Lace Musing

So, what is it about lace? When I first started knitting, I remember a friend working on a lace shawl for her mother in Indonesia. It was one that started with a center motif on DPNs and just kept growing and growing. I remember she stopped bringing it into the store when she had over a thousand stitches on her needles. As I sat there working on a sleeveless vest on size 10 needles, I thought there was no way in hell I would ever do anything like that. For one thing, lace is not exactly me. Too frilly and girly, I thought.

A decade or so later, I embarked on sock knitting. Little needles, fine yarn. I love socks, and now I have been captured by lace knitting. I have visions of knitting stoles for my windows (I am still not the lace-wearing type). And beading! Don't get me started!

Why does it appeal to me so? It is incredibly labor-intensive and time consuming. I just finished row 102 of Guinevere (SoS1) and there is precious little finished knitting there. The thing is every time I finish a pattern row, I get a huge rush of satisfaction. I love it when all the YOs and dec's work out. Something very mathematically satisfying there. Lace knitting is all about balance between those increases and decreases, between the concentration it takes to complete a pattern row and the mindlessness of the purl back row. There's also a yin yang thing about how carefully I count those rows and stitches and the danger of lace knitting. Anything that suggests the use of a lifeline must be inherently dangerous, no?

Speaking of which, I have yet to put in a lifeline. I am tempting fate, I know, but if you could see how careful I am with this knitting. The way I count and mark my pattern, the way I carefully cover the knitting and hide it from my cats, the way I never, ever leave it in the middle of a row. I sound like it is a child I am nurturing. If it were for me, I doubt I would be so careful with it, but it is destined to be a gift for a dear friend. The next one will belong to me . . . or maybe my living room window :)