I started a Ravelry group recently because a couple of friends and I are trying out lace knitting.  We post one project for beginners like us and a tougher one for a couple of people who have more experience and have joined the group.  Check us out on ravelry.com.  The group's name is Crazy Lacy Ladies.  We are doing 4 KALs a year - to help each other out.  We start a new project on July 1.  Please feel free to join us!  juana (ravelry name:  runorknit

I've done several lace doileys, converted lace patterns into afghans (I knitted the round thing I'm wearing in my profile photo) and made one lace weight shawl.  I'm planning another once I get my cat population down. 

  I love knitting lace but I have a few criteria as I am relatively new to it. I like skinny needles(size 6 or smaller) I love beautiful yarns(handmaiden yarns are yummy)Like patterns of 10 rows or less and I like patterns I can easily  I find I really need to read through the pattern first to see if I'll find it fun. Picky I guess and also not very skillfull. It is the colour, feel and sensation the yarn gives me that I like the bes, I guess. I also like to block it out and see the pattern emerge. Hope you have fun feeling your wai into lace knitting, it is never boring. Grandmaloie

  Hi, The scarf and shawl sound awesome!  Also, what a great thing to do when starting retirement -- take a class in lace knitting.  I have knit lace from time to time.  I have a pattern for a triangular shawl called "Pacific Northwest" with water, trees, birds, patterned into it, and the yarn for it in a medium teal, but so little time, so much to do!

I’ve knitted pieces for a lace Angel in crochet thread on 1s (or 0s, I forgot).  The patterns are published in a little book by Knitter's Magazine titled Angels, a Knitter's dozen by Gerdine Strong, published by XRX Books. 

Some tips:

Don’t be afraid to knit lace on small needles.  The stitch movements are the same whatever the gauge, and you’ll get used to it.  I think bamboo or wooden needles (as opposed to aluminum or steel needles) keep things a bit more manageable when working with fine or slippery yarn. 

If knitting on circulars, try marking the sections with one color of yarn/string and the end/beginning of the round with another.

I love InterWeave Knits and Knitter’s magazines, and Knitty is an awesome site.  Check out the "Pomotomus" socks!  Very complicated, but I'd love to knit a pair some day.  There are free patterns available on www.knitpicks.com, and I think I saw some lace socks there that aren't impossibly intricate. 

Cheers!  Off to aran and fair isle knitting right now,

Lesley

  Hello Ginni, are you a member of Ravelry? https://www.ravelry.com/account/login  There are a lot of great patterns there and groups specific to lace.  I also have found many patterns free at http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory.php and Knitty is a great place too for patterns and other knitting information http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer08/index.html.

Got to run for now.  Hope all is well, Theresa

  Your shawl sounds nice, and I need some easy ones to start, so please let me know the name of the pattern.  I took my class at WEBS in Massachusetts - a wonderful place for yarn and classes, but very dangerous if you have no willpower (and I don't).  I now have a big stash pile to work with.  My class project was a scarf, which I like so much I made  another one.  I think my next project might be a more intricate scarf before I move on to one of the more patterned shawls.  I've got a pattern for a circular shawl but I need to practice a little more first.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Ginni

  Hello there, where did you take your class?  I love lace knitting just not enough time.  I'm working on a narrow scarf right now in a beautiful mohair with beads and sequins already on the thread.  The yarn was $40 for 100 yards so I had to pick something very small and delicate.  I'll post a photo when I'm done.  It was too hard to resist. 

I'm also working a lace shawl with two strands of silk sock yarn where you change the colors every 4 inches or so.  The colors migrate with two strands of the first color, then a strand of color one and color two, then two strands of color two and so on until you've gone through 6 colors of yarn.  I cannot recall the pattern name off hand but will look it up and send it to you.  It is a terrific first pattern shawl because the repeats are so easy.

My first lace attempt was the swallow tail shawl from Interweave Knits magazine a couple of summers ago. It was so fun but the 5 purl together was murder on the fingers.  I love it and wear it often in the winter.

I'm not very experienced at it but adventuresome for certain.  I look forward to hearing about your experiences.

Happy knitting!  Theresa