Shetland lace

[Sojourner]

http://www.shetlandwoolbrokers.co.uk/ep ... 20CW117%22" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

My birthday present from DW. Shetland lace has long been on my bucket list, so hopefully this will be the first step towards knitting an heirloom wedding ring shawl.
I confess that the last time I did any knitting was about 30 years ago, so will have to do some practice plain and purl before I start on the cobweb. DW is a formidable knitter, so she will keep my work up to scratch!

[Rose]

Oh that is going to be just beautiful!!!!!!! What size needles and yarn will you use for that??

[Serinde]

Whew! How beautiful. Good luck with it, and I hope you keep us all posted here on progress.

[Sojourner]

Oh that is going to be just beautiful!!!!!!! What size needles and yarn will you use for that??

2.5mm needles (DW says these are size 12) Last time I knitted a jumper - pretty basic ribbing - I found that I do knit fairly tightly, so might have to use a slightly thicker needle for the lace - 11? I will start off with a trial swatch. I do have a rather good book on technique: "The Magic of Shetland Lace Knitting" to guide me (together with DW, of course)
Yarn is in the kit, 1 ply cobweb wool.

Kit was dispached today, so I might make a start next week, and will post progress, as long as I don't mess it all up....

[karen4bells]

How very pretty!!! I can't wait to see you start on this project!!

[wendywombat]

....and they say that's a beginners kit????
So Beautiful!!!


I've been to Shetland and Jamiesons, bought a jumper and over the lace shawls.

I've always wanted a real Shetland shawl, but I cannot knit lace!

All that knit one, slip one, pass slip stitch over, drop one, find one later under the carpet! Bleugh!!!
I tried once! Disaster!!! Start the row with the correct number of stitches e.g 240
end of first row 135! End of 2nd row 392! End of last row In the Bin!!!

[Sojourner]

Oh, gosh, don't put me off.....
Yes, looking through my book, it is quite complicated, especially as I haven't had a pair of knitting needles in my hands for a long time!
But then, if it was easy, there would not be as much pleasure in the making.

[rcperryls]

That is going to be beautiful. I will love watching it. I used to crochet a lot and did make a crocheted pant suit for my mother years ago. but knitting?? I made a vest once with my very talented knitting aunt as my help. Forget about lace. My plain old stitching was exactly like Wendy's

All that knit one, slip one, pass slip stitch over, drop one, find one later under the carpet! Bleugh!!!
I tried once! Disaster!!! Start the row with the correct number of stitches e.g 240
end of first row 135! End of 2nd row 392! End of last row In the Bin!!!

I admire knitters.

Carole

[Mabel Figworthy]

How beautiful!

[ayna]

May I suggest that you use markers on the needles at strategic pattern points. You do need to move them from the left hand needle to the right on each row as you pass them but it does help with counting and checking. I tried using various types on the market but found they all fell off so I then changed to using homemade ones made with different coloured wools.

[Sojourner]

May I suggest that you use markers on the needles at strategic pattern points. You do need to move them from the left hand needle to the right on each row as you pass them but it does help with counting and checking. I tried using various types on the market but found they all fell off so I then changed to using homemade ones made with different coloured wools.

Thanks for that - the book does gives examples of markers - mostly beads on rings, I think your idea of wool markers sounds better - I will try that.
Now eagerly awaiting the postman......

[Squirrel]

That is so absolutely gorgeous and I am sure you will do it well too. I always wanted to do a wedding ring shawl and did try a similar one but with 2ply baby wool which didn't really work. Good luck with it all.

[NeedleAndFork]

That is a lovely kit! You can do it! I adore knitting lace and have knitted several pieces of it including shetland lace. In fact my first lace piece ever was a 60" wide circular shetland lace shawl. My best tips for it are to first swatch each new lace pattern using a light colored smooth worsted weight wool and large needles so you can SEE what is going on and understand how the pattern is formed before you start knitting on the teeny tiny needles with cobweb weight yarn. Once you understand how the pattern is formed, reading the pattern itself and even reading youor own knitting to figure out where you are in the pattern becomes much easier. Also.. markers.. lots of them. I am with ayna - loops of wool in bright colors make great markers. I like to take a single long strand of wool about 2 - 3 times the width of my knitting andd make slip knots along it to use as a linked set of stitch markers. This way they all stay connected with the yarn connecting them resting against the rest of the knitting and you won't lose one and forget about it. Also.. use lifelines! Every now and then, thread a needle with a smooth yarn and simply run it through all your stitches leaving long tails hanging on each end (or knot those tails together) This is your lifeline incase something goes wrong later on. You can pull the needles out of the knitting and simple frog it to the lifeline which will hold the stitches for that row in place. Return the stitches to your needles and continue once more. By doing this you ensure you have a place to fall back to at a ppoint where you know everything was going well.

And have fun!! Lace knitting is pure magic.. you start off with some barely there yarn, and knit it up into what looks like a scrunchy mess.. and then through the power of blocking you get this amazing piece of art. Enjoy it!

[MartaAre]

I love the Shetland yarn... it's a great present!
Hope to see your progress!

[Sojourner]

Many thanks N&F for the tips, I had thought to knit trial swatches before stating the real thing.
After all the encouragement so far, I'll HAVE to succeed!! Definitely not the kind of thing to stand a lot of frogging, if that's the right term for knitted pieces. I might need to learn a few Shetland swearwords....
(Maybe postman will bring the parcel today)

[NeedleAndFork]

! Definitely not the kind of thing to stand a lot of frogging, if that's the right term for knitted pieces. I might need to learn a few Shetland swearwords....
(Maybe postman will bring the parcel today)

My understanding of the term frogging is that it originated with knitting and then migrated to other crafts... frogging is when you remove your needles from your work and rip it (ribbit) it all out... while tinking is when you undo one stitch at a time by unknitting (hence tink, or knit backwards)

One more thing I just thought of.. what needles are you using? With lace the needles can make or break the project. Different brands of needles come in different levels of pointyness.. and for lace atleast I like the pointiest needles I can find. Different materials also make a world of difference. If you feel like the yarn is slipping and sliding around too much, you need grippier needles - wood. If it's not sliding around enough... you need more slippery needles - metal. Addi Turbo Lace needles are my personal favorite - nice and slippy slidy with super pointy tips and an amazing join where the needle meets the cable so that it's completely snag free. They do live up to their name - I manage to knit a lot faster with them because I spend a lot less time moving my knitting around on the actual needle itself.

Gosh.. all this talk of knitting lace has me lusting after some lace myself. I may have to flip through my copy of Knitted Lace of Estonia and pick out something. I know I have plenty of laceweight yarn, both commecially spun and my own handspun.

[Sojourner]

Parcel just arrived!!
DW has found me a pair of no 12/2.75mm needles with sharp points, DW's friend is bringing No 12/2.5mm ones as well. Will try both. 61 stitches to cast on, so don't need long pins. (if I go over to wooden ones, can make my own from thin dowel - made several sizes for DW in the past) However, I will practise ordinary knitting first, as it's so long since I did any.
That Estonian lace book looks very tempting......

[Mabel Figworthy]

Looking forward to seeing that lovely scarf in progress, but probably a good idea to get back into knitting with something a litle less challenging first

[Rose]

I am excited to see how you get on with your stitching. Can't wait to see this lace develop!!!!!!

[NeedleAndFork]

Ohh that yarn looks nice and squishible. In case you can't tell from all my posts on this thread.. I am at heart a knitter, even more than a cross stitcher. Knitting and spinning are my first loves.. I just got a bit burned out and took a short break during which I discovered cross stitch

I know you say you don't have that many stitches so you don't need long needles - but I've started recommending circular needles almost exclusively to people when I teach knitting. The needle part is usually quite short.. about 5 - 6 inches, and the rest of the knitting slides to the cable part. The advantage to that is that the weight of your knitting usually ends up sitting on your lap, rather than on the actual needle, making it lighter in your hands to work with. Also, it's a much shorter and thus lighter needle that you're waving about. AND.. since both ends of the needle are attached with the cable.. you're never at risk of losing one! You have no idea how big a plus that can be - I have a huge stash of single needles.. I've since switched over to circulars completely and have multiple sets of interchangables where I pair up the tips and cables of varying lengths and sizes.

If the straights work for you though, then stick with them since you already have tem.. but if you do end up needing to buy needles by any chance, or if your DW or friend have circulars of an appropriate size, give those a try too.. as long as the join between the needle and cable are smooth (this is where a good quality needle like addis or knitpicks come into play - susan bates circulars are utter crap for fine yarns) they're lovely to knit with.

Gotta finish my Lakeside cottage piece before I start anything new, be it knit or cross stitch and I'm itching to get my hands in some yarn... I even remembered 2 skeins of an alpaca merino blend lace that I have.. with some matching beads.. That may just be the push I need to get stitching faster so I can move onto something new! I'll have to live vicariously though your knitting until then... please post lots of pictures.. of everything!