General lace resources

Patterns

Designers

Groups & mailing lists

Lace bloggers

How-tos

Retailers

Books coming soon

Shetland lace

Orenburg lace

Estonian lace

Doilies
 

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General lace knitting resources

Yarn Over lace knitting
Lace knitting on the web since 1999. Tips and tricks, links, patterns, and more. Very rich site.

Online lace symposium at Knitting Beyond the Hebrides
Articles on lace styles and history, resource lists, lace knitting techniques
 

Patterns

Note: Some links on off-site pattern lists may be outdated, but you can always find patterns by name on Ravelry.

Ravelry searches for lace patterns: Use the "lace" filter under Attributes > Fabric characteristics. For example, this search finds all free knitted shawl patterns on the site.

Knitfinder picks: 50 beautiful free lace shawls and stoles (April 2012)
with a variety of shapes, techniques, and difficulty levels

Free lace pattern lists at Yarn Over
Large link collection includes clothing, shawls, scarves, and wraps, baby things, edgings and insertions, and items for the home. International list-not all patterns are in English.

List of 350+ patterns for triangular shawls, arranged by yardage requirements.

List of 100+ patterns for rectangular stoles (through April 2008)

Shawl pattern resources at Interweave Knits

For Knitfinder subscribers: search indexes by tag for "lace" (in the Name column).
Interweave Knits index - about 380 patterns tagged with "lace"
Knitty index - about 185 patterns (all free)

Lace edging and insertion patterns at knitting-and.com

Edgings, squares, and stitch patterns at Knitting Pattern Central

Shawl cheat sheet, free from Laylock: generic knitting instructions for 5 different shawl shapes, all knitted flat from the neck outward and down. Fits neatly on one page.
 

Designers - a selective list
Some notable active lace designers, with Ravelry links (free membership required to view) and website links

Groups & mailing lists

Laceknitters Yahoo group

Lacis lace knitting group  In-person group met monthly in Berkeley, California until recently; now meets at Needle in a Haystack, Alameda. Information at the Ravelry group.

Lacy Knitters Guild  200 members, monthly meetings in Mountain View, California; focus on history and preservation. Online Flickr group.

Lace knitting groups on Ravelry (free membership required):
Lace knitters
Beginning lace knitters
Shawl lovers
Doilie heads
Herbert Niebling
Heirloom knitting (Shetland lace)
All weights lace (Lace in all yarn weights)

and many more devoted to specific books, designers and patterns...
 

Lace bloggers

Lace knitting web ring

Fleegle's Blog
Lacefreak
Missalicefaye
 

How-tos

"Demystifying lace" (video class at Knit Picks blog):   Lesson 1 (What is lace, anyway?)   Lesson 2 (Handling the yarn)   Lesson 3 (Gauge, casting on, yarnovers)   Lesson 4 (Reading charts)  Lesson 5 (Stitches used in lacework)   Lesson 6 (Blocking)

Lace tips and techniques links at Yarn Over

Eunny Jang’s four-part series “Majoring in Lace” 
Essential reading. Covers everything you need to think about.

Lace knitting basics and tips and hints from Sivia Harding (PDF files)

Increasing or decreasing in pattern (Sandi Rosner at Twist Collective)

Nupps: 1 (Nancy Bush video from Knitting Daily TV)   2 (KnitPicks video)  3  (photo tutorial at Fleegle's blog)  4  (Myra Wood's simple crochet hook technique)

Adding beads to your lace

Grafting lace: photo tutorial at Ruthless Knitting
Edgings - grafting beginning to end  1 and 2 (at Fleegle's blog)  3  (at Knitterguy)

Lace tips from the Knitting Curmudgeon (PDF file)

Lace symposium articles at Knitting Beyond the Hebrides

Lifelines: 1 (video)  2 (at Heartstrings Fiber Arts)

Blocking lace:  1 (Knitting Daily TV)  2 and 3 (KnitPicks videos)  4 (Knitting Curmudgeon; PDF file)

Lace repair tutorial at Heartstrings Fiber Arts

Garter tab cast on for top-down shawls: 1 (Loop Yarn video)  2  (Westknits photo tutorial)

Shawl progress calculator from Rose-Kim Knits (Excel spreadsheet)
Figure out how far along you are in your shawl project

Shawl cheat sheet, free from Laylock: generic knitting instructions for 5 different shawl shapes, all knitted flat from the neck outward and down. Fits neatly on one page.

 

Specialist retailers  Yarn, books, patterns & more

Blackberry Ridge Large selection of shawl patterns, private label lace yarns

Earthfaire Lace yarns, patterns and kits with a special focus on beaded lace. Some unusual laceweight yarns, including organic cotton laceweight.

Fiddlesticks Knitting Lace shawl, scarf, and garment patterns, yarns also

Goddess Knits Home of the Mystery Shawl Alongs

The Gossamer Web (Fleegle's Etsy shop)
Hand-dyed cobweb and gossamer lace yarns

Heirloom Knitting (Sharon Miller)

Lacis Fantastic source of hard-to-find lace knitting books & pamphlets

Little Knits Not a lace specialist, but an interesting selection of lace yarns

The Loopy Ewe Many lace yarns from independent dyers

Moonrise Lace Knitting (Sandy Terp) Books, patterns, yarns, instructional DVDs, and supplies

Lace and shawl clubs:
Designs by Romi pins and lace club
Joslyn's Fiber Farm shawl club
M1 Year of Lace club
 

Shetland lace

Heirloom Knitting (Sharon Miller)
Northern Lace (Elizabeth Lovick)

Online patterns: Patterns tagged "Shetland lace" on Ravelry

Online article:
Elizabeth Lovick, "The Same, but Different: Shetland Lace in a European Context" (PDF file at Knitting Beyond the Hebrides)

Print article:
Melanie Manwaring-Spencer, "Shetland Knitting," Interweave Knits Winter 1997

Books:
Gladys Amedro, Shetland Lace
Hazel Carter, Shetland Lace Knitting from Charts
Sarah Don, The Art of Shetland Lace
   (above books are available from Schoolhouse Press here along with many other lace knitting titles)
Sharon Miller, Heirloom Knitting
Sharon Miller, Shetland Hap Shawls Then and Now
Margaret Stove, Wrapped in Lace

Online inspiration:
Shetland Museum photo library - historic photos of fine Shetland lace, Shetland "openwork," and Hap shawls
 

Orenburg lace

Galina Khmeleva - Skaska Designs

Online patterns: Patterns tagged "Orenburg lace" on Ravelry

Online articles:
Peggy Adamik, "The Lace Shawls of Orenburg in Russia"
Jeane Hutchins, "A Day with the Orenburg Lace Shawls" at Knitting Daily (online)

Print articles:
Falick, Melanie, "Cobwebs from the Steppes: Russian Lace-Knitted Shawls," PieceWork May/June 1995
Galina Khmeleva, "Orenburg Gossamer and Warm Shawls," PieceWork Sept/Oct 2000
Galina Khmeleva, "A Tribute to a Lace-Knitting Legend: Olga Alexandrovna Fedorova," PieceWork May/June 2009
Walker, Joyce, "Buying Lace on a Russian Train," PieceWork July/August 2007

Books:
Galina Khmeleva, Gossamer Webs: The History and Techniques of Orenburg Lace Shawls
History, techniques, and stitch patterns, plus one pattern for a square shawl

Galina Khmeleva, Gossamer Webs Design Collection
Three Orenburg shawl patterns to knit, two squares and a stole
 

Estonian lace

Online patterns: Patterns tagged "Estonian lace" on Ravelry

Online article:
Faina Letoutchaia, "Estonian Lace" at Knitting Beyond the Hebrides

Online stitch pattern library:
New Lace - Old Traditions publishes Estonian lace motifs old and new, with swatch photos and free charts for download

Print articles:
Bush, Nancy, "Estonian Lace," Interweave Knits Fall 2001
Bush, Nancy, "The Lace Knitting of Haapsalu," PieceWork July/August 2005

Books:
Nancy Bush, Knitted Lace of Estonia (Interweave, 2009)
Leili Reimann, Pitsilised Koekirjad (in Estonian; out of print and difficult to find)
Siiri Reimann and Aime Edasi, Haapsalu Sall (2009) and English translation The Haapsalu Shawl. Available from Schoolhouse Press and many other retailers. In-depth review with photos here.
 

Doilies

Doily patterns on Ravelry

Doily patterns at knitting-and.com

Yarn Over Nurhanne Reckweg's site has antique doily, edging and insertion patterns, original shawl patterns, and lots of useful links and information. Since 1999.

Doily projects on Ravelry (free membership required)
Ravelry Doilie Heads

Doilyhead blog and pattern sales site
Dedicated to making Niebling and other older doily and tablecloth patterns available
 

Museums and galleries

Bricks and mortar only
Lace Museum (Sunnyvale, California)
Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles (Berkeley, California)

Online museum visit
Shetland Museum and Archives, Lerwick: shawls and shawl knitters in the photo archives