Well, it would seem like the dog days of summer are upon us in full force – at least in the Northern Hemisphere. I don’t know about where you are, but here in Vancouver BC the sun is shining and people are tanning. As for myself, I’m getting organized (from the move), getting some sun when I can, hiking, playing baseball, and of course … knitting. As a matter of fact, this post is a day late as yesterday I went on a hike with my friend Jason. We did the Elfin Lakes hike in Garabaldi Park in Squamish BC. This is a knitting blog so I won’t go into details but if you want a link to some of the pictures we took let me know and I’ll let you see what we saw. The reason I’m even mentioning it is because I even managed to get in a couple of rows. Actually, I’ve decided that I will take some knitting on every hike I go and take some pictures. Here’s the one from yesterday …
That is Garabaldi mountain in the background. It would be nice to stay there and knit an entire sweater! Well, on to today’s topic. Remember a while back I promised a knit-a-long doing lace? Well, we’re going to do just that. Before we get into the KAL though, I’d like to give you a little background information on lace. When most people think of lace knitting a few things come to mind – holes, thin yarn, shawls, and small needles. While all of these things and more apply to lace knitting, they do not entirely define it. There are general guidelines to creating lace knitting but they are guidelines. If anything we have seen in the last 20 or so years that knitters can be quite innovative and are capable of adapting styles and techniques to suit their particular needs or styles. So we will look at lace knitting in terms of what these techniques and guidelines are, and then explore how we can incorporate them into contemporary patterns. Don’t worry, we will also look at some unique and original patterns that have paved the way for lace knitting in general.
So to begin, let’s look at the typical definition or characteristics of lace knitting. Lace knitting typically refers to knitting with patterned holes in it. This is a very broad and far reaching definition but we will make it more concise as we go along. The patterned holes in LK are usually created through yarn overs (yo) which is wrapping the yarn around your needle between two stitches. This is actually an increase and usually in LK each yo has a corresponding decrease. If you don’t match them with a decrease your work will rapidly grow. This is sometimes done to create a specific effect so you must be careful to read the pattern to get a full understanding of what is happening in it. Speaking of patterns, LK is a lot like cable knitting. It is far easier to get your instructions from a chart than to read a written format of what the next stitch is. If you are not familiar with reading charts you can find lots of resources on how to do this. It is worth the time to learn how to do this as it will help you in many more areas than just LK. Charts are a quick and easy way for a designer to represent a pattern for just about any project. I will have a post on reading charts once we start the Lace Knit-A-Long. Over the next few weeks though we’ll get comfortable with knitting lace squares before picking and actually doing a full lace KAL.
I’ll also get the help of a friend of mine from Men Who Kit and Ravelry – MMario. Some of you may even know him or have worked one of his patterns. You can find him and his amazing works on Ravelry using that name. If you have any lace projects that you think might be suitable for a KAL please send me a note about them and/or a pattern link or PDF. As for materials, while we’re learning we’ll use a medium quality DK weight yarn. A merino wool, superwash wool, or 6 -ply (DK weight) sock yarn will do nicely. If using sock yarn go with a lighter, solid color. Matching needles will also be needed – probably in the range of 3.5 – 4mm. If you’ve never done lace before you might want to use some bamboo or wood needles as they have a little more grab than nickel plated needles but will still allow you to work quickly as your skills develop. I’ll get more into recommended needles and yarns before we get into the project. Before we do a full project we’ll do a few squares for you to actually make a mini-sampler. Once we actually start the KAL (and the last square just before) we’ll be using much smaller needles and lace weight yarn. Hopefully you’ll join me!
Hugzzz 😎