more lace

... but never too much lace. i have had the lace bug lately, and it's not yet gone away. a couple of months ago, i bought evelyn clark's _knitting lace triangles_ . i spent a lot of time reading the book, trying to understand the process, and knit a shawl in my head.

well, that doesn't work exactly. the best way to do it is to do it.


i roughly decided which lace patterns i liked in the book. i picked three, plus the border. the first pattern i chose was the flower lace motif.


it was the most open, airy, lace pattern in the book. i wanted the shawl to transition from transparent to opaque (in a knitterly sense). this lace pattern i used for the majority of the shawl. that was not an intensional design choice, as much as it was a "hmmm ... not really sure how much of this i should knit or how big the shawl will end up".

then i transitioned to the medallion lace motif. the lines were very similar, but heavier.


i then decided that my 2nd ball of yarn was dwindling, so it was probably time to switch again ... to the leaf lace motif.


i chose the leaf lace because it was the perfect transition to the border.

and how could i resist putting beads on the border? this time, i tried something different, one of the options in the book ... 3 beads on each point. i really like how this came out. i will use this option again.


overall, i am very pleased with the finished shawl.


i do have some wishes about the book though. i wish it had more options, like the sensational socks books or even the 1000 sweaters. i wish the lace options were more organic vs. geometric. but those are just wishful thinking.

you can certainly plan a shawl with this book, or just jump in loosely like i did. there are tons of possibilities with combinations of the lace patterns offered in the book. and then consider all the different looks depending on the yarn and needles used!

so, i do see myself using this book again and again ... it was fun to kinda make up a design as you go along, but within guidelines.

specs:
yarn - knitpicks 'palette' in blue, 2 balls plus a few yards of a 3rd.
needles - knitpicks options 4mm circs
beads - 8/0 (info faded on sticker)