# Veil Stitch - garter stitch with a 360-degree twist



## Jessica-Jean (Mar 14, 2011)

About a dozen years ago, I bought a lovely piece of knitting in a second-hand store. It was too wide to be a scarf and too narrow to be a stole, but the stitch intrigued me. I took it to knitting group meetings and asked even more experienced knitters than I how to duplicate that strange, elongated, twisted garter stitch. No one had a clue, other than manually twisting each stitch through a full 360 degrees. After being frustrated for so many years, I finally ripped it out a year ago and used the yarn for something else.

A week or two ago, I clicked on Veil Stitch http://www.knittingonthenet.com/stitches/veil.htm
I looked at the swatch shown and recognized the elusive pattern I hadn't been able to find for over a decade! Joy! Or so I thought.

Yesterday I finally printed it out. I took it with me to the knitting meeting. Fifteen knitters. About three hundred years of knitting experience. None of us could make heads nor tails of those directions!! We did laugh ourselves silly in the effort, so all was not for naught.

Some bright light suggested I look on YouTube. I'm forever telling others on KP to do that, but I had neglected to do it myself. I don't set a good example, do I?

After watching this video 



 a few times and reading her written directions http://theweeklystitch.blogspot.com/2011/11/veil-stitch.html a few times, I finally understood and am now able to produce that stitch!! I'm delighted!! I'll finally be able to make that lusted-for pattern!!:-D

Thank you for letting me share my tale of woe and joy!!


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## Lacey (Feb 16, 2011)

Here is another site_ shes doing the veil stitch with lots of pictures.

http://www.tsocktsarina.com/blog/?p=61

I think I will try this stitch to make a market bag.

http://thewalkertreasury.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/veil_stitch/


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## Jessica-Jean (Mar 14, 2011)

Lacey said:


> Here is another site_ shes doing the veil stitch with lots of pictures.
> 
> http://www.tsocktsarina.com/blog/?p=61
> 
> ...


Thank you so much for posting that first link! Of course, I never found it before finally understanding how to make it the 'traditional' way. I haven't begun my project yet, so I'll play around and see which method is easiest for me.

I think it would make an admirable market bag, but I'm aiming for the same texture, visual appeal as the scarf/stole thingie I ripped out. Bulky yarn, big needle. It was lovely and soft, just the wrong shape/size for either scarf _or_ stole. There isn't much of 'veil' about it at that weight yarn!

Thank you again for the link to yet another way to achieve it! :-D


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## lvchocl8nknitting (Mar 3, 2011)

admire your perseverance...and your memory!


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## Hilda (Apr 23, 2011)

This would look nice as an open work strip in a shawl. Don't know if I would want to knit a whole item with this stitch. It is very interesting! Thanks!


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## Mevbb (Sep 5, 2011)

This looks interesting. I have not had time to try it but can't wait. Can you imagine it with some beads in it. My son is getting married and I have been shopping with my daughter in law to be. I could maybe knit a veil that would be so different. I have to fool around with it. I can't wait.


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## cotton-head (May 4, 2011)

Just watched the u tube video and 'got it'. . .only problem is that knitted swatch seems to twist a lot. Any comments?
Thanks
Cotton


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## Jessica-Jean (Mar 14, 2011)

cotton-head said:


> Just watched the u tube video and 'got it'. . .only problem is that knitted swatch seems to twist a lot. Any comments?
> Thanks
> Cotton


The added twist to each (and _every_) stitch causes each row to zigzag in the opposite direction from the previous and next. In my - admittedly limited - experience with this stitch's fabric, it lies flat - just like ordinary garter stitch.


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## Becca (Jan 26, 2011)

You mean to tell me I've been doing this stitch for years not knowing the name? though I do it backwards from the demos, I still get the same results, an elongated twisted knit stitch. I even do a purl version. We all live and learn. Thanks for posting the site.

Becca


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## Jessica-Jean (Mar 14, 2011)

Becca said:


> You mean to tell me I've been doing this stitch for years not knowing the name? though I do it backwards from the demos, I still get the same results, an elongated twisted knit stitch. I even do a purl version. We all live and learn. Thanks for posting the site.
> 
> Becca


Don't we all pick up different stitches as we go along and either never learned the stitch's name in the first place, or forgot it by the side of the road of life?

As for the veil stitch ... I imagine it was quite useful and frequently used in the days when women of a certain age, marital status, or 'class' wore a veil every time they stepped out the front door of their house. 
My grandmother was one such; she had the idea firmly entrenched in her mind that she was a 'lady' and above the hoi polloi. (She was quite the Hyacinth Bucket in things social.) She _never_ went out the front door without a hat and its attached veil. She lived long enough to start me into that practice - including lethal 5-inch hatpins to hold the hat on!, but I dropped it as soon as I had to move into my mother's house at age 11.

So, I never encountered the Veil Stitch until that ill-fated scarf/stole wannabe caught my eye. Now (a decade later?), I have finally learned how to duplicate it! I'm a happy camper! :-D


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## memere (Jan 20, 2011)

thanks for sharing your unique find!!!! it reminds me of a double treble in crocheting.! :lol:


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## mdelwell (Apr 16, 2011)

Hm. Love knot stitch in knit. Interesting.


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## Mevbb (Sep 5, 2011)

Got the stitch down pretty easily. I trouble knitting it continental so I am throwing. I am just wondering how a dropped stitch would be picked up.


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## Jessica-Jean (Mar 14, 2011)

I knit continental and have no trouble with it. I'm very careful NOT to drop a stitch, but if dropped - it _does_ happen - you just have to make sure the picked up stitch is equally twisted as the ones beside it. Not really hard, just a bother. This is definitely an eyes-on stitch; no TV watching or stargazing while doing it, at least for me. Maybe after a few thousand rows of it, I _might_ have enough confidence to glance away, but I don't think so. This project is not a travelling project for _me_.


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## Mevbb (Sep 5, 2011)

I will have to practice more for continental knitting. I agree, I cannot look away yet. I do love the outcome. Knitting fool.com has pretty good directions as well.


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## Jessica-Jean (Mar 14, 2011)

I forgot to look on http://www.knittingfool.com/ ! Thank you for point me there. In addition to the Veil stitch, there's the similar-result Lasso stitch. Great! Another to try! :-D


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## ma2ska (Mar 25, 2011)

Congratulations on your succesful quest! Its such a great feeling to FINALLY find the key to unlock the puzzle 

Thank you also for sharing what you have found. I named my file "Jessica-Jean's stitch" and it now contains links and information that I can use when I have forced myself to finish off at least half of the wips laying around here.


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## Jessica-Jean (Mar 14, 2011)

It's a lovely stitch! My scarf-to-be is on huge needles with bulky yarn and is nice and squooshie! I'm sure it's nothing like the veils the stitch is named for, but it's how I first saw the stitch and I'm so happy to be able to reproduce it! Also, it's fun to watch other knitters' faces when the see me doing all that manipulation to make each stitch! It's like the look of non-knitters watching someone working on a set of double-pointed needles. :-D :twisted:


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## Gretchen's Mom (Sep 7, 2011)

Wow...no wonder you were curious about that stitch. It's so open and very airy. I can see using it with something like lace yarn and a big needle. Than you so much for posting it.


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## Jessica-Jean (Mar 14, 2011)

You're welcome!


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## Jessica-Jean (Mar 14, 2011)

Mevbb said:


> I will have to practice more for continental knitting. I agree, I cannot look away yet. I do love the outcome. Knitting fool.com has pretty good directions as well.


Now that I know how to post the correct link: http://knittingfool.com/StitchIndex/StitchDetail.aspx?StitchID=718


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## Jessica-Jean (Mar 14, 2011)

It would seem that some designers have a different name for it: twisted drop stitch. At least, it _seems_ to be the same. I have yet to actually try it.


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## GrumpyGramma (Oct 20, 2014)

I've been playing with this, thank you very much, JJ. The dishes are still waiting. lol
I _think_ the twisted drop stitch gives a different result from veil stitch and that Lasso stitch is the same thing.
The Knitting on the Net instructions twist opposite of the stitches produced in the iknitwithcatfur video; Johnny of New Stitch a day does the English style of the same one and it seems that the Knitting Fool has the same. I say, pick the one that's easier to work and be consistent.

Veil Stitch links:
Knitting on the Net http://www.knittingonthenet.com/stitches/veil.htm
Knitting Fool http://knittingfool.com/StitchIndex/StitchDetail.aspx?StitchID=718
iknitwithcatfur/The Weekly Stitch 



New Stitch a Day 




Lasso stitch http://knittingfool.com/StitchIndex/StitchDetail.aspx?StitchID=1034

Now if I have any of it wrong, please, someone, say so.


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