Skip to main content

Lace - Next New Thing

Last week Bernet put out a free pattern for the Little Arrows Lace Shawl.

Little Arrows Lace Shawl
The pattern says it requires intermediate skill, but when it comes to knitting lace my skills are elementary to be sure.  This lack of skill however didn't keep me from giving the Little Arrows a try.

There were a few of reasons why this pattern was important to me now:
  • It seemed about time to put my fear of lace to rest.  I have been upping my game and lace would be a nice addition.   Many knitters fear knitting lace because it is totally unforgiving.  If one makes a mistake the work must be taken apart and redone.  Thus lace knitting requires much more concentration than other types of knitting.
  • Undoing lace is easy, but putting all the right stitches back on the needles is tough.  To create the holes that make lace so pretty a number of special stitches are used consecutively including the yarn over, (yo), knit two together (K2 tog), slip slip knit (ssk) and slip 2 (Sl2) knit 1 (K1) and pass the two slipped stitches over (psso).  All these different stitches makes for head aches after the undoing process is complete.   A life line is essential unless you are one of those knitters who never makes a mistake in the entire project; and I'm not one of those type of knitters.
  • Reading charts is not my forte, but charts are so much easier to follow when knitting lace than the written word.  So I'll be improving my chart reading skills as I make this shawl.
  • The pattern calls for crochet thread; it is what makes the shawl so drapey.  And for reasons I'm not sure I can recall, I happen to have some crochet thread in my stash.  Granted it is pink, but I think it will work up perfectly.
So on Friday evening I started the process and as expected it is a slow slog.  I have to count stitches at the end of each row to make sure the count is right.  The life line needs to be added after every 12 rows; removing it and then inserting it again slows one down as well.  So here's what it looks like so far with the gray life line showing.



As I prepared for this photo shoot I noticed a mistake.  Look at the center of the photo below.  See how there is a line of "Vs" running up the center and one row above the life line?  Then above that one row the "Vs" stop. That's the row on which I made the error.  (This entire process is called "reading your knitting, BTW.)   All I have to do is pull back to the life line and start this section again.  Thank goodness for that lifeline.



Stay turned as I move forward with this project.  If it works I'll be picking up more appropriately coloured crochet thread to make another.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...
2 comments
Read more

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing.  I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away.  Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close.  Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening.  As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend.  Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration.  I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned ou...
1 comment
Read more

Knitting-Related Guinness World Records

I had to share some of the Guinness World Records connected with knitting.  It is amazing to me the type of skill, stamina and unique characteristics these record holders have in common. How about trying to knit with these SPNs?? Ingrid Wagner and her large needles and knitted swatch The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner, a rug and art creation artist, from the UK used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on March, 10 2008.  (And I complained about getting certain SPNs stuck in my clothes.)  See how this swatch was done with merely 5 people managing the needles.  And what about the yarn?  It is truly ex-bulky.  It looks like they're knitting in a warehouse, but with a wingspan of almost 24 feet or 7 m, you'd need all that space.  Or h...
1 comment
Read more