I always think that’s a younger Cindy Crawford modeling a lace shawl on the cover but I doubt it. Another classic, A Gathering of Lace is a collection of lace patterns from multiple designers and was curated by Meg Swansen, the daughter of Elizabeth Zimmerman. Looking at the patterns with a mostly modern eye some of them are a bit dated to my taste, but the book came nearly 20 years ago.
This book assumes the knitter has some experience already with lace knitting but the introduction written by Meg runs through the basic tenets of increases and decreases, blocking, and so forth. She also nails down the difference between lace knitting, and knitted lace. Lace knitting has a row of straight stockinette between the pattern rows, like a rest row to reset your stitches, and knitted lace has a pattern on every row. I personally love the intricate look of knitted lace, but can appreciate having a break in between the rows where you really need to concentrate.
The patterns range from the traditional bottom up triangular shawl to sculptural vests and even a knitted boat! Really. Debbie New explains towards the end of the book how she knit a fine merino lace shawl, then sealed it in fiberglass resin to make a coracle, a boat shaped like an upside-down bowl and paddled. Sadly, there’s no pattern for that in this book but if you wanted to you could figure it out.
I’m so glad I decided to write about this book today. Flipping through it has given me some serious inspiration. I have to get those wedding sweaters finished first, though. The stockinette slog continues, but the rows are getting shorter and I’m about to hit the waist shaping.