Simple Way to Make a Lace Pattern Reversible and Keep It from Curling at the Edges

It is great when our lace scarves, wraps and shawls look the same on both sides. But, unfortunately, most lace stitch patterns are not reversible. They look beautiful on the right side of the work and not so good on the wrong side.

It happens because those stitch patterns are based on stockinette stitch. There is a good reason why stockinette stitch is used as a background for lace designs – it creates a smooth even surface that makes a perfect canvas for lace elements.

The downside is – the resulting lace pattern is not reversible. But we can easily change that if we change the background and place the same lace elements on a fully reversible stitch pattern like garter stitch.

It may seem like a complicated task, but, in reality, it is very easy. All we have to do is knit all stitches in every wrong side row instead of purling them. When we work in the round, we should purl stitches in every even-numbered round instead of knitting them. In other words, we do the same thing as we do when we work in a garter stitch pattern.

Let’s take a simple lace pattern as an example. It is a stitch pattern #2 from the free e-book “12 Lace Stitches – From the Easiest to More Challenging” (you are very welcome to download this e-book from the Library of Free Knitting Resources.

Because we purl all stitches in every wrong side row, the pattern has distinct right and wrong sides.

But if we knit all stitches in every wrong side row instead of purling them, the pattern becomes reversible. As a bonus, this small change stops the fabric from curling and the swatch stays flat even without blocking.

This concept is also explained in this video tutorial.

Use this stitch pattern as an all-over stitch for a lace scarf or a wrap, and your project will look the same on both sides of the work. Remember to add selvedge stitches to make the edges of your scarf neat and clean (here’s a book that describes twelve ways to create neat side edges).

---

The full step-by-step photo tutorial about this method, is a part of the Knitting Collection #5. Once you order your copy of this collection, you will instantly receive a “big PDF” (336 pages!) with this and 46 other tutorials included in the collection.

You will also receive three knitting patterns as a special bonus, so go ahead and get it all right now before you forget 😊

---

If you enjoyed this tutorial,
here’s something else you might find helpful:

---

---