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The Story:
From Alice:
My Silky Alpaca Lace Scarf began as a swatching exercise. While I’m not new to lace knitting, I had never worked a lace pattern in laceweight yarn. I preferred dk weight because it was faster and, I thought, easier to handle. Nevertheless, as a knitter who is always looking for something new to try, I grabbed a leftover ball of CEY's Silky Alpaca Lace, my collection of stitch dictionaries, and some size 7 (4.5 mm) needles, then sat down to browse the lace chapters.
I looked for a simple lace pattern—one that had few stitch and row repeats and didn't require any yarn overs or decreases on wrong side rows. Once I found my ideal stitch pattern, the Dainty Chevron pattern on page 275 of Barbara Walker’s A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, I cast on enough stitches for five repeats.
When working lace patterns, I tend to be impatient. However, I had to wait until I’d worked several row repeats to really see the pattern appear. The chosen stitch pattern came out so well that I just kept knitting until the yarn was all used up. And every few inches I steam-blocked the piece with the needles still on! A move that kept me motivated and chugging along.
At 437 yards per ball, Silky Alpaca Lace has great yardage. With only half a ball, I was able to make a nice long scarf that Catherine, my teenage daughter, has claimed for herself. I really love the soft halo in the finished project. I think once you try lace with laceweight yarn and see the delicate effect you get, you’ll want to tackle more lace projects. I've become completely obsessed.
The Yarn:
Silky Alpaca Lace
70% alpaca, 30% silk
Silky Alpaca Lace is a lace-weight blend of 70% alpaca and 30% silk. The alpaca lends a soft halo to the yarn and provides warmth; silk adds a subtle sheen to the knittied fabric and dresses up the stitches. Worked in a lace pattern with larger needles, it makes a lovely, light-as-air garment.
Silky Alpaca Lace comes in 16 colors: the palette includes soft, sensuous misty shades, neutrals, and rich saturated colors as well.
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The Pattern:
Here is the free downloadable Silky Alpaca Lace Scarf pattern.
If you have difficulty downloading or printing the PDF pattern above, try this: page 1
The Stitches:
The lace pattern in Alice’s scarf uses yarn over increases to form eyelets. To balance out these increased stitches, left and right slanting decreases are worked to form the sides of the “triangle” sections of the pattern.
Learn more about yarnovers and left and right slanting decreases.
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