Bertha Lace Shawl in Jeaba Blue and lifelines

In September we visited Liisa for a day of dyeing yarn with Jeaba. I dyed my yarn blue and decided that I would knit a shawl with it.

I don´t knit lace very often, but I think that it gives nice variation from knitting mittens and socks. I also enjoy the blocking process, since it is very special to see the transformation from that rather messy knitted fabric into the lace shawl´s distinct patterns.

The Bertha Lace Shawl is a pattern from Evelyn Clark. I am very fond of her patterns since I find the instructions easy to understand. Her charts are clear, and there are written instructions for those who prefer that. I prefer knitting lace from charts, I find them very helpful since they are so visual and they give the possibility to relate to previous rows in an easy way. In written lace patterns I often lose track of where in the pattern I am.

I knitted this shawl on  Addi Lace circular needles 4,00 mm, and used 220 grams of my 2-ply yarn. I still have about 180 grams left - will have to think about what to do with that ....

Lifelines: I also recommend  lifelines when knitting lace. It saves hours if something goes wrong and you have to frogg/rip back your knitting. Above you can see the lifeline placed on the previous row. Place your lifeline depending on the complexity of the lace pattern. I often use a nylon thread (the same kind that are used for holding stitches when knitting on a knitting machine), most wool yarns will stick and make trouble when you are to remove the lifelines. I  place a lifeline after the pattern repeats, after checking that everything is right. When placing it you just take a blunt needle for the thread and insert it through the stitches and yarn overs for the entire row. Take care not to wrap it around the needle or insert it through stitch markers. If you have to frogg/rip back your knitting the lifeline will now function as a stopper - holding all your stitches and yarn overs correctly so that all you have to do when picking up the stitches is to let the needle follow the lifeline the entire row. After that you can continue your knitting without having to spend hours trying to re-establish the correct pattern of stitches and yarn overs.