This is what’s on my coffee table at the moment. Guess what I’m up to!

That’s right, I’m going to try to design something. Something lacy, in fact. That involves charting my own lace pattern.

In addition to the books piled on the coffee table, I’ve ordered a copy of Margaret Stove’s Creating Original Handknitted Lace and a ginormous cone of Jaggerspun Zephyr. I figured, what better way to make a dent in 5,000 yards of laceweight, than to knit several dozen test swatches and then a lace stole of my own design?

My idea is for the lace pattern to resemble aloha print, so the finished stole matches my knock-’em-dead red aloha minidress. I’ll be chronicling my efforts here, for better or for worse. Any advice or suggestions for additional resources would be much appreciated.

Author: Meg Swansen
Publisher: XRX, Inc.
Rating:
Buy A Gathering of Lace on Amazon.com

I never fancied myself a shawl-wearer, but this book may have made a convert out of me. A Gathering of Lace includes a huge variety of gorgeous shawls. My favorites are the Feather & Fan Shawl (p. 56) and the Frost Flowers & Leaves Shawl (p. 59).

This book is a true gathering of lace; the projects are diverse, both in type and in construction. Projects range from stoles, shawls, and shrugs to socks, hats–the Picture Hat (p. 142) is truly amazing, gloves, and pillows. The construction of all the projects is highly varied, as are the required yarns. Needles sizes for projects range from 000 for the Magickal Earth Shawl (p. 74) to 10 for the large Faroese Shawl (p. 32), Spiral Shawl (p. 79), and Super-Spiral Shawl (p. 82).

I think it’s safe to say that you could knit all the projects in this book without ever feeling like you’re just doing a variation on a theme.

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Two socks, two circs, one foot. And I guess one bag.

I present to you what appears to be a successful heel turn and set of gusset decreases on the straight-laced socks. This is getting exciting!

My only beef with the project so far is the yarn. I’m using Fortissima Socka. I love the color, but it comes out of the skein like hairballs out of a cat. There’s some intense buildup, and then all of a sudden you have a snarly mess on your floor.

Combine that with the already-messy two socks on two circs method, and well, I’ve probably spent 20% of my time untangling yarn from yarn and yarn from knitting. I’m going to have to work out a better system. I already have something in mind, and it involves making a felted bag.