Thursday, April 19, 2007

Da-da-da-da, Superlace!...



Fleegle has another interesting post today about what she calls superimposed lace. She gives a lovely example from a Japanese knitting book. I decided to give it a go. I started my swatch with a circular needle and two double points and two strands of contrasting yarn. Anyone who decides to try this should know that each extra pattern repeat will require one more double point or better yet the whole thing should be knitted on two circulars.



It doesn't start out spectacularly.




It is a kind of double knitting.




The reverse stockinette between the motifs is knit with both strands of yarn. Then the number of stitches required to knit the motif are picked up in white on the double point and the stitches in the yellow are placed on the circular. Then the background is purled using the yellow yarn to the end of the motif. The motif is then picked up and the lace pattern is knit with the white yarn . Finally both strands of yarn are used to knit the reverse stockinette.

Whew, is it really worth it? Check this out




I think I love it. I wouldn't want to make a huge garment with lots of pattern repeats, but what a cute baby sweater this could make, or maybe socks. I think you could make a very nice scarf with this technique because the back is very pretty.





I guess I should mention the doily I am currently working on. It's called "Gotthold" and it is in Kunststricken: Grosse und Kleine Decke which you can get here or here.








I am enjoying it a great deal as it is the perfect distraction from the never ending Forest Path Stole.

5 comments:

fleegle said...

Wow! That lace is stunning! Too bad it's such a pain to work. Thanks for the example, as Blogless Susan didn't have any pictures.

Susan said...

Your superimposed looks good! It is an intriguing technique, but I quickly came to the same conclusion as you - a baby sized outfit would be better on the sanity than an adult. I knitted up the other pattern too (651), and decided that a single motif was the way to go. More than one motif would greatly increase the finish time, and time is something I lack at the moment.

(Blogless) Susan

Mary, Mary... said...

I love it! What a cool thing to pop into a really special knit--and 3 cheers for yellow!(the stepchild of the color spectrum)

missalicefaye said...

oh, wow--that's beautiful! I was trying to wrap my head around the written instructions, but seeing your work makes things a lot clearer--thank you!

Fabulous doily, too--can't wait to see you finish! :)

HibiscuitsGirl said...

Oh my god that is amazing! I have to go read everything ever written about it now. I had no idea that even existed!