So, now that I finally finished my very long UFO lace
projects, I’m looking for my next knitting project: more lace, of course!
(Actually in the meantime, I am also working on some socks
for Mr. Man, a prayer shawl, and various swatches of lace stitches that I’ve
always wanted to try out.)
At first, I thought I would be content to knit different
lace patterns into more and more rectangles forever and ever amen, using one of
Barbara Walker’s treasuries for inspiration.
And that’s still a good idea…
(Oh, now there is this one lace scarf pattern that I
bought from a gal on Etsy that I want to knit up with a ball of Rowan Kidsilk
Haze soon…)
But then I was surfing on Ravelry, and fell in love with so
many of the lace patterns there. I was
surprised, though, to see that most of them are triangular shawls.
Then I realized that the triangle shape would be popular
because you have those long sides of the V upon which to knit all sorts of
delicious pointy lace patterns.
But when I look at the triangle shawl instructions, I can’t
make sense of them at all. The charts
don’t even look triangle-shaped. They
look like gobbledegook to my poor brain.
It turns out they assume I know what I’m doing. (!!!)
Hahaha How silly of
them! Why would they think that???
Well, I found 2 patterns to help me get some systematic
learning:
One is called the “Confidence Shawl”, and is on the Lost
City Knits website. Denise goes into
great detail on teaching you all those things that others assume you know how to
do, especially how to read the charts correctly.
Here’s the link to her website: http://lostcityknits.com/ She sells beautiful yarn on her website in
addition to her patterns. It’s like
one-stop shopping! She hails from east
Oklahoma, so she’s practically local.
She works with small farmers and hand-dyes every skein herself. She’s living the dream, so I love to promote
and support her whenever I can.
The Confidence Shawl isn’t a lace shawl pattern, but it’s a
nice introduction to knitting a triangular shawl and understanding its
construction. Knitting it gives you
“confidence” to take the next step.
BTW, it is a point-up type triangular shawl. You begin with casting on 3 stitches and end
up with a bazillion stitches across the top of the shawl.
I’m not even halfway through knitting that, and the rows are
definitely getting longer! Thank heavens
for stitch markers!
I can’t decide which pattern to knit after that. I’m considering two. One is called “A Beginner’s Lace Shawl”. It is found here: http://www.loopknitlounge.com/2013/01/beginners-lace-shawl/
And the other one is called the “Ashton Shawlette”.
I found them by googling and surfing the Internet and Ravelry.
Both of them are knit top down, as opposed to point-up. And they both have extra instructions for
those of us who are beginners to a garter stitch tab shawl, and don’t have a
class or teacher to fill us in on how it’s done. <whew>
And nowadays, there are even YouTube videos to help,
too! Isn’t technology wonderful??
Today I am leaning toward the Ashton Shawlette, because it
seems like a logical next step after the Confidence Shawl.
I haven’t started it yet because I am still in the throes of
knitting the Confidence Shawl, but I think I have picked out some yarn in my
stash that I will use for it.
Maybe…
That’s subject to change.
Hourly.
But isn’t that half the fun??
XOXO,
Lucky Dog
♥
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