I feel like I jumped in the deep end for this one.
Alpine Lace table runner
This is the pattern “Alpine knit scarf” from the book Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. Because I wanted to make a wedding gift, I modified it to make a table runner by changing the proportions and knitting it up on a smaller scale, with size 30 Cebelia crochet thread. This means that I knit it up on size 000 (1.5 mm) needles. Tiny! This was one of those projects that required extremely good light and lots of hand washing before handling the work.
Here it is with my hand for scale.
In order to determine a good length for the piece, I did some measurements and calculated the proper number of lace repeats to knit using the golden mean. This worked out well. For anyone who is interested in reproducing the proportion, this worked out to be 20 repeats of the rose leaf pattern; the rest of the piece was worked as written in the pattern.
I like to give household items for wedding gifts. This means working in a strong fiber like cotton. Wool and silk are both higher-maintenance and will fuzz up over time if left out on a table. Silk will also fade. White, mercerized cotton, however, won’t fade and doesn’t have any fuzzies left to cause trouble. However, I hate working with the stuff. Cotton has zero give or “bounce” and it’s hard on my hands; my left hand is still recovering from this one. Slippery cotton + slippery, tiny metal needles + lace patterning on every row made the first few rows a tad perilous as well. I must say that it was a mentally stimulating project. Blocking the finished work was also something of a challenge. The first time I blocked it, it bounced right out of block the next day. So, I soaked and blocked it again, with lots of starch and a little steam after it was dry. It should stay put now. I hope.
(No, I do not knit every wedding gift. I don’t have the time. Sorry Julie; I’m just not going to be home enough this summer!)
The diamond lace is patterned on every row. You can tell because the threads form straight lines in between the holes. Lace which is patterned on every other row has twisted threads. You can see this in the center "rose leaf lace" panel.
