New lace, and it's not Tuscany.

I started something new on the weekend and it felt so strange. After a little knitting, I realized this: I have not knit any lace of any sort except Tuscany...for 2 years. (I don't count Montego Bay as lace).

So clearly it was time I shook my head loose and saw what would come out. It looked like this:



Can you identify it? It's quite famous, designed by someone famous for lace triangles. Here, have a closer look:



Puckery! Swirly! Yes, it's a Shetland Triangle. I have wanted to knit one for at least two years and don't know what took me so long.

The yarn is a skein of Tess Designer Yarns' Cascade Silk that's been marinating in the stash for -- no exaggeration -- FIVE YEARS. It may be a little too variegated for this shawl, but I think it works just fine. I've wanted this pattern and this yarn made real for a long time, so might as well do them together and cross two things off my list!



I'm liberating another skein of laceweight [though this is arguably heavier than average laceweight, it is being knit into lace and that counts].

The yarn was in my stash so very long because I really wanted to design something original with it. I was unsuccessful, more than once. Just another reminder of the kind of mind and skill it takes to be a knitting designer more than once every other 2 years. You real designers rock, you know.

Liberate your laceweight...the campaign continues

Every time anyone sees me working on my Longterm Laceweight tube scarf, jaws drop and at least one person says something like, "I want to do this!" But I haven't seen any evidence that people are actually cracking open their pet skeins of laceweight and casting on...until last night.

Emily was at Lettuce Knit last night, wearing her first completed Liberated Laceweight project -- a beautiful, insanely simple [the bang yourself on your forehead simple in its perfect brilliance] shawl. Laceweight, knit in eye of partridge. What a brilliant way to show off variegated yarn without having to fight a complex lace pattern. And Emily assures me it was nearly as mindless as my stockinette tube with faux seams. Here's another post with more in-progress pictures and her reason for jumping on my tiny bandwagon.

Here. Look at the gorgeousness:


Freaking gorgeous, Emily.

Now come on. I know you've got at least one skein of laceweight just sitting there, gathering dust, in your stash. You bought it because it was beautiful but maybe you don't knit so much superfine lace. Well, it's time to crack that skein open and start knitting something perfectly fine-gauge, mindless, and sense-pleasing. Trust me. It'll make you feel good.



[and if you do, take the button and tell me about it. i'll tell you i have at least 2 more skeins in the queue for when this one is finished.]

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p.s. yes, I think fingering counts too. If you bought it cause it's pretty but aren't casting on for the more-complex project you intended to make with it [even if it was socks], then come on down!

does anyone have a suggestion for Balletmommy -- something mindless with creamy cashmere laceweight?

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Pithy instructions [:-)] for the stockinette tube scarf, as requested

once i found the correct needle size to give the fabric i wanted, i chose the shortest circular needle i could find (in this case, a knitpicks 16” in size 0 – i would have preferred addi turbo lace, but they don’t go that small).

i then cast on just enough stitches to go comfortably around the circular without having to force it. divide that number of stitches in half and place a marker on each side. then choose some sort of faux seam treatment. i am doing p1, k1, p1, after each marker, and all the rest is straight knit.

keeping it simplel.