Lovin’ This Lace

January 17th, 2010 by Gwynn | Posted in On The Needles |

I love to knit lace. I do. I love it. I don’t knit it all the time but when a pattern strikes me and I have just the right yarn, I love knitting lace. And this Leaf Lace Shawl I’m knitting now is AMAZING.

The pattern itself is lovely. All leaves and trailing vines… As lace goes it’s not a hard pattern to get the rhythm of and it only patterns on the right side. (On the back you are knitting knits and purling purls.) But what makes it truly amazing is the scale. Two strands of a super bulky yarn knit on size 35 needles. 1.25 stitches per inch. How often do you get to look at knitting on this type of scale?

I think knitting itself is magical; it will forever astound me that a person can pick up yarn and two sticks and make a garment. (or any other thing) You don’t even have to understand knitting to make something. You just need to master the knit stitch. You can go along forever without really understanding it and then you knit something at a gauge of 1.25 stitches to the inch. WOW! Suddenly the difference between SSK and K2tog makes all the sense in the world. These trailing vines have forever changed the way I look at lace and I loved it to begin with.

You don’t have to go crazy and buy 20 balls of Como and a pair of size 35 needles. Pick a lovely lace pattern and your favorite bulky yarn. Go a little crazy and double it on size 15′s and watch this magic happen for yourself. Call me and I’ll help you with the chart.