I love knitting lace, so I was excited
to see this book -- New Vintage
Lace - By
Andrea Jurgrau, Interweave/F+W; $24.99 bit.ly/1uq6EyE
Do you admire doilies and antique lace
tablecloths for the exquisite workmanship, but can’t find a place for them in
your contemporary life? Yeah, me too.
Well maybe you don’t want lace doilies
all over the house, but you can wear lace wraps, shawls and hats.
That’s where Andrea’s book comes in: she
has carefully adapted vintage lace patterns to modern, wearable pieces.
The book begins with a useful discussion
of the different weights and fibers of yarns and how to use them; types of
beads; and blocking tips. There’s also a great discussion of swatching; in
addition to checking gauge, swatches are indispensable for seeing how well the
yarn works with the lace pattern. Watch the lace pattern practically disappear
when a variegated yarn is knitted up! This is a lesson that I had to learn the
hard way.
The 22 projects are arranged in
categories of one-skein projects, small shawls, triangles and squares, and
larger projects. Here are some highlights:
There are some doilies that are turned
into Beanies like the Clematis Doily and Beanie.
The Cherry Blossom Stole is very pretty,
with allover mesh and lacy borders :
 |
| Copyright Joe Hancock and F+W Publishing |
Kodama Shawlette is a lovely semi circle
lacy gem.
I really appreciated having schematics so
that you don’t have to guess at the finished shape of the shawl.
Coeur d’Amour is another pretty one.
Blue Dahlia has a sort of V shape,
almost like 3/4 of a circle.
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| Copyright Joe Hancock and F+W Publishing |
The book concludes with a Design your
Own Shawl section, with lots of useful info, and Sources for the various tools
and yarns used in the book.
I really enjoyed the book and Andrea’s
careful, methodical approach. I have no doubt that I’ll be knitting from this
book soon.
Note: Charts only are provided for the
lace.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book.
By Andrea Jurgrau
Interweave/F+W; $24.99
I just purchased your beautiful "Somerset Hat and Mittens for a fried recently diagnosed with lung cancer. While I find you Pattern very well written, I'm stuck in the beginning of the hat after the brim. I might be over thinking this, but I'm really confused. Do I knit one row immediately after I do the knitted cast of? Also, it says to place a marker 4 stitches to the right of the 10 cast on stitches. When is it placed? Is it looking at the piece from the wrong side or the right side? Do I do that knitted row to get the hat in the round, or do I start directly on the cable set up? Any help you can give me will be great! I need to get this done quickly, we don't know how long she has and is losing her hair right now. Thanks!!!
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