by Margaret Stove
$29.99 CDN
$29.95 US
184pgs, b&w/colour photos, illustrations, hardcover
(to order - go to Add to Cart below)
Category: knitting books

In the Author's Words....
Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace
"It is to be hoped that this book will also inspire knitters to use printed patterns, not just as a recipe for a particular article but, importantly, as an exercise in understanding more about the structure of knitting - why the pattern works - and then to take a step forward and explore variations." (pg 1)

Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace
The delicate look of knitted lace fascinates admirers of this art and intrigues those who learn to knit it. In order to encourage and teach those who want to go beyond the printed pattern, Margaret Stove has written this book to help aspiring designers (of any level) to understand the structure and design possibilities of knitted lace. There are chapters on the history of lace; understanding the basic structure of both knitting and knitted lace through text, illustrations, photos and 'to- do' sample exercises; and progressing to higher levels of understanding in order to create your own lace patterns from design sketches.

In the Chapter on the history of lace, there are photographs of 16th century stockings with simple eyelet lace top, a detail from a Shetland lace shawl (1918) and also of a beautiful lace shawl from Russia.

To provide a basis for learning the more complex manipulations of knitted lace, a chapter on the basic structure of knitting defines the difference between knitted lace and lace knitting; making choices about materials and knitting needle sizes; and other practical issues which affect design. The author has also developed a system to aid in making decisions about what yarn and needle size is suitable for a given lace knitting application. There is a very interesting chapter of 'exercises' during which the learning lace knitter makes up several samples (per text, illustrations and photos provided), in order to have both head and hands understand the concepts of lace stitches.

Several different facets of project planning are then discussued: accumulating and storing design sources; making up and blocking of test swatches to determine the appropriate tension; and how to use charts for recording the garment shape and pattern. Now that the knitter has developed an understanding of the lace stitch, there is a chapter on lace patterns and how to adapt them for shaping a garment, followed by a chapter on the challenge of creating lace stitches from sketches. Continuing in this building process of learning, the author illustrates and describes one of her own design projects.

In the Appendix are illustrated symbols and abbreviations, a very useful chart of symbols used by other lace publications and instructions for some projects, (including a baby set, a 'Flowering Eucalyptus Shawl' and a lace curtain.) For those who can't resist the allure of lace and are eager to design their own, this is a unique and thorough text, one of a kind in the art of creating original lace designs.

Canadian Orders	US or International Orders
Canadian currency Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace $29.99	US currency Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace $29.95