Knitting Lace

Many years ago (hard to believe, but true), I wanted to learn to knit lace. It was probably when I first lived in the Bay Area, literally a starving student, so I hate to say this, but almost 20 years!!! (How does the time fly???) It seemed so hard to me, even though I crocheted very complex lace doilies, lacy afghans, and even made a king sized bedspread from a lacy popcorn stitch!

But, I'm now determined to not only learn, but master, this ancient and honored art.

True to me (haha), I'm not starting out that easy. I'm using a lace weight mohair (which is like a HAIR) and making a scarf (hopefully) from an old English Mesh Lace stitch, from Barbara Walker's Treasury of Knit Patterns (a great set of volumes to have for any knitter's library). First five rows went swimmingly last night. Row six got messed up -- will rework it tonight to see what happened. I'm pretty sure I left out a couple of "k1"s.

Apparently, the basis of knitting lace is pretty simple: yo's, psso's, ssk's. I'm laughing right now, thinking of my non-knitting friends faces as they read that. "YO, PSSO... wha'???" Wrapping yarn around the needle to create an extra stitch, and knitting stitches together to create the lace opening/hole combined with that wrap. That's all it is! The trick is in the patterns, and that's where it gets complex (and sometimes quite frustrating).

WIP photo tonight. Promise.