8 Ways to Knit Lace on a Knitting Machine

You don't need a lace carriage or laboriously hand transfer stitches to knit lace on a knitting machine.

No matter what machine you have, as a machine knitter there are many ways of adding holes to our knitting and creating light, open, "lacy" fabrics.

Have you used other methods of creating lace? Comment below and share your experiences.



1 Tension Changes

  • Knit a few rows at a very loose tension, then tighten the tension for a few rows
  • Knit with a yarn that is very fine for your machine
  • Play with "elongated" stitches (manually re-form large stitches)

2 Needles out of Work

  • Cast on with needles out of work to create Ladders
  • Knit a few rows, then alternate the needles out of work

3 Punch Lace | Thread Lace

  • Combine a very fine thread with yarn to create open spaces with stitches knit with thread only
  • Not all machines can work this technique
  • This is NOT fairisle, but a technique that reduces floats

4 Tuck Lace

  • Combine tuck with needles out of work
  • Not all machines will knit tuck stitches directly next to a needle out of work
  • Depending on the number and position of the out of work needles, a very lacy, open fabric can result

Visit the Classroom: Lace on the Machine

5 Shadow lace

A full needle rib technique using stitches manually transferred between beds and combines knit and purl stitches for texture. The transfers create holes.

6Tuck Rib

Combine tuck with ribber fabrics and needles out of work for beautiful, often-reversible lace fabrics.

7 Ribber Laces

8 "Real" Lace (eyelets)

By hand transferring stitches or using a lace carriage on a standard gauge machine, machine knitters can create eyelet type lace like hand knitted lace.

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6 COMMENTS
Sue J
 Jun 9, 2022
Jaws is slang for a Shadow Lace Transfer Tool. It's used to transfer stitches between ribber and main bed. Look for "Shadow Lace" In the glossary to see a photo. https://www.knititnow.com/Glossary/

Mary K
 Jun 9, 2022
What are “JAWS”?

Sue J
 Jun 9, 2022
Here's a link to Mary's "vines" sweater .... beautiful! https://bit.ly/3xAqNKk

Nancy M
 Jun 9, 2022
I would advise getting an adjustable 7 needle transfer tool for hand manipulated lace....once mastered it is a really huge time saver.

Also JAWS makes fast work of just transferring regular stitches to and from ribber. It takes a bit of practice but it saves time ...mastering it is worth the effort. I've never made shadow lace but I've transferred probably thousands of stitches using jaws.

Mary K
 Jun 7, 2022
Last month I finished a “vines” hand manipulated lace on my midgauge. The yarn is some where between sport & fingering yarn. I’d include a photo but don’t know how??

Jenny M B
 Jun 7, 2022
I adore Fine Lace and combining Fine Lace with multiple-transfer Real Lace can produce some stunning fabrics. I realise only Brother machines offer automatic Fine Lace, but it can be created manually on any machine if you only want a small area or have lots of patience.