Lessons from a Lace Knitting Beginner

Yesterday I finished my first knitted lace--Laura Nelkin's "Skywalker" shawl, in a lavender alpaca from Frog Tree.   It's a lovely shawl, and I had the help of her Craftsy online class. (Good class, by the way.)

I've been knitting for a long time, but I tend to not gauge ("Gauge, Schmauge" is my motto) or--obviously--do any garments that required fitting.   In other words, I've done any number of spectacular afghans, scarves, etc.  (Oh, and one sock.  I really like socks and I swear I'm going to back and make the other one, and then some.)

My attention span is roughly equivalent to that of a 2 year old, but I am pretty left-brained and generally take direction well.

All of this is by way of background for lessons I can pass along to other beginning lace knitters, and perhaps a bit to designers.

1) Learning to read charts is a good idea.  Really.  I'm a librarian, so text and words have been my bread-and-butter for nearly half a century.  Most people are visual learners (I'm actually more kinesthetic) and, while I started out reading the text instructions, as I've done all my knitting life, it really is easier to keep track of where you are on a chart.

2) Better too many lifelines than too few.  I had never used lifelines before, but I can't imagine that you could do lace without them, especially if you're a beginner with lace.  Trust me on this.  Ask me how I know.

3) You can't multi-task on this one.  I know, women are really good at that and you probably all saw the woman knitting at Wimbledon but I can guarantee, without knowing exactly what she was working on, that it was not lace.   Maybe a designer can knit a relatively simple pattern of her own without paying close attention but fellow beginners, you and I cannot.   You might think you can slip in a TV show or an Olympic event, or a conversation with a friend but that's a big no.

4) Find a pattern for beginners.  Skywalker was designed specifically for beginners, for a class, and built stitches and skills as the pattern progressed.   Find some lace patterns on Ravelry (look for those that are for beginners) and take a look at them.  Does it look like a pattern that YOU could do, i.e., is it written logically and in a way that makes sense to you?   As with everything, some patterns are better for YOU than others.   When you find a designer whose designs make sense for you, get more practice by doing more than one design.  There are many terrific designers out there. Explore and have fun!  (And designers, please keep in mind that you can "recruit" beginners if you design a few patterns that beginners can handle.)

5) Use yarn that you'll enjoy working with for awhile, and will be something you'll wear or use often when you're finished.   Use a light-colored yarn, rather than a dark--it's easier to see your stitches.  Choose something that's beautiful to you; something of a similar content to what was used for the pattern sample is a pretty safe bet.

6) Lace can look, well, not like you think it should when it's on the needles.  It really becomes what it's supposed to be when it has been blocked.  If it looks less lacy than the finished sample in the pattern's photo don't be discouraged.  It will look better when it's blocked.

Here's what Skywalker looked like when it came off the needles, but before it was blocked.  It looked pretty messy when it was still on the needles, because it was all scrunched up.  (The toes are an added bonus in the photo.  I don't have a long enough attention span to give myself a pedicure.)

7) Most of all, enjoy the learning.  Lace really is beautiful and it can be relatively simple or quite complicated.    If you're a perfectionist, cut yourself some slack and let yourself enjoy learning.

ENJOY!

Settling in for Olympics and Ravellenic Games

Today I am just back from visiting a friend in Grinnell, and from more shopping than we had anticipated we would do.  :-)   We visited 3 quilt shops--more about those projects later--and several shops in the Amanas, including the Amana Woolen Mill, where I picked up these wonderful spindles.  (Doesn't that one with the dark wood look a bit like the black sheep of the wool spindle family?)

This woolen mill is the last of the 7 mills that existed when the Amanas were the Amana Colonies, of the communal Community of True Inspiration and each village  had a mill,  kitchen etc.  Things have changed a great deal since the 'Great Change" in the late 1930s, but this mill continues.  On my way, I mentioned that I was also a weaver and they noted that I can buy cotton and wood by the pound from them.  I'll have to think about  a trip back there it check that out in more detail.

But now that the Olympics are in full swing, it's time for me to settle into some serious knitting and crocheting for the Ravellenic Games--while ideas for art quilts are dancing around in my head.  At some point I'm going to have to take some time to sketch ideas in the sketch book, lest I lose track of them.

Arctic Lace Luxury Yarn Club: Tour de Fleece Day Something

The "welcome aboard" package for the Arctic Lace Luxury Yarn Club arrived today!  I don't think I should show the content just yet; I don't want to have to do a spoiler alert.  :-)

I'm looking forward to the next few months of the Club; I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I'm plugging away on my Skywalker shawl, and have purchased yarn for the KAL for yarnaddictanni's Elegance scarf.

BFL and Lace; Tour de Fleece Day Whatever

All right, I admit that I've lost track of the days.  It was a l-o-n-g week at my day job and I didn't get much spinning or fiber work accomplished. 

On the spinning side, I did do a bit of BFL on the wheel--some of my hand-dyed.  I'm almost halfway through that and if I would just sit down at the wheel again I could polish off at least that much!

Yesterday, as I was feeling a little "punk" I built a nest on the living room sofa and watched some Craftsy class videos.  I started with the lesson in Laura Nelkin's "Mastering Lace Shawls" appropriate to where I'm at with the Skywalker Shawl.  I was not looking forward to that particular section because I wasn't sure I understood what she was going to do with the extra wraps but as soon as I saw it (I love videos, don't you??) it was easy peasy.  The lessons moved on, I moved on, and I made more progress on the shawl than I had anticipated.   It looks positively ghastly on the needles now, as it's "stuffed" on the circulars, but here's a pic of it just before I started yesterday.

 

Last night I finished the "base" of the Pax shawlette.  I think I'll go back and practice the edging on my practice piece before starting it on the "real" shawlette; it has a series of short rows right next to each other, and some increases and decreases that confused me a bit when I first tried them.  We'll see how that goes!

I'll also be signing up for (or, at least following along unofficially) a KAL, starting in August.  More about that later.

Oh, oh.  I just saw that Craftsy has an online class on artisan bread making.  Now I'm hungry AND I want to take another class.  I'll be strong--I'm in the midst of an online class at work, and will soon be starting creativity coach training.   But I can still EAT artisan bread, right?  That won't take much time.  :-)

Happy spinning, knitting, crocheting, weaving, quilting, ...creating!