Lace designing

July 06, 2007

I am narrowing in on a shawl design. First, I think I am anatomically incapable of knitting someone else's design without at least tinkering with it. Sharon Miller (Heirloom Knitting) says that is a good way to break into designing: changing this or that on someone else's design. I sometimes do this. I used to do it more, so perhaps she is right.

Now, however, I am more likely to envisage what I want, loosely or precisely defined in my mind and on paper, and go after it step by step. Sometimes I take bits and pieces from somewhere else, and sometimes not. For instance, I'll briefly show you the process of design I followed on a shawl I knit this spring.

I took a shape I like (Faroese); I tinkered with an edging I liked to make it suit the picture in my mind, and knit a bunch of repeats for the bottom edge of the shawl.

If you have the book Victorian Lace Today, by Jane Sowerby, you might recognize part of this edging. I chopped off the top, which did not fit my plan nor behave the way I wanted, and just simplified it to a pretty, picot-covered little frilly thing. (I'd show you the swatches but I think they are up the hill with all the rest of my knitting-things-not-needed-till-this-house-sells stuff).

Then I picked up stitches all along the edge to knit up on the body.

The whole time I was working the 800 repeats of the edging (OK so maybe it was only 90 repeats, but with all the little picot points it sure felt like 800)-- that whole time, ideas for the body were percolating. Flowers, gardens, shrubs, roses-- these were most of my thoughts; also I wanted to include traditional Shetland lace elements. I realize that the result thereof can be neither Faroese, nor Shetland, nor any other tradition, exclusively; but it is mine--which was my aim.

So roses, trees, ferns and the like became part of the body lace patterns:

...and I kept on going with basic Faroese-inspired shaping until I finished.

Here it is, back...

and front:

A simple little shoulder shawl, perfect for the summer.

The yarn is called "Shine" from Joslyn's Fiber Farm. Needles were old Susan Bates Nylon needles in, I believe, a 3mm needle on the small side of 3mm.

OK.

Now, however, I have more of a traditional Shetland shawl in mind. Square, delicate (but probably not knit with cobweb weight yarn, nor Wedding Ring shawl-like... though I am not yet ruling anything out). I started out thinking I'd knit one of Sharon Miller's designs exactly as she designed it. (see here)

Well, I am not going to do that. I love part of her center plan, however, and have started some swatches. First, Jaggerspun Zephyr in Vanilla, blocked:

Sorry about the flash, the swatch was on my bureau which is more reflective than I realized. (Ah, and whoops, I just noticed I loaded it upside down. Oh well. Sorry...)

Pretty nice, hm? Perhaps the solid portions are too airy? Perhaps a smaller needle? I will do that, but first I tried a different yarn.

Tongue River Farm laceweight, half Icelandic lambswool, half kid mohair. (It is here) An odd yarn, it is crisp and hairy un-washed. I almost stopped knitting it halfway thru the swatch, see how it looks un-stretched:

I wasn't sure what it would do. Since it is still on the needle I just pinned it out to show you how it opens up.

Pretty amazing transformation, huh? That is one of the things that thrills my soul with lace: metamorphosis from crumpled fabric to a thing of great delicacy and beauty.

Final blocking after a good bath often reveals something very different about a yarn, so even though I am not currently thinking that the Icelandic mix is the yarn for this project, I may change my mind.

(Oh and of course it will become *something*. I am a huge Icelandic yarn enthusiast-- how can you not love a fiber from a sheep that has remained essentially unchanged for more than a thousand years, and is in all probability much the same as the wool Leif Eriksson wore?? And there are a lot of shawls in this