We liken lace knitting to making a souffle: To the uninitiated, it exudes an aura of mystery and difficulty; but when the work is done, you realize it is mostly air and no trick at all.
Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swansen, Vogue Knitting, Winter 92-93.
Mostly airI love this quote. Elizabeth Zimmermann had the gift of expressing things succinctly!
In between working on the Pine Tree Sock, my little wall quilt, and my Brocade Leaves sweater, I cast on for another lace project. Resistance was futile.
The pattern is again from Victorian Lace Today, the Large Rectangle in Leaf and Trellis Pattern (p 52). Though I am only doing one repeat across, instead of two, so that I will have a scarf instead of a shawl. See gorgeous full size versions of it here and here.
For the yarn, I am again using Misti Baby Alpaca Lace, in natural. I love this yarn. Very nice and extremely generous with the yardage. So generous that I have tons left of the red from my last scarf.
The pattern is bothering me slightly, though. If you look at the picture, you can see that the stockinette section is larger on the left side than the right side. It has two extra stockinette stitches, so the pattern is not completely centered. It's a tiny error in the chart. I have already done six repeats, so I don't have the heart to frog it. It will be one of those imperfections that shows it was handmade. Handmade with love :)
On a Lace related topic, I have good news for North American lovers of Japanese knitting books. They are now available here, at the Needle Arts Book Shop. The lace sweater at the top of the page is spectacular. I can see this becoming a new obsession for me... Lace knitting, finally in Japanese!
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Ooh, I have some yarn earmarked for the very same shawl! Yours is looking great already.
ReplyDeleteHege, the Leaf and Trellis is SO very pretty! You have some of the very best projects going... in fact, while I can't seem to find serious knitting time I'll just get my knitting thrill vicariously through you...is that alright?
ReplyDeleteLene at Dances with Wool just finished Henry VIII, go take a look, you'll appreciate it. :^)
Beautiful lace Hege - I love this pattern :)
ReplyDeleteThe lace looks beautiful! I have that book too and your knitting inspires me to start thinking about picking out a pattern and yarn for a project!
ReplyDeleteMmm ... I have to pay really hard attention to find the extra stitches ... so not really that bothering. But of course, the one who knits it would always spot it at once.
ReplyDeleteIt is beautiful ... don't frog it. :)
That's really lovely!
ReplyDeletecome to australia and give brooke and me a tutorial
ReplyDeleteHege; The scarf is going to be beautiful. I didn't notice the problems until you so openly pointed them out. But, as mentioned above nobody will notice the slight flaws because your work is flawless! You do have some of the most beautiful projects going. Love your progress reports.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the wonderful quote. Your scarf looks beautiful so far. I love handmade details :)
ReplyDeletebeautiful bit of air there... now how do you read the japanese patterns? I keep looking at their books, and don't get them for fear of getting half way in to the pattern and being stuck for translations...
ReplyDeleteI envy lace knitters. Such magnificent outcomes.
ReplyDeleteIt is so beautiful...lace is too powerful to resist!
ReplyDeleteDet er da noen fantastiske mønster du gir deg ut på! Det er jo den reneste blondestrikkingen. Supert. Titter innom igjen for å se det ferdige resultatet!
ReplyDeleteHei Hege! Jeg fant bloggen din på den franske siden Le nouveau rond de Sorcières og regnet med at du var like norsk som meg. jeg har både en fransk blogg og en norsk blogg, og har bedt om medlemsskap i dag. Så nydelige plagg du har strikket fra Victorian Lace today, jeg har nettopp i dag bestilt boka, den er aldeles nydelig!
ReplyDeleteAnni would call that 2 stitch discrepancy a 'design feature' :) Oh and Elizabeth was always so modest, your 'mostly air' is magnificent.
ReplyDelete