For many people the first experience of knitting with lace weight yarn is not what they expect.
These yarns are so fine that you have to be aware of everything around you and the possibility of snagging or breaking the yarn on the smallest thing. In most cases there is no repairing it once that happens. Even experienced knitters are surprised by how difficult it can be – and the results are breathtaking, which is why people persist.
Why it is harder than it looks
Three things, and they compound.
The yarn is fragile. A rough fingernail, a splintered needle tip, a snag on a chair – any of these can break it, and a break in lace weight is not neatly mended.
Mistakes are hard to see. A dropped stitch in a fine yarn on a large needle is genuinely difficult to spot, and by the time you notice it has usually travelled.
Progress feels slow. A great many stitches produce a small amount of fabric. This is normal and it is worth knowing in advance so you do not conclude you are doing it wrong.
Use a lifeline
The single most useful piece of advice for lace.
Thread a length of smooth contrast yarn through all the live stitches of a completed row, every ten or twenty rows. Leave it in place as you carry on.
If something goes wrong you rip back to the lifeline, where all the stitches are held safely, rather than trying to pick up dropped stitches in cobweb-weight yarn. Anyone who has tried the alternative uses lifelines afterwards.
Put one in before any complicated section, and before you put the work away.
Needles
Sharp tips. Lace involves working several stitches together, and a blunt needle splits the yarn instead of passing through cleanly.
Smooth joins if you use circulars – a rough join will catch and fray the yarn every round.
Metal needles are usually preferred for lace, because the stitches move freely and the tips can be made sharper.
Counting and markers
Place markers between pattern repeats. When your count goes wrong, markers tell you which repeat it happened in rather than leaving you to search the whole row.
Most lace patterns have a fixed stitch count at the end of each row or repeat. Check it every time.
Blocking is not a finishing touch
It is the point. Lace comes off the needles looking like a small crumpled net, and it looks like a mistake.
Wetted and pinned out, it opens to something often half again as large, and the pattern appears. Nothing else you do to a lace piece matters as much.
Block generously, pin every point, and let it dry completely.
Practical points
Work in good light – more important here than in any other knitting.
Keep your hands smooth and your nails filed.
Start with something small. A narrow scarf teaches the same skills as a shawl and costs far less if it goes wrong.
