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