100Words
I just received a brilliant little book, and I mean little.It’s an 8×8 spiral bound 70 page gem called Knitting Lace Triangles by Evelyn A. Clark.
I found it in the Lacis online catalog. The triangles are knit neck down and shaped by increase. Very basic stuff. Her brilliance is that she has culled from the plentitude of lace motifs, four—Flower, Leaf, Medallion and Ripple—and using just those four and a little border, invites us to a lifetime of knitting lace triangles, all of our own design. With written and charted directions for the motifs, photos of finished pieces knit either as stockinette or garter stitch, and a chart listing the blocked size and yardage required for a dozen sizes in the four basis yarn weights this little volume has already become the centerpiece of my lace knitting library. With this one book, I have enough information to knit from exploring different yarns in the smallest triangles to designing an heirloom in the largest.
Take just one motif, the Leaf. Now imagine knitting a triangle in an autumnal gold, or forest green. See it in a lace weight Merino, again in a Fingering weight silk, a Shetland or Aran weight… Like stripes? Need to thin the stash? Create a garden shawl. The Ripple of a pool transitions to Medallions of tree shadow, to Leaves and Flowers of the garden. I just made up that picture. The motifs can stand for anything. Or nothing.
The leaf, medallion and flower are all the same basic diamond shape. Take away the internal shaping and you have just a shape to combine with the ripple for even more possibilities. It’s that broad avenue of possibility contained in this book that I like. More than that, it’s an instruction book for making and designing the triangles themselves. Until I read it, it handn’t occurred to me that I would need to create transition rows between pattern motifs when I finally got around to designing my own lace shawls.
Evelyn Clark also answers another couple of questions I keep asking myself. How much yarn do I need? How big is it going to be? Her “Size and Yardage” chart gives me the answers for those and more. Say I see this gorgeous yarn on sale at an unbelievable price. It’s a couple of skeins of alpaca/cashmere sport weight. First I check the yardage. It’s 110 yards. Unless there are 5 more skeins in that sale bin I’m not going to be able to make even the smallest triangle—a 38”x76” one—which needs 765 yards according to the chart. But… If I put the cashmere at the neckline, and change the design a little, I could buy another sport weight.
Maybe you’re not ready for sock making but you love all that colorway goodness of hand-painted sock yarns. Or you want to make something special for your favorite sock maker. Make sure you get at least 645 yards into your shopping cart before you click “Check Out”. That will get you a 31”x62” triangle to play with.
I don’t know whether or not this book is good for an absolute beginner to lace knitting. I do know that the projects are basic enough and the “Size and Yardage Chart” clear enough to support a beginner’s first venture into lace knitting. Knitting Lace Triangles gives lace knitters the same creative freedom as the other good books on making socks and sweaters.
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