I have long avoided lace knitting, after a couple of experiences with very tricky patterns that left me with a pile of fine tangled yarn and major frustration.

After reading Elizabeth Zimmermann’s advice, however, I’m now working on my 4th lace shawl, using the Einband Icelandic laceweight yarn available here schoolhouse press

The trick, for me, is to find patterns where pattern stitches are only done on the right side rows, allowing me to purl back every wrong side row.  This ‘grounds’ me and my lace knitting, somehow, and makes it much more manageable.

I’ve also discovered, from experience, that the yarn must be smooth enough to frog easily, when I inevitably make a mistake in the pattern. An earlier attempt, with fine alpaca yarn, resulted in a tangled mass of fiber when I tried to frog a couple of rows. Most of that beautiful skein ended up in the garbage.

I had 9 generous skeins of laceweight Icelandic yarn in my stash, in a natural tan colour. It had been intended for a sweater which never happened.

Using professional acid dyes, I dyed the skeins into vivid Colonial Blue, Forest Green and Magenta colours.  This yarn took the dyes extremely well and the colours are so rich they gave me a whole new outlook and inspiration for lacy little shawls and scarves.

With the help of a few stitch dictionaries, lace how – to books from the library, and my rainbow of lace yarn, I expect to be knitting lace all summer.

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