Friday, August 03, 2007

No! What? Really????

STOP THE PRESSES!!!!!!
I don't know quite how to say this, but, I started knitting LACE last night! Me! And Lace. In the same room, at the same time! Working together. Knitting a few rows. Lace! Can you believe it!?! It still looks like something the cat chewed up and spit out, but apparently with lace, that is OK at this stage.
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Sarah gave me a quick lace tutorial. She looked at my possible patterns and declared them sound and easy. Then she showed me the proper way to yo and ssk. I took a few days to digest the info and last night started with some of my hand spun. Wow!
And, of course, being me and it being lace, I have decided to give a few different yarns a try. The one that I knit with last night is my finely spun Mermaids Dream. It may be a little thick. I plied and washed some of my white merino singles that has been sitting on the bobbin for weeks and I am going to give that a try. And I also have some fine white alpaca that I may try.
I am also using Addi Turbos for the first time. I find that they are not pointy enough for my tastes. Do you want sharp points when knitting lace, or is it just me in my naivety who wants my points to be lethal weapons?
And while I am on the subject, when you spinners measure WPI how closely is you yarn squashed? I know when I measure WPI for weaving, I leave a little space between each wrap, just enough so that they are barely touching. This is to leave room for the weft. Even still I sometimes have to adjust my sett. So do you jam as much yarn as you can into that inch? Or are things a little more relaxed? Thanks!

14 comments:

Leigh said...

Wow! You changed the look of your blog! Very clean and refreshing.

For measuring WPI I would wrap it so that the yarn covers the measurer, but not pulled tight or squished.

Now, about that lace knitting, I'm impressed! Lace has been the mountain I haven't been able to climb. Must have something to do with the fact that I have all thumbs.

Anonymous said...

Oh, crap, ANOTHER lace knitter. Well, not me. Nope. Not gonna happen. No.
Leigh is right, it is not crammed together. Also, the correct way to measure is to roll or rotate the WPI measure so that the yarn winds onto it. You don't want to wrap the yarn around because it's said that it slightly unwinds the spin on the yarn.

KansasA said...

Wish I could help you Jackie but you are speaking a completely foreign tongue to me :) I think it would be so cool to be able to spin AND knit lace!

Valerie said...

I'm not surprised at all. You and lace will get along just fine.

WPI...I wind them so they are just barely touching and with very little tension on the yarn. And I concur w/ Dave that you rotate the measuring stick to wind on the yarn so as not to insert or remove twist from the yarn (which will then affect WPI for that sample of yarn.)

Laritza said...

You are now hooked forever! there is nothing better than lace :D
On needles: try knitpicks I love them. Also Addis lace needles more money but nice too.

f. pea said...

Now you're going to be sticking little lace panels and edges into everything you knit. Just don't start knitting lacy socks... you won't like them. Not fun or addictive at all. Now you can't say I didn't warn you.

Erin said...

The sharper the point the better when it comes to lace. At least that's my preference!

Unknown said...

Knitting lace is amazing. When I first started with lace I did addi's also. They were ok, but not sharp enough. With lace sharp is always the best way to go if you can.

Anonymous said...

Addi makes lace turbos now that have sharper points and the knipicks ones are great and much less expensive.

I'm glad you're having fun with it!

clothesknit said...

holy crap batgirl! yay for you and yay for lace!

David T. Macknet said...

You'll block everything out when you're done, so it doesn't have to have any particular "look" at this point (as everybody else has already said).

There are tricks to folding laces, too, if you get into anything large, so that you don't end up wearing out particular sections (such as the middle). There are people who do enough lace to need to put them away somewhere. Me? I put mine away ... in yarn-balls when I rip it back and give up in disgust. :)

Congrats!

B said...

YAY Jackie! You go! :D:D:D

Sarah

Rhonda the Stitchingnut said...

You want to do lace with good points on your needles. I love my Addi Lace needles. I'm on my first Lace project also. I confess that I'm "Loving it!"

Anonymous said...

Yee HAAAA!!!

I am a new spinner and an old knitter. Knitting your own stuff into lace? You are my SHERO!

I personally love Addi Turbos and will not use anything else. I may try Knit Picks, now. I am not much of a lace knitter because I need instant gratification (see note about yu being my shero.)

I am inspired, sister!