34. French Lace

"French Lace" is a garter stitch edging featuring a spot design of eyelet clusters formed by short segments of faggoting. A single large eyelet adorns each "sawtooth" of the lower edge. The stitch count jumps by four in the second row and thereafter remains constant until the added stitches are bound off in the last row of the 8-row repeat.

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

Next week: Normandy Lace

33. Second Pattern

Simple and sweet, "Second Pattern" (from a newspaper clipping, the name implies there having been another design published at the same time) is a narrow saw-tooth trim with diagonal rows of eyelets. The stitch count rises steadily from four to seven before the added stitches are bound off in the final row of the 6-row repeat.

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

Next week: French Lace

32. Knitted Lace Insertion

D.P.A. of Cassopolis MI submitted "Knitted Lace Insertion" to the newspaper to match a previously published edging. A trio of eyelets zigzags across the panel and back again. The yarn over/decrease pairs shift one stitch over each right side row. Here the change in direction is achieved solely by the position of the yarn over relative to its corresponding decrease, i.e., before or after the decrease, while a modern designer would most likely employ a different decrease as well. The garter stitch panel of 15 stitches has a 26-row repeat.

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

Next up: Second Pattern

31. Aunt Mary's Lace

"Aunt Mary's Lace" features a plain garter stitch upper edge, a lozenge-shaped motif and eyelets outlining the scalloped lower edge. The stitch count varies a great deal from row to row due to the placement of the yarn overs in relation to their corresponding decreases.

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

This is another pattern from a newspaper clipping, the design sent in by subscriber Mrs. J. L. I. She wrote:

My sister and I have knitted many pretty designs given and would now like to make some return to the fair knitters. I send herewith a specimen and directions for edge unlike anything I have yet seen. It is my sister's design and we call it 'Aunt Mary's Lace.'

Next up: Knitted Lace Insertion

30. Knife Pleated Edging

After an August hiatus (while I settled into a new job and tended to other matters), our parade of Victorian designs returns with the only non-lace pattern in the sample book. "Knife Pleated Edging" features a knit-and-purl texture and uses short rows to create the pleats.

Like 5. Knitted Trimming the sample had a tendency to curve as it was knit. Since the pleats had more rows than the upper edge, the lower area wanted to fan out before blocking.

However, unlike the earlier pattern, where blocking straight would have obscured the lace pattern, bringing the upper edge of this design in line enhanced the pleated effect. I blocked the same sample two ways. First, without stretching the fabric in either direction, I pinned the upper edge in a straight line and pinned the pleats in place directly below. This maximized the depth of the folds.

Then I reblocked the edging, gently stretching the width and height. This version highlighted the knit/purl surface design.

While most modern short row instructions call for "wrap and turn"--- i.e., at the end of the short row: 1) bring yarn forward, 2) slip the next stitch, 3) yarn back, 4) return slipped stitch to left needle before turning the work--- to prevent a gap in the knitting, the sample book makes no mention of the technique. I knit my swatch of the pattern as written, simply turning the work with three stitches unworked and proceeding to the next row. The resulting holes are fairly small and are noticeable only when the sample was blocked stretched out. In this case, they can serve as a design feature, offsetting the lower pleats from the narrow band along the upper edge.

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

Next week: Aunt Mary's Lace

29. Smyrna Lace

"Smyrna Lace" is a classic: diamonds framed by two rows of eyelets. One stitch is added every other row in the first half of the pattern, and then the added stitches are worked off in the same way in the second half, forming a gently scalloped lower edge. Unlike most of the patterns we have seen, only one stitch is worked into each double yarn over on the subsequent row.

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

Glancing at the chart one might expect all-pattern knitted lace (aka knitted lace) as discussed in the 12. Tunician Lace post, because both right-side and wrong-side rows employ yarn overs to form the design. However, Smyrna Lace falls into the alternating-pattern knitted lace category (aka lace knitting). A closer examination of the chart reveals that the eyelets above the diamond motifs are worked on wrong-side rows and the eyelets below the diamonds are worked on the right side. In the first half of a given row the yarn overs (lower eyelets or upper eyelets) of the previous row are knitted across plain, and in the second half of the row new yarn overs create the other part of the pattern. Thus instead of separate pattern rows and plain-knit rows, each row serves both functions.

Despite having been knit with the same yarn and needles as all the other samples, this one strikes me as looser, stretchier, perhaps due to the double yarn overs being worked as single stitches.

Next Week: Knife Pleated Edging

28. Lemon Seed Lace

"Lemon Seed Lace" features diamonds flanked by faggoting and ladder eyelets in the upper half and the eponymous motifs lined up diagonally along the lower scalloped edge. The stitch count jumps from 23 to 28 in the first row. Two of the added stitches are worked off halfway through the pattern, before the other three are bound off in the final row of the 12-row repeat.

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

Next Week: Smyrna Lace