Knitting lace

I love knitting lace.

I love the way it is so light that it feels as though I am holding a cloud in my hands.

I love the mathematical precision that goes into making something this floaty and beautiful. All knitting is mathematical, but this aspect of our craft is very evident in a lace pattern.

I love the superfluity of lace. We all need clothes to wear, but no-one needs to wear lace. Our foremothers did not need to spend their hours knitting beautiful lace edgings for pillowcases and towels, but they did it anyway.

I love how a lace pattern is created as much out of air as out of yarn. Indeed, it is the spaces between the yarn, the places where yarn is not, that define this fabric as lace.

I love how incredibly complicated designs are made from just a few simple stitches. If you can knit, purl, knit two stitches together and wind the yarn around the needle, you can make lace.

I love how such an ethereal fabric can be so warm, and how such a fragile, delicate looking fabric is in fact so strong and elastic.

I love the balance that is needed to make a lace pattern work. Every increase needs an equal and opposite decrease, but for some patterns this balance is only achieved over a number of rows.

I love how impossibly difficult the first few rows of a lace pattern are and yet how, after a couple of repetitions, the pattern feels like an old friend.

I love knitting lace.

Published on July 21, 2008. 16 Comments Tags: , , .

16 Responses to “Knitting lace”

Feed for this Entry
Comments are currently closed.