15. Narrow Edging

"Narrow Edging" features eyelets along the upper edge, a row of very large eyelets below and a saw-tooth lower edge. The stitch count increases from 5 to 9 in the first row and the added stitches are bound off in the last row of the 4-row repeat.

You can download the full-size chart, verbal instructions and notes here.

This pattern is another from a newspaper clipping, contributed to the paper by a certain "Mrs. L. McW."

Next week: English Point

14. Another Insertion

"Another Insertion" is a chevron motif stockingnet panel with ladder eyelet borders in garter stitch along the sides. The pattern is worked over 13 stitches with an 8-row repeat.

You can download the full-size chart, verbal instructions and notes here.

Next time: Narrow Edging

13. Shell Pattern

"Shell Pattern" is my personal favorite thus far. Triangles of large eyelets separate the shell motifs, which are edged with dainty eyelets. The stitch count rises from 15 to 25 and returns to the original number in the final row of the 16-row repeat. The bind-off is different than we have seen to date (noted on the chart with an asterisk). After 11 stitches of R16 are worked, the first 10 are slipped over the 11th one at a time before continuing with the remainder of the row. The result is a very pleasing cupped effect, adding dimension and elegance to the design.

You can download the full-size chart, verbal instructions and notes here.

Next week: Another Insertion

12. Tunician Lace

"Tunician Lace" is a garter stitch edging featuring faggoting along the upper edge and a diamond motif. Although the stitch count varies from 15 to 20 and back down again, the lower edge does not form a scallop or saw-tooth design. Because the increased stitches are bound off inside of the edge, the bottom of the border remains a straight line below a row of somewhat triangular eyelets formed by the bound-off stitches.

You can download the full-size chart, verbal instructions and notes here.

Knitted lace can be classified in two groups: 1) designs of pattern rows alternating with plain knit or purl rows and 2) designs of all pattern rows. This pattern is the first we have seen that falls squarely in the latter category. (Although many of the previous patterns have had a bit of patterning on the wrong side rows, it has been confined to secondary features such as faggoting along the top, and not related to the main motif of the lace.) The result is less roundness to the eyelets and a more spidery effect-- the yarn overs appear as straight lines of single threads connecting the solid areas. In Creating Original Hand-knitted Lace, Margaret Stove writes that "it is generally accepted" that the term lace knitting refers to alternating-pattern-row designs, while knitted lace is reserved for all-pattern-row designs.

Well. Ah... hmm.

Although I agree with the need for terminology distinguishing between the two structures, I can't help but question the usefulness of this choice. "Lace knitting" vs. "knitted lace" strikes me as far too arbitrary (and, therefore, hard to remember which is which) to serve the purpose. Maybe something along the lines of all-pattern knitted lace and alternating-pattern knitted lace? A little cumbersome, perhaps, but at least they get the idea across. Help me out here. Any ideas for what we can call these things?

Next time: Shell Pattern

11. Another Pretty Pattern

This design is from the same newspaper clipping as last week's pattern, thus the "another" of the title. However, it is not another pattern at all, but rather the same pattern worked on a smaller scale. The garter stitch edging has an 8-row repeat and a stitch count of 10 increasing to 13, returning to the original number in the final row.

You can download the full-size chart, verbal instructions and notes here.

Up next: Tunician Lace

10. Knitted Edging

This week's pattern appeared in The Inter Ocean, a Chicago newspaper published from 1872 to 1907, under the title "Making Knitted Edging." A row of faggoting along the very top forms a tiny scallop of eyelets above a row of "ladder" holes. Large eyelets arranged in triangles are interspersed with solid garter stitch squares set on their points, forming a saw-tooth lower edge. The stitch count increases from 14 to 20 before the added stitches are bound off in the final row of the 12-row repeat.

You can download the full-size chart, verbal instructions and notes here.

This pattern is one of two contributed by "S.G.H." of Monmouth IL and published in the same issue of the newspaper. The editor shares some of the letter accompanying the submission, in which the writer addresses another contributor to the paper with whom she appears to have corresponded:

I hope you will try these patterns, as they are speedy to knit, and I think you will like them. F.M.S., your pattern is very pretty. Would be glad to hear from you again. I hope our kind editor will give the bees of our home a chance. It is strange how many blue-stockings and reformers are in our family.

"Bluestockings" can be characterized as early feminists, particularly in the area of education for women. The name comes from the Blue Stockings Society, a literary group formed in 18th Century Europe. I think "the bees of our home" might refer to women who are industriously occupied with homemaking pursuits-- such as knitting-- and if that interpretation is correct, S.G.H.'s remarks may be commentary on the debate still ongoing today on the role of women in society.

Next time: Another Pretty Pattern

9. Torchon Lace

In which I am reminded yet again

why it is a bad idea to jump to conclusions

When I first started knitting the sample for this pattern, I assumed it was another version of the design we saw in 7. Seed Point-- a scalloped border with rows of eyelets echoing the contour of the lower edge. And as such, this pattern is a mess.

Fewer eyelet rows in the second half of the pattern than the first? Huh? Half of the pattern rows worked on the right side of the fabric and then switching to the wrong side? What the... ? I could only conclude that the pattern was half-baked, to put it charitably.

This mind-set persisted as I knit, and indeed throughout the blocking process. But the moment I removed the pins once the sample was dry, I saw it.

Something in my perception clicked, like the instant when you see the vase instead of the faces (or vice versa) in the classic optical illusion.

For an optical illusion it is. The name should have clued me in. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Torchon lace is characterized by geometric patterns. And the geometric shape in this design: the cube. This pattern is knitted lace's answer to the Tumbling Blocks quilt design. I have seen other cube motifs in knitting where areas of stockingnet and garter stitch define the different surfaces of the cube, but this pattern does it all with only the eyelets. And the aspects of the structure that had so troubled me-- the changes in the number of eyelet rows and the side of the fabric on which the pattern is worked-- are precisely what achieves the effect. Far from half-baked, the pattern's creative use of these elements is pure genius. The center of the design is the corner of the cube, closest to the observer. The eyelets on the right are more numerous and on the surface, making that side more dominant as if illuminated by a light source. The left side, with its fewer rows and deeply set eyelets, is receding. Cool, huh?

So I reblocked the swatch to accentuate the angular nature of the design.

"Torchon Lace" is a garter stitch edging with a stitch count steadily increasing from 13 to 20 and back down again in the course of a 30-row repeat.

You can download the full-size chart, verbal instructions and notes here.

Next week: Making Knitted Edging