5 Tips for Lace from YarnCraft Episode 35

On episode 35 of YarnCraft, our radio-style show for knitters, crocheters, and yarncrafters of all sorts, Liz and I take you all the way to Minnesota for the annual Knit-Out & Crochet sponsored by the Craft Yarn Council of America. Thousands upon thousands of knitters and crocheters descended upon the Mall of America (biggest mall in America!) for a weekend event with booths, demos, fashion shows, contests and more!

In this episode, we also give tips for knitting and crocheting lace. Here are just a few of these tips:

1. Swatch with scrap yarn first so that you (a) get used to the pattern and (b) don’t waste your actual yarn.
2. When knitting, use stitch markers between each repeat of the lace pattern (at least for the first few rows) so that it is easy to keep track of the pattern.
3. Count the number of stitches in each row to make sure you have the correct number, so that you notice any mistakes right away.
4. Use a lifeline. For knitters, this means weaving a piece of waste yarn through all of your open stitches after each repetition of the lace pattern, so that you have a place that you can easily rip back to, if there is a major problem. The waste yarn will catch your stitches. For crocheters, put a split ring stitch marker or safety pin on the last stitch of a repetition of your lace pattern, so again, you have a place to rip back, with the marker catching the stitch and keeping you from ripping back too far.
5. Block your project. This will open up your lace stitches and make them look their best.

To listen to this episode, click here [MP3]. For more on this episode, visit the YarnCraft blog.

Join us next week for a new episode on great warm-weather patterns.