leaf lace shawl: November 2005 Archives

I'm teaching a beginner's lace class at Woolbearers in March.

I'll be using the leaf lace shawl by fibertrends. I thought it would be a good one because it:

• uses a simple provisional cast-on
• includes both line-by-line instructions and charts
• works well in a variety of weights -- especially nice for beginners

I'm using lacey lamb and I *love* it. The label is all in chinese and I've always thought this yarn was cashmere -- but it's not! It's 100% extra fine lambswool and they say it's machine washable.

Don't worry -- there isn't a chance in hell I'll be dropping this baby in the washer. But still, there's something enchanting about a yarn that's so soft and fragile and can still hold its own against the ol' Maytag.

So the yarn -- if you haven't tried it yet you really need to. At $14/ball it's a great deal and I think it's a perfect Christmas gift for a lace knitter. It does split on occasion but nothing that's too bad. I just need to be conscious of it while doing k2togs.

I'm enjoying this yarn so much that I knitted way past what I told myself I needed to get done this weekend. I ended up not starting on Sugarplum until around 9pm on Sunday. It isn't such a bad thing because the quicker I get this sample done the quicker I'll get students signed up for the class.