In one sentence, for me, it goes this way;
To knit lace, you have to take care of what you going to have.
When I make a yarn-over, it creates; 1) a hole, and, 2) one stitch width of space.
When I make a ssk (or sl-k-po, whatever) or k2tog, it creates; 1) a bump, and, 2) one stitch less width of space.
If I want don't want to change the width of my project but want to have a series of decorative holes, I need to make the same numbers of ssks and k2togs combined as the yos. If I want to change the width to make it grow or shrink triangularly, I need to make more or less ssks and k2togs, at the same rate on both sides of the project. I need to keep track of those, mindfully or mindlessly, and systematically.
A hole-y fabric produced by too-thick-for-the-yarn needles lacks those works of mind. I can see the beauty of holes of that meshy project (whew, I spelled it correctly. Didn't double "s".) , I can't call it a lace.
It's like a garden. I could grow (by just not pulling) whatever seeds the birds scattered in my backyard (uh... pots on the balcony) and find whatever weeds coming up as beautiful as the most expensive orchid plant on e-bay. But it's not gardening. If I want to "garden", I should plan and make it materialize (at least, should try to make it happen). Even if the flower doesn't bloom in a color on the package, even if the only thing I harvest is one dried-up fruit of strawberry, that's gardening.
Seeding yos and k2togs sophisticatedly, and harvesting those (when purling through the WS) carefully with love, you can have a beautiful lace piece.
Summer. It's for gardening, and lace.
1 comment:
I like your point of view about lace! I agree too that the thickness of yarn really does have a lot to do with whether it can be considered "lace."
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