November 1, 2007

all things lace

Lace has taken center stage in knitting circles around the country, and here at Yarn Expressions as well. In the past few weeks we’ve seen the arrival of several new yarns designed for lace knitting, and more varieties are on their way.

Gastricke 1 ply is a lovely soft single ply wool from Sweden. We’re sampling it in both natural grey and cream; the generous 100 gram hanks hold enough yarn for a small shawl.

It’s companion, Bobin is an unspun Icelandic wool. It’s not the softest lace yarn around, but it’s a delight to work with. And the colors! In addition to a wide range of natural shades, we have several heathered shades, including purple and the red shown above, which Jill is using to knit the Fiber Trends Angel Shawl. There also are several patterns in Cheryl Oberle’s Folk Shawls book that call for this yarn.

Coming in the next month or so are nice shipments from Malabrigo of their amazing laceweight merino, more Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace, and the laceweight from Dream in Color that I talked about yesterday.

If knitting lace with fingering weight yarn is more to your liking, then check out Anne Hanson’s newest pattern, Cluaranach. The pattern (along with several others) is on its way to us. I cast on for it last night using Dream in Color Smooshy and am thoroughly enjoying the project. Directions for a long stole, a petite stole or a scarf are all in the pattern. The scarf takes just 350 yards of fingering weight yarn. An easily do-able project for holiday gift giving.

Filed Under: What's New?

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