Thursday, October 16, 2008

Lace Knitting

Okay, so I've decided to try my hand at lace knitting. It certainly looks a great deal more challenging than mere shaping, and for larger objects such as shawls and stoles, you have the issue of BLOCKING. Hooray! Well, it is not as if I have never attempted lace knitting per se; I suppose it should be: I have never attempted lace knitting on such a large scale with such fine yarn. With the arrival of 3 skeins of green laceweight from England and other such goodies (not to mention the Rowan tweedy yarn in a brown colourway and the forest green!), I can hardly wait! Back to blocking: After reading 3 articles regarding blocking, I am reminded again that my little world of knitting is but the tip of the iceberg. What I know about knitting toys, bags, dabbling (a little!) in design...what information I have gained in this one year of intense knitting learning, whether it is from the internet or my small collection of books.

Here are the links to the (very useful) articles:

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2005/08/23/walk_around_the_block.html

http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/2006/12/how_to_be_happy.html

http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/2006/05/block_me_amadeus_1.html

Not to mention the sheer size of the project itself (although it is true that one does not require a lot of yarn). My head is swimming with the mere thought of lace knitting! Small items, such as lace panels on bags, or little knitted angels (by Gerdine Strong) are not so bad, at their very largest, they are 20+ rows and voila, you're done!

Another thing: CHARTS. I admit I am not a very good chart reader. I will probably forget what half the symbols mean. On top of that I WILL not remember to read odd rows from right to left and even from left to right...or however it is, I'm sure you know what I means when it comes to reading charts. *sigh* HOWEVER! There is yarn begging to be knitted! And all the other more adventurous projects for a knitter who prefers smaller items, even toys and the like, that can be knitted up in a few evenings, with small amounts of yarn. (Obviously I can't afford a lot of yarn, so 2-3 50g skeins is already plenty!)

Well, all in good time. To be honest, all I need right now is to not get so excited about yarn, get some work done, go home, and sleep. Then I suppose my brain will be better suited to dream of knitting nirvana...