Reflections on Knitted Lace

I've recently cast on Cold Mountain by KnitLab (http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer09/PATTcoldmountain.php ), Kieran Foley aka KnitLab is one of my favourite designers. It's my second Cold Mountain, the first was one of my first lace weight knits, it was made for me and I adored the stole – from knitting to wearing it was a pleasure. I've also made a number of his other designs, including SeaScape, most of his patterns can be found on his website www.kieranfoley.com This one is being made as a gift.

I tend to make a lot of knitted lace as gifts – as a general rule the amount I would need to charge for a lace shawl is not something people are willing to pay. A handknitted lace gift is something special that comes straight from the heart. Below are some picture of other lace items I've made over the years.

So who is so special as to receive the shawl currently on my needles. My daughter's school principal is going to be the beneficiary of this shawl. My little girl is graduating from primary school this year, her principal has made her first 8 years of formal education go so smoothly. She's an amazing lady who has devoted the last nearly 40 years to the children she has taught, she has chosen to retire this year and I know she appreciates a handmade gift more than anything I could purchase for her. I'm sure the school will do something special for her but I wanted to do something more personal. I'm very proud of the young lady she is becoming and I owe part of that to her school and it's principal.

So what attracts me to a lace pattern? You would be surprised to hear that flashy photographs aren't top of my list, the pattern has to appeal to me but the difference between admiring and casting on is:

1. How well the pattern is written – I know for some people the overall effect is number 1 but really if the pattern isn't well written then I'm never going to be able to reproduce the item.
2. Beads – I avoid them like the plague! They get caught in everything when you're wearing the item and if you miscount the beads at the beginning you have to break the yarn and have to rethread and every time you have to break the yarn you have to weave in the ends and it's always  tricky to weave in ends on a lace pattern.
3. Repeating patterns – I like them. Once you've knit up one pattern repeat you don't have to constantly refer to the pattern which just speeds everything up!
4. Charts – yes – I love them!
5. Yarn/Yardage. I rarely use the yarn specified in a pattern – I live in a small village in Ireland, you can't just walk into your LYS and pick up the exact yarn for every pattern you can find on the internet. A couple of times each year I will travel to Dublin and Cork, visit the better yarn shops there, smell, fondle and snuggle the yarns, buy what I need but commit the other information to memory so that I can order online knowing the yarn will work for the project. Sometimes I will buy on spec, you can estimate that 800 – 1000m of laceweight yarn will make a good sized lace shawl so really once I've run through items 1 to 4 above the yardage of the yarn on hand will decide if I proceed with the pattern or not.
6. Don't do deadlines – or if you must double the amount of time you think you'll need!
7. If you're not loving making it then just frog it and pick a different pattern!

Just a final note - no matter how much you want to wear the finished item blocking is essential for the lace pattern to pop!

Next time – Holiday Knitting in France!

Keep an eye out for my new Etsy Shop – Lough Derg Knits – which will be up and running from the beginning of July 2016!