Lovely Lace
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- By Anne
- 0

Oh ya! Pretty, colorful lace. More specifically, silk and mohair. Such a fun way to jazz up pretty much any ordinary wool. I'm loving it!
I am not a huge fan of pure lace knitting. That is, knitting with lace weight yarn on its own. I do love a good lacy kit, but with thicker yarn. I recently helped a woman find cobweb lace for a wedding ring shawl. Yikes! Not something I'd ever choose to do, but huge applause for her ambitious knitting goal. Nope, my lace work has been limited to fingering weight or beyond.
That said, I do like working with a strand of lace held with a second heavier weight yarn. In fact, I have several projects underway using that technique. Let me share.
Fairlight Shawl. Designed by Dawn Barker (yes, she does more than just assigned pooling), and using the new hand-dyed Tosh Silk Cloud paired with Tosh Merino Light. This design actually does not have me holding the strands together, but rather alternating between the two and slipping stitches. The effect is glorious! Little pains of color that remind me of fancy Christmas cookies - the lacy pops of color look like decorative, transparent sugar windows. Yummy! My TML is a creamy off-white (Antique Lace), and the Tosh Silk Cloud is Short Court - an homage to pickleball. The pattern is a very simple one to memorize, making it the perfect project to take along for a car ride, or work on while watching a movie or TV. Super easy to get a rhythm going without much thought. Check the Fairlight Shawl pattern out on Ravelry.
Cloud Drift Rhinebeck Cowl. This design came out last month from Gudrun Johnston, just in time for the Rhinebeck Fiber Festival in New York. You may have seen our newsletter announcing the cowl kits; still have a few available if you missed out. Rather than break apart one of our kits, I decided to create my own color combo - with shades of pink, of course. The design has you holding a strand of Tosh silk cloud together with a strand of Jamieson's of Shetland Spindrift for the main color, and use gradient shades of a contrasting color to create the colorwork pattern. Inspired by Shetland hap shawls, the cowl is worked flat with yarn overs at the edges and then seamed to form the cowl. It features mosaic knitting, a fun colorwork technique without stranding, all on a garter stitch background. The mohair silk really softens up the shetland wool, and I was pleasantly surprised at how simple and quick the mosaic sections worked up. More than half way done - a new cowl to wear for the holidays and cold winter months.
Hibernation House Socks. This is one of my favorite knits that I've done with a strand of lace. Socks! The pattern uses a strand of silk mohair for the cuff, giving it a cozy, fluffy feel. The perfect pair to pull on before plopping down by a warm fire and knitting 'til the cows come home. I made mine even more decadent, using Rowan's Cashmere Haze - a blend of alpaca, cashmere, and silk. Sadly, Rowan discontinued this fabulous yarn, so there's not much left out there (I'll let you in on a secret - we have a little bit left, and it's on sale here). But any fluffy lace weight yarn will do the trick.
Tada! Those are my projects using lace. Hope you'll be inspired to give it a go, and add a fancy strand to your next project.
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