Symmetrical lace chevrons

The bottom chevron is the traditional one, asymmetrical, but with a more open YO. The top one uses a modified "bunny ear" decrease with a yarn over inserted between the two halves. This makes for better symmetry, but a less open YO at the bottom of the V.
The bottom chevron is the traditional one, asymmetrical, but with a more open YO. The top one uses a modified “bunny ear” decrease with a yarn over inserted between the two halves. This makes for better symmetry, but a less open YO at the bottom of the V.

(Click the image for a larger version.)

The traditional method of making a chevron of yarn overs in lace creates a dilemma for people who dislike asymmetry: the bottom yarn over can only have one decrease next to it[1]. This makes my brain itch. Sometimes I’ve knit things with this chevron design in them anyway because I liked them enough to overcome the itch.

But I recently had an idea which I would like to share with you. In the last few years I came up with (and then discovered that someone else had come up with it independently) a mirrored single decrease that happens over two stitches. A short name for the one I’ve described already in another post is “Bunny Ears Back“, which hides the decreased stitch in the back. (As of 2023, I’m calling this “centered single decrease – back.)

The one I modified in the top part of the photo above is a variant of “Bunny Ears Forward”.

The general principle of the Bunny Ears decreases is that you knit two stitches together and then pick up the second of the two stitches that were knit together and knit it together with the next stitch, but leaning in the opposite direction. This makes the decrease have two sides that mirror each other instead of slanting in one direction or the other.

I realized that I could make use of this symmetry for the base of any future chevrons by inserting a yarn over into the middle of the decrease. Here’s how:

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Knit two together in a right leaning decrease (k2tog) leaving the second stitch on the needle.

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Yarn over.

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Knit the next two stitches together in a left leaning decrease (ssk). The middle stitch is decreased away, but sits in front, wrapped around the two remaining stitches. There is a yarn over in the middle.

You might prefer the asymmetry and the more open yarn over; I prefer the less open yarn over and the symmetry of my version. The beauty of making things is that we can modify patterns or designs to suit ourselves.

[1]: There is an exception: if you need an increase in that spot, you can omit the single decrease next to the yarn over; if you need a decrease, you can put a decrease leaning the other way on the other side of the yarn over.