Alaska trip

Dorothy Reade's Lace Knitting Tips

As promised, here are some highlights and tips from the Lace Knitting workshop that Dorothy Reade taught to Ann Shell and Helen Howard in July of 1968. The workshop was customized specifically to cover topics and techniques for the Musk Ox Project. After talking with Helen Howard about this workshop the other day, I found a written report on the workshop by Ann Shell in the Oomingmak Co-op's archives.

Spinning qiviut--After guard hair and debris (hay, etc.) is removed, qiviut can be spun without carding (I've confirmed this myself.) Pre-carded merino or silk can be blended with qiviut by lightly carding them together two or three times. If you can possibly think of being able to afford a sweater made from qiviut, blending in wool or silk is a good idea because it adds strength to the yarn.

Knitting symbols--Dorothy Reade was an early proponent of using knitting charts instead of line-by-line instructions to illustrate cable and lace patterns. She only used a few stitches and symbols for her lace designs:

X knit

O yarn over

/ k2tog

\ k2tog through back loop

/\ s1, k2tog, psso

B knit in back loop

P purl

Needle suggestions--Dorothy Reade had some interesting recommendations about knitting needles, the like of which I have not seen mentioned anywhere else. I'm not sure if I agree with this, but here's what she said:

Metal needles give the tightest, firmest texture. (I imagine she means Boyd type needles, not Addi-Turbos!!!)

Wooden neeldes give a medium texture.

Plastic needles result in a soft, flowing fabric.

Dorothy said that straight needles (10-inches recommended length), give a different texture than circular needles even if they are the same size and made out of the same materials. I can't envision how this could be true, but I am interested enough that I will do some testing on my own.

Designing lace patterns--The basic lace design is "drawn" on a background of stockinette stitch with yarn-overs.

On the right side row following each purl row, the stitches above yarn-overs are knit through the back loop. This creates a very strong outline and accentuates the "drawing" much more than using a standard knit stitch.

K2tog is used for a right slanting decrease and k2tog-tbl for a left slanting decrease. This is <i>much</i> easier than the old-style sl1-k1-psso decrease.

I also found in doing my own swatches that k2tog-tbl maintains the knitting rhythm and makes it easier to keep track of the charted pattern than using the ssk decrease. (Ms. Reade says that k2tog-tbl is the "true" opposite of "k2tog", but I disagree. The ssk decrease is technically more of a mirror of k2tog, but the difference is negligble. I prefer to have the ease and speed of using Ms. Reade's suggestion.)

Well, that's enough of a teaser. I will be covering these topics in detail, with my own refinements, in the book. So you'll have to wait to find out more!