Yarn Along: Lace

The cat insisted she be in the photo - I swear I didn't set it up around her.  It was all I could do to keep her from sitting on the lace.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had tried in vain to find lace knitting patterns on Ravelry.  I found a few, but I had expected there to be lots.  I finally broke down and went on Amazon, and discovered many books about lace knitting, including this wonderful book by Barbara Abbey (with an introductory note by Elizabeth Zimmerman!).  So I have been happily knitting lace ever since.

I am new to lace knitting, so I picked a simple pattern (Fern Leaf Insertion) to try out.  It's been fun!  I am enjoying seeing the pattern emerge row after row.  However, it isn't Sociable Knitting, like some projects can be.  I really have to focus on what I'm doing or it gets into a horrible mess and lace stitches are nearly impossible to pick up once frogged.  I made the mistake of taking it out during a birthday party once, so one panel turned out slightly different.  I managed to rescue it without having to rip it out, but it was headache-inducing.

One thing that is a little brain-twisting about Barbara Abbey's lace patterns is that she uses a different notation than I'm used to - 0 for YO, / for right-leaning decrease, 1 for K1, etc.  I tried using her notation for the first rounds, and then switched to translating it into the terms I'm used to.


Clothilde has been sitting on my lap as I typed this, and she wanted to say:

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