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Sunday, June 12, 2005

A Gathering of Lace

A new addition to my knitting library.

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I am SO spoiled. And thrilled.

I have been looking around the internet and in local yarn stores for quite some time now. What I have been searching for is a good shawl pattern. Most of the ones out there really don't appeal to me. I have a large skein of hand dyed, lace-weight tencel I would like to knit into something lacey. I don't know if tencel works for that kind of thing or not. I would imagine it would behave something like crochet cotton, you know, lacking the "fuzz" and softness of an alpaca or kid mohair but perhaps having a shimmering, smooth beauty similar to pearl cotton? Anyway, there is no harm in giving it a try. I'm also in the midst of spinning up a huge bag of wool/mohair rovings. It is relatively soft and fuzzy and is plying up to about a fingering weight. I think both of these yarns will find themselves knit into something from the new book. It is cram packed with fantastic lace patterns. The only problem now will be to decide which one to make immediately (as "immediate" as current WIPs will allow of course) and which ones to put on a never ending "must do" list.

Of course that is saying that my first foray into intricate lace doesn't have me tearing out my hair and blubbering inconsolably. I've knit lace before, many times in fact, but nothing that approaches the complexity of the patterns from this book.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't knit with tencel yarns, but I do have a skirt made of tencel... it looks like denim, but is thin and soft and drapey, instead of thick and stiff like real denim is. I would bet tencel would be nice to work with.

Michelle said...

I just ordered A Gathering of Lace and can't wait to get it.

As for the tencel, you shouldn't have a problem knitting lace with it so long as it blocks open. I think the only thing you shouldn't knit lace with is acrylic, just for this reason.