Lace Knitting E-Book

Helen James

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Knitted lace is beautiful, ethereal and eminently achievable by any competent knitter. Written by a passionate lace knitter, this comprehensive book contains a brief history of lace knitting and considers the similarities between the genre from different traditions. Whilst using traditional motifs, Lace Knitting moves away from the traditional square shawls of the past and focuses on wedding wraps, scarves and throws, as well as household furnishings such as cushion covers. This book is beautifully illustrated and includes a brief history of lace knitting; information about yarns, tools and techniques and a fully illustrated stitchionary, with charts and written instructions. There is information on techniques, with over seventy lace motifs and embellishments including making bobbles, beading and how to create the Estonian Nupp. It also includes seven straightforward, but effective projects, all of which can be varied and made more or less complex by the knitter. It is exquisitely illustrated with 227 colour photographs and 76 line artworks. Helen James is an experienced knitter and has had a life-long love of lace and lace knitting.

Leseprobe

LACEKNITTING

LACEKNITTING

Helen James

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2019 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2019

© Helen James 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 572 5

CONTENTS

Preface

List of abbreviations and symbols

Introduction

1 A brief history of lace knitting

2 Getting started

3 Techniques

4 Stitchionary

5 Edgings and embellishments

6 Pattern combining and materials

7 From inspiration to stitch

8 Finishing techniques

9 Projects

Bibliography

Yarn suppliers

Acknowledgements

Index

Preface

I have been a knitter for most of my life, and like many people of my generation, was fortunate enough to have been taught the basics as a child at school, in a post war era that still considered the teaching of such skills as a necessary part of every child’s education. Like many children, I was encouraged to practise my embryonic knitting skills under the watchful eyes of the female members of my family, all of whom were proficient knitters themselves. My earliest creation – at the age of six years old – was a pair of pale-yellow fluffy bed socks with an eyelet pattern in the cuff. The mistakes were many but I loved those socks because they were to my mind lacy and therefore pretty.

Lace, it seems, has always held a fascination. Attempts to teach me how to make tatted lace when I was about seven years old were not very successful, ending in a tangled mess. Nevertheless, despite this early frustration I continued to love all things lacy. For many years I had no idea that the incredibly fine, airy and romantic lace that I was so attracted to could actually be knitted. However, the realization came as something of a revelation in adulthood when quite by chance I found an old book containing a limited number of written down patterns, for motifs described as Shetland lace. I was intrigued that this book seemed to suggest that a reasonably competent knitter could create this beautiful fabric that I had loved since childhood. I was not however convinced, as to my mind the pattern seemed very complicated, but I decided that I would try to knit the pattern anyway and see what happened. I chose to try a small swatch of Fern lace with small needles, using some fine cashmere yarn. The smallness of the needles resulted in a denser fabric than I had anticipated but I loved it nevertheless and still have it. I soon learnt that larger needles and fine yarn make lighter, airier lace. I was from that point on completely captivated and have continued to explore and experiment with lace ever since.

The first lace swatch I ever knitted. Pale-yellow lace-weight cashmere and extremely small needles produced a dense but very soft fabric.

More recently along my knitting journey I obtained the City and Guilds Certificate in Hand Knit and Design, which taught me much, including how much more there always is to learn.

List of abbreviations and symbols

Key to symbols used in this book.

k: knit

p: purl

st(s): stitch(es)

RS: right-side

WS: wrong-side

DK: double knit

dpn: double pointed needle

M1: make 1

M1r: make 1 right

yo: yarn over

M1l: make 1 left

ssk: slip, slip, knit

skp: slip, knit, pass slip stitch over

k2tog: knit 2 stitches together

k3tog: knit 3 stitches together

p2tog: purl 2 stitches together

p3tog: purl 3 stitches together

k tbl: knit through back of loop

psso: pass slip stitch over

sl1, k2tog, psso: slip 1, knit 2 together, pass slip stitch over

wyif: with yarn in front

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this book is to share my passion and fascination with lace knitting and to show that, providing you have acquired the essential basic skills of knitting, creating lace is something that can be achieved – no matter how daunted you may feel. Much of it looks more complicated than it actually is and although it does require some concentration, it should be well within the grasp of the average knitter. You, however, would be well advised against embarking upon your first lace project when you are very tired or sitting in front of the TV as your ability to count and keep track of your stitches will be more impaired than you might imagine. Similarly, it would not be a good idea to jump straight in by knitting a complex lace shawl. Practise motifs separately to begin with, get the feel of knitted lace and then look at more complex designs as your skill and understanding develop.

A good place to begin might be to look at my suggestion later in the book for knitting the motifs in a heavier weight yarn in a variety of colours on large needles, and then crocheting the varying sized swatches together in a contrasting yarn to make a sampler blanket.

Whilst this is not a book of patterns, there are some in the form of projects for you to try out and vary as you wish. I hope to inspire those of you who may be less familiar with this area of knitting to take that first step and start to explore this fascinating genre, to develop your skills, and to encourage beginners and more confident knitters alike to explore the medium of lace knitting, not solely by the following of patterns created by others but through a study of lace motifs, techniques and use of inspirational materials to create your own unique pieces. I invite you to look at ways of taking something seen as traditional, explore how it can be used in a more contemporary manner and then use it to both enhance and inspire your own projects.

By following patterns created by others you can learn a great deal about the technical creation of lace. You can begin to understand how motifs can work together, learn how to read your lace knitting, practise manipulating yarns thinner than you might normally use, and marvel at the skill and ingenuity of the lace knitters of past centuries who created these beautiful patterns without any kind of written recording or charts, and without the very great advantage of electric light.

Harebell lace wedding wrap, knitted in a lace weight, extra fine Merino yarn. This wrap has a lovely drape and is light and floaty, feeling truly luxurious.

If you are a curious and interested knitter, you will be aware that there is more to lace knitting, and indeed all aspects of knitting than purely repeating a pattern, notwithstanding the immense satisfaction that can be gained by the completion of a complex design. By stepping out from the safety of the written pattern you truly gain an opportunity to explore lace knitting from a different perspective. Undoubtedly on occasions things will not turn out as you expect, you will make mistakes or just not like the result, but it does not matter. The beauty of exploring any aspect of knitting is that it is easy to unravel the piece and start again, hopefully wiser than before. It is also entirely possible that a mistake may open a door to new ideas or variations on an existing idea or motif and lead to an outcome that is unexpected and both beautiful and unique.

How to use this book

The next few paragraphs provide important information as to the way in which this book should be used. Skip the introduction and background reading by all means, but please do read the next few paragraphs so that you do not immediately turn to the pattern section and wonder why some of the patterns are less detailed than you might have expected.

Over the coming pages this book will explain the basic techniques of lace knitting, and provide you with the skills to interpret patterns and charts with confidence.

There are some projects in this book; however, some are deliberately less detailed than others, providing a template for you to use as a starting point, with suggestions as to how you might progress rather than using detailed instructions on how to complete the item.

Other patterns are more complete but provide nudges to look at different options for their completion, for example, the wedding wrap design shown here, and featured in Chapters 7 and 9. All the patterns are adaptable and you are encouraged to explore different options rather than just replicating my particular approach, although of course you are free to do this as well if you wish.

In order to get the best from this book you should have the following basic skills: be able to knit and purl, undertake basic increases, yarn overs and decreases, and follow a written pattern. Information is provided about more unusual types of increases and decreases, along with specific types of casting on and off that work well with lace.

If you are new to lace knitting, there are suggestions as to which motifs you might like to try initially so that you can build on your skills and work up to some of the more complex patterns. This will also provide you with the opportunity to become accustomed to the way in which the yarn-over increases and the paired decreases work. You can then move on to motifs where the increase and decrease are separated by one or more stitches and eventually even one or more rows, as for the delayed decrease. The projects at the end of the book provide very easy lace motifs for new lace knitters, as well as complex patterns for those with some lace knitting experience.

The following chapters will provide information about the tools that you will need and yarns and how they perform when knitted as lace; detailed explanations for using charts; understanding abbreviations; finishing techniques including blocking, and the development of your own designs. There is a Stitchionary containing lace motifs, insertions and edgings, with both charts and written instructions. There are a vast number of lace motifs and stitches and it is not the aim of this book to provide a definitive overview of the thousands of patterns and variations that are available, but rather to suggest sufficient stitch patterns to get you started and sign posts to aid further exploration of further patterns and traditions of lace knitting.

CHAPTER 1

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LACE KNITTING

Lace sampler from the Knitting and Crochet Guild collection. A good place to visit if you are interested in further research.

For many, it is the fine, white, wedding ring shawls of great complexity and beauty that spring to mind when first thinking about lace knitting.

It is the areas of Shetland, Estonia and Orenburg that provide the current main interest in knitted lace today, each with its own unique tradition and history of producing these shawls.

This interest in fine knitted lace, much loved and highly sought after by the Victorians across Europe, has enjoyed something of a revival in recent times and there are many skilled knitters who both enjoy recreating the old patterns and producing shawls and wraps of considerable beauty as well as producing new designs, all of which is contributing to the continued development and indeed survival of this fascinating art. But where did it come from?

It is widely believed that knitting originated in the Middle East and that it emanated from there through Spain during the Crusades in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and it is thought to have arrived in England in the mid thirteenth century.

Lace knitting, like knitting in general, has a fascinating history. It is not really known where it originated, but the earliest known example of lace in knitting is thought to be a pair of silk knitted hose featuring a diagonal Faggot pattern dated to the mid 1500s and which is housed at the Dresden Museum. Eleanora di Toledo, the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, who died in 1562, was found to have been buried in a pair of silk lace stockings. Elizabeth I of England is thought to be the first British monarch to wear silk stockings. It is said that in 1560 a Mrs Montague, who was a lady in waiting to Elizabeth, presented the Queen with a gift of knitted silk stockings with a diamond lace motif. The story maintains that the Queen was so taken with these stockings that she had Mrs Montague make her more. Indeed, there is a pair of lacy knit stockings in this design, said to be of approximately the right age, on display at Hatfield House, the childhood home of the Queen. Whilst this does suggest that lace knitting was a recognized skill in the mid 1500s, it is simply not known if there is any truth to this particular story. It is suggested in the literature that this pattern may have originated in France, but nobody actually knows.

An example of fine Shetland Lace from the collection at the Unst Heritage Centre, Haroldswick.

This is an example of Estonian lace knitting, the Maikel shawl from a pattern by Nancy Bush.

A gate to a beach warning of mermaids, who are associated in folklore with the origins of lace.

The earliest inklings of lace associated with the Shetland Isles were found with the remains of the ‘Gunnister Man’, discovered in a peat bog near Gunnister, Shetland, in 1951. The remains were subsequently dated to 1680–90, so somewhat later than the earlier examples of lace from Dresden, Italy and Queen Bess’s stockings. Alongside the preserved knitted garments found with the body was a fragment of knitting of a lace diamond motif created from yarn-over increases and decreases. Debate continues as to whether or not Gunnister Man was a local or a visiting sailor, due to the Dutch and Swedish coins that were found with him, but whatever his origins, this small fragment of knitted lace suggests that lace knitting might have been known and possibly practised in Shetland earlier than the current evidential base is able to demonstrate.

Because of the lack of evidence or a clearly established timeline for the development of knitted lace, there is a certain mystique about its origins. This has led to legends and folklore as to how it began in different parts of the world. Perhaps my favourite is the story from Shetland that a mermaid wove together the foam from the waves to make a garment so that she could be appropriately clad whilst on dry land visiting the fisherman that she loved. It is told that the islanders were so taken with this garment that they set about trying to copy it, thus creating the lovely lace with which the islands are associated.

Example of a sampler showing the skill of the knitters. This can be seen in the collection of the Knitting and Crochet Guild.

In the past, the traditions of knitting were handed down from generation to generation, by word of mouth, with children learning the knitted patterns from their parents, grandparents and other family members. Lace knitting traditions were shared in the same way, and whilst it may seem amazing to us, patterns, including the most complex, were committed to memory, and were knitted and shared without ever being recorded. Despite the lack of written patterns, it seems likely that knowledge of the patterns travelled from place to place, which would in part explain the similarity of motifs in lace knitting from various parts of the world. There is little doubt that historically there was far more travel, particularly overseas, than might hitherto have been imagined, with well-established routes between Northern Europe, the Shetland Islands and Southern Europe, dating back to the days of the Vikings. This would have allowed the knowledge of designs, techniques and motifs to move with sailors and travellers passing through, and to then be copied and further developed or adapted by knitters in their own countries.

Any hope that the names of the lace patterns might shed some light as to their origins rapidly vanishes after any initial research. Many of the patterns are named for the everyday things that people saw around them, for example, leaves, paws, flowers, insects and birds to name but a few. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the names of lace patterns are frequently confusing, with the same names being used to describe different motifs, and the same motifs cropping up in different lace traditions with different names. For example, the Estonian Peacock Tail motif is the same as the Shetland Horseshoe lace motif, but which came first? Nobody knows.

As lace knitting became more popular, it became a leisure pastime of wealthy Victorian women, as well as continuing to be an income-generating pastime in places such as Shetland, Orenburg and Estonia. Victorian ladies created samplers of their patterns as an aide-memoire and to show off their skills. These are often extremely intricate, and provide a fascinating insight into the skill of these knitters in times past. Many of these have survived and can be found housed in museums around the world.

The written published pattern is a relatively recent development in the world of knitting, only becoming established in the Victorian era when printed pamphlets containing ‘receipts’ for knitted goods increasingly became available.

Early written patterns provide a fascinating glimpse into the development of pattern writing, but can be more or less indecipherable to today’s knitter, with authors having their own shorthand and symbols for the instructions which need to be patiently decoded by today’s knitter, a challenging exercise and not for the faint-hearted! Not all patterns were accurate, and some were downright impossible, suggesting a lack of testing in some cases before publication!

The written pattern in a form that is more widely recognized today became increasingly common in the early part of the twentieth century. Patterns for knitted items during both world wars were readily available with much encouragement from the government of the day to knit for the war effort. After the Second World War, knitting patterns became increasingly commonplace and were widely published in women’s magazines, and became readily available in any outlet that also sold yarn. Whilst it is possible to find patterns from the post war era for lace, much of what was available was less intricate than the fine lace knitting of the past and often took the form of lacy baby blankets, evening stoles or cardigans. In recent years, however, with the rise of the internet and the increased interest in fine lace knitting, written and charted patterns for extremely intricate lace shawls are now widely available. The majority of books of stitches will include some lace motifs, and specialist books relating to specific lace traditions are now available.

In conclusion, whilst it is impossible to say where or how the knitting of lace evolved, given that there are such distinct similarities in many aspects of design across the different lace traditions both from northern and southern Europe, it would be difficult to believe that they each developed in isolation from one another.

The extent to which overseas trade and travel was happening in earlier centuries is not always recognized but the fact that Shetland and Orenburg, for example, were based in strategically important areas in terms of trade routes, together with Shetland’s fishing industry which also attracted travellers, must surely have had some bearing on the early development of lace knitting. Similarly, travel to and from England to all parts of Europe and beyond was well established by the nineteenth century and equally opened another route for ideas, techniques and designs to travel. Consequently, it is very difficult to believe that each knitted lace tradition emerged, fully formed in the mid nineteenth century. Due to the lack of physical evidence, however, it is quite possible that we will never really know for sure where lace knitting first emerged, nor be able to track its development over the centuries.

The whole picture is further complicated by the ease with which patterns started to be published and widely shared after the Second World War and the now almost instant availability across the globe of knitting patterns from around the world by virtue of the internet. This has resulted in so many crossovers of designs from many different places that it is now very difficult indeed to really attribute specific patterns as having originated in a particular place. This adds a continuing degree of mystery to the knitting of lace. For those who are interested in pursuing this aspect of knitting history, there are ample opportunities for further research and study and I have included some sources for further reading and exploration in the bibliography at the end of this book.

Shetland Lace

Prior to 1832, when Shetland lace knitting was first observed, there is a record of Shetlanders producing socks and woollen stockings dating back to at least the early 1600s, clearly suggesting that they were skilled knitters and spinners. By the 1800s, the islanders had established a reputation for the production of fine knitted stockings, although still continued to produce coarse knitted stockings, socks and mitts. These were traded with foreign sailors, many from Holland and Germany.

Amongst the alternative theories as to how the Shetlanders discovered lace knitting are suggestions that it came from the mainland in the 1830s, or that lace was brought from Brussels and shown to a family of knitters on the island of Unst which inspired them to develop lace knitting. If this is the case, then this skill was one that was learned and shared very quickly amongst the islanders as it is recorded that the export of fine lace knit shawls from the Shetlands was well established by the mid to late 1840s.

A fine lace shawl from unst, courtesy of the Unst Heritage Centre.

This edging from a fine lace shawl from the collection held by the Unst Heritage Centre shows how effective the use of yarn over increases and knit 2 together decreases can be.

Shetland sheep enjoying the rain.

Whilst nobody knows where Shetland lace originated, there must be a possibility, given the level of complexity of design and expertise of the knitters, that this skill had been practised for some time before it was spotted in the 1830s. We do not, however, have any evidence to support this theory, largely because of a lack of examples of surviving knitted lace from this area pre-dating the 1830s other than the tantalizing glimpse of knitted lace with the remains of the Gunnister Man.

It is also evident that the motifs found in Shetland lace knitting are markedly similar to those seen in many other parts of the world. There are a large number of motifs that are today described as Shetland in origin. Mary Thomas recorded that she had been told by a family of well-known Shetland lace knitters that there were only ten motifs that were truly Shetland in origin and she lists these as: Ears o’ Grain, Cat’s Paw, Print o’ the Wave, Birds Eye, Fern, Fir Cone, Spout Shell, Old Shale, Acre and Horseshoe (Richard Rutt, A History of Hand Knitting). Again it is simply not possible to know. Any examination of some of the more common motifs such as Cat’s Paw and Horseshoe lace will demonstrate the remarkable similarity across various lace traditions. For those interested, the paper by Elizabeth Lovick, ‘Knitting Beyond the Hebrides, The Same but Different’ provides an intriguing examination of some of these motifs.

From the mid 1830s, the popularity of knitted Shetland lace increased dramatically, and it was in great demand by fashionable Victorian ladies and favoured by the Queen. It soon became the primary occupation of women on the islands who produced lace shawls in great quantity. It is, however, a sad fact that the lace knitters often earned very little from their skills and endeavours and, in some cases, were paid in kind rather than in cash.

This is an example of an Orenburg shawl bought in St Petersburg, Russia. As you can see, it shows some of the traditional motifs associated with Orenburg lace.

Shetland lace is largely based on garter stitch. Purl stitches slowed the lace knitters down and as they were knitting for money, they needed to be able to knit as efficiently as possible, and thus garter stitch was preferred. Shetland lace uses yarnover increases paired with knit 2 together and knit 3 together decreases to create an array of beautiful patterns.

In order to produce lace of the quality found in Shetland, you need the right kind of wool. The success of the knitted lace from Shetland is in no small measure contingent upon the suitability of the yarn from the sheep native to those islands.

The sheep of the Shetland Islands are a particular breed, producing soft strong wool, which when spun creates a yarn with excellent stitch definition. The fineness of the yarn and the skill of the spinners is frequently commented upon in the historical commentaries of the 1800s, with the quality of the yarn spun on the Island of Unst being noted as being particularly fine.

The reputation of the fineness of the lace produced on Unst during the 1800s and 1900s has remained. Examples of Unst lace can be seen at the Unst Heritage Centre and the Lerwick Textile Museum, both of which also house an impressive collection of fine lace Shetland shawls.

In the 1840s, as written patterns, or ‘receipts’, began to appear with patterns and designs within them, they regularly included patterns described as Shetland, alongside a variety of lace patterns attributed variously as French, Irish or Spanish, or simply as a pretty open pattern for a shawl. Collections of these patterns can still be found contained in the old pattern books of the late 1800s and early 1900s by Weldon, Lambert and Gaugain, amongst others.

Over the twentieth century, as travel became ever more accessible and patterns travelled to other parts of the world, their names were often changed, thus adding to the confusion as to the place from which a pattern might have originated. Nowadays with so much cross-fertilization of ideas and patterns, it is very difficult to really know where any particular motif described as Shetland lace might have originated, and never more so than with the advent of the internet which provides a huge resource of patterns from across the globe at the press of a button.

Orenburg Lace

Orenburg is a city situated in south-eastern Russia, close to the border of both Asia and Europe, and borders Kazakhstan. Despite the apparent remoteness of its situation, Orenburg was a central point on the trade routes between Russia, Europe and Asia. This is an interesting parallel with the Shetland Islands, another remote location with the benefit of being situated on the European trade routes. Orenburg knitted lace appears to have a history dating back to the mid 1700s, thus predating any knowledge of a knitted lace tradition in Shetland by at least a hundred years. That does not mean it was not happening, just that we have no evidence that it was.

An Orenburg shawl showing the edges and border motifs.

As with other knitted lace traditions, there are no real facts as to where or how this tradition was established, although there are of course tales and folklore associated with its origins.

By the mid eighteenth century, such was the demand for the warm knitted shawls of Orenburg, that it was the pre-eminent occupation of women and girls in the Orenburg area of Russia and, like Shetland Lace, it rapidly gained in popularity across Europe. It should also be said that like the women of Shetland, the Orenburg knitters often gained very little from their efforts in creating breathtakingly beautiful lace as the production of knitted lace was managed by middlemen who appear to have exploited the knitters for their own considerable profit.

Orenburg Lace is typified by both large, warm, square shawls and by extremely beautiful gossamer shawls with complex designs derived from combining the basic stitch patterns of this tradition in a huge variety of ways. Traditionally the only three stitches in Orenburg Lace are knit 2 together, sometimes knit 3 together, yarn over and knit. There is no purl stitch as this was not used as is the case in the Shetland tradition. This makes the design and construction of the lace a very skilled undertaking, by using the simple motifs in a myriad of different arrangements to create the beautiful designs associated with this tradition. The motifs that these complex designs are based upon are named for the everyday things that people saw around them, for example, Peas, Fish Eyes, Mouse Paws and Strawberries. It is only very recently that these designs have been turned into charts for others to use. Traditionally the lace knitters of Orenburg learnt to knit the patterns whilst still very young and committed them to memory.

The Orenburg shawl derives its warmth and fineness from the particular yarn from which it is made. The yarn is traditionally made from a specific breed of goat that is peculiar to this area of Orenburg in Eastern Russia. The down is combed from the animal. An average of two pounds of down can be taken from an adult goat. The down is then cleaned and spun ready for knitting.

The fibre derived from Orenburg goats is said to be the finest in the world and to be finer and warmer than Cashmere. It is exceptionally soft and warm and is routinely plied to the fineness of commercial silk, providing the gossamer threads for the construction of the finest shawls. In the 1800s, much of the down from these goats was exported to Europe. It was, however, expensive so it was hoped that the goats themselves could be bred in Europe, thus making the acquisition of this sought after fibre more cost effective and generally available. The subsequent attempts to produce the down outside of the Orenburg area ultimately met with failure, as it seems that the exceptional qualities of the fibre so valued by the lace knitter is only produced by the goats in response to the extreme harshness of the Eastern Russian climate and, after a year or two of living in warmer climes, their coats changed and the soft downy undercoat became coarser and weaker and lost its insulating properties, with the result that it was no longer suitable for the knitting of these shawls. For those interested in experimenting with this yarn, it can be obtained online from the Orenburg area of Russia.

Estonian Lace

Estonian Lace is now a widely recognized lace tradition of Europe, typified by beautiful, cobwebby white wool shawls. Historically the centre of this development was the Estonian seaside resort town of Haapsalu, an extremely pretty town situated on the west coast of Estonia. What put it on the map was the establishment in 1852 of a mud bath spa in the town. This drew in wealthy visitors from Russia who travelled to enjoy the baths. The flow of wealthy tourists also included members of the Russian royal family whose patronage made the resort even more fashionable. This provided ample opportunity for the women of Haapsalu to find a vibrant market for their exquisite knitted shawls, which became increasingly popular as a consequence. The thriving industry provided funds to help the families survive the harsh winters, during which they employed their time knitting the next batch of shawls ready for the following season’s influx of visitors. The production of these shawls declined for entirely understandable reasons during the First World War, following which Estonia became an independent republic in 1918. Subsequently production was re-established and the fame of the white shawls of Haapsalu again began to spread and soon they were being traded across the world.

Today the production of Haapsalu shawls continues and there is now widespread interest in learning the techniques associated with the creation of this beautiful lace tradition.

Many of the motifs seen in Estonian Lace bear a marked resemblance to motifs from other knitted lace traditions and there are striking similarities to some of the Shetland patterns.

Estonian Lace uses a more complex construction than either the Shetland or Orenburg Lace tradition. It is generally knitted on a stocking stitch ground, and twisted stitches, mass increases and decreases and purl stitch can all be found in this lace tradition. Although Estonian Lace has many patterns and variations, it is perhaps most commonly associated with a particular type of bobble known as a ‘nupp’ (rhymes with soup!), which provides a texture to the lace designs. Perhaps the best-known motif is that of the Lily of the Valley, a beautiful and versatile motif that can be created with or without nupps, and of which there are many versions. Leaf motifs are also very popular within the Estonian tradition, as are twigs, flowers, grain and insects.

There are variations across the traditions in some aspects of traditional shawl construction and whilst with Shetland shawls the edges are either worked in one piece or knitted on, and Orenburg shawls are worked in one piece, in the Estonian tradition the edges are knitted separately and then sewn on.

There are, however, many more similarities seen in the traditional patterns of Estonian Lace with lace attributed to not only the Shetland and Orenburg tradition but with lace that is seen more generally across Europe. Compare the Estonian Head of Grain pattern, frequently found in Estonian Stitch Dictionaries, with the Shetland Fern Lace, for example, or the Twig pattern with two lines from Estonia with the Print of the Wave pattern from Shetland or the leaf patterns from Estonia with the many variations of this motif from around the world.

Estonian Peacock Tail wrap from a pattern by Nancy Bush. Note the similarity with Horseshoe lace.

CHAPTER 2

GETTING STARTED