Big Yarn, Beautiful Lace Knits

Lace gets a whole new look!

Lace has traditionally been knit in finer weight yarns to create airy, delicate designs. But when knit in bulky yarns, lace becomes bold, graphic, and dramatic. Working with thicker yarns also makes the projects move along more quickly and the lace repeats shorter, so it's easy to learn new stitches and techniques. For those new to lace knitting, Barbara first gives an introduction to working lace stitches and chart reading, and shows you how bulky yarns work best in lace designs.

Then you are ready to knit any of the 20 patterns for beautiful lacy shawls, mitts, hats, cowls, blankets, and more. Gorgeous photography by Gale Zucker shows the pieces to their full, stunning effect. Get those big needles and chunky yarn ready to roll!

“Lace has traditionally been knit in finer weight yarns to create airy, delicate designs. But when knit in bulky yarns, lace becomes bold, graphic, and dramatic.We all know that working with thicker yarns also makes the projects work up more quickly and the lace repeats shorter. Using bulky weight yarn for knitting lace makes it easy to learn new stitches and techniques.One of the things that you will learn from Barbara in this book is that not all yarns play well with lace knitting. Learn from Barbara's experiments on how to pick the yarn that will be best for the lace work you would like to try. You will also learn how to read lace charts as the are a little different than some of the other knitting charts you might have seen before.Walk through this book and study the tips and tricks of lace knitting and you will be ready to knit any of the 20 patterns for beautiful lacy shawls, mitts, hats, cowls, blankets, and more.”

With big colourful pictures, and simple useful ‘how to' sections explaining what lace is, how to read a chart and some basic lace techniques, this book sets the scene beautifully. There are 20 patterns, all of them beautifully photographed. Unusually there are patterns for men and women in the same book. There are lots of different projects from hats, mitts and scarves through to shawls and a poncho.

Lace knitting is usually linked to fine-weight yarns, but applying this technique to bulky yarns makes this a great way to try lace knitting. Often in a book like this I will find one or maybe two patterns that I’d like to try, but in this publication, there are lots I’d like to make. Surprisingly, the larger garments are the ones I’m drawn to, including a poncho and an open front vest

The photography is well done, with multiple pictures of the same item from different angles, making it easier to choose which items you really want to make. Overall, this is a book I’d buy for myself. My only negative comment is the colour used on the abbreviations page makes it harder to read, when the idea was probably to make it easier.

Barbara Benson is the author of Mosaic & Lace Knits, and the yarn director for Malabrigo Yarns. She lives in Sarasota, Florida, and her designs have been published in Interweave Knits, Twist Collective, Knitscene, and Knit Now magazines. She also shares video tutorials on knitting techniques on her popular YouTube channel WatchBarbaraKnit.

Lace gets a whole new look! Lace has traditionally been knit in finer weight yarns to create airy, delicate designs. But when knit in bulky yarns, lace becomes bold, graphic, and dramatic. Working with thicker yarns also makes the projects move along more quickly and the lace repeats shorter, so it's easy to learn new stitches and techniques. For those new to lace knitting, Barbara first gives an introduction to working lace stitches and chart reading, and shows you how bulky yarns work best in lace designs. Then you are ready to knit any of the 20 patterns for beautiful lacy shawls, mitts, hats, cowls, blankets, and more. Gorgeous photography by Gale Zucker shows the pieces to their full, stunning effect. Get those big needles and chunky yarn ready to roll!

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