Sunday, July 22, 2007

Diving Into Lace

I can't help it. It's summer--how natural it is to pick up a pair of sleek and cool lace needles and a cone of equally sleek and cool thread and embark on a swatching session?

See what I've got:


The pattern's A Harebell Fichu, from Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace Today. I found a few super fantastic finished ones here. Well, if you haven't recognized it right away, it's probably because I used a super fine yarn--ColourMart 2/28 silk. The photo upstairs was taken when the swatch was still wet.

As it dries, the yarn starts to shine:


The Sl1-K4tog-PSSOs were quite fun to do, and the resulting nubs look so pretty to me! I would modify the pattern a bit and add some more of these. Another modification I have in mind is to make the picots larger. What we have here--they are at the left edge--are formed with CO 2 sts, BO 2 sts. I'd go with more than 2 sts.

Right after I finished the swatch, Fleegle tempted all lace knitters again (!) by posting outrageously attractive lacy designs by Lene Holme Samsøe. Unfortunately I cannot justify the >$40 shipping rate for now. To compensate, I played with my lace needles and Zephyr to make a lacy tree.


The other half of the inspiration came from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature. Remember her Phyllotaxis-themed designs?

Oh and I went to Vogue Knitting's website last night--they've just updated it (Fall 07 is VK's 25th anniversary issue) and there are many free patterns to download! I love the colors! And once again Norah showed us what she can do--amazing. I'll definitely go pick up a copy.

11 comments:

Just call me Ruby said...

I love the colour of the colourmart 2/28 silk. And I love the danish book. I'm very tempted. Can't speak any danish but presume it will be charted with schematics? Beautiful stuff

for now
Ruby

soknitpicky said...

Your lace is lovely, esp #2! Thanks for the heads up on the new Vogue Knitting

Jackie said...

OMG, absolutely amazing. Don't you just love the magic of lace and VLT. Hope you've found your way to the VLT Yahoo group ;-)

Probably Jane said...

Oh no - having just got back from Norway I imagined myself wedded to colour work for the next few months but now I have seen your lace... I particularly like the tree.

Jackie said...

Love the colourmart 2/25 silk too.

Anonymous said...

I've just seen Jellyfish and think it looks lovely.

fleegle said...

Okay, Iris. Give over the tree pattern. Both the tree and the sample are lovely lovely.

Harry says thanks, but he isn't happy with it and he won't come out of his Altoids box. Looks like I will have to tempt him with some new lace yarn...

Connie said...

Very pretty swatches, Iris :)

And speaking of Nora Gaughan. I *love* her duster in the Fall Interweave Knits preview. That woman is phenomenal!

Lucy said...

Iris - your lace knitting is so pretty ( I love the tree ) Thanks for visiting my blog - you MUST learn to crochet - you will be fantastic at it!!)

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Your lace tree is absolutely magnific, and I was wondering if it comes flying from your hands, or if you found the pattern in some book ? Please, could you tell me how to make it or how to recognize from the photo the kind of stitches to reproduce it ? (I'm a newly knitter)



Thanks for all.

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