Knitting lace can be an enjoyable way of creating airy accessories and garments that often look more complicated to make than they really are. Anyone who is new to lace knitting may want to practice the easiest lace patterns first in order to understand the most basic increasing and decreasing concepts. Once you master the basics of lace knitting, you can move on to more complex and bigger projects.
Needles and Yarn
Instead of using a lace-weight yarn for your very first lace project or practice, you may want to start with yarn in a heavier weight, such as worsted or sport weight. Lace weight is very fine and thin; you knit it with small needles, and if you aren't yet accustomed to working with such fine yarn and tiny needles it can be awkward getting the feel for it and following lace instructions at the same time.
Lace knitting involves purposely making holes in your project. Usually, you increase stitches (create the hole) and then decrease stitches to maintain an even number of stitches on your needles. Consider using wooden or bamboo needles when beginning to knit lace. These needles are less slippery than aluminum or metal; you're less likely to drop stitches and miscount when your yarn stays on your needles securely.
Accessories and Lifelines
Use stitch markers to separate pattern repeats. This helps you keep count of your stitches so that if you make a mistake and miss a yarn-over or decrease, you'll be able to spot it before you move on to the next row.
It's also a good idea to use lifelines in lace knitting. A lifeline is a line of yarn in a lighter weight than your project. Insert one on a "rest" row (or rows that only require knitting or purling). Keep track of which row in your pattern it is. Weave the yarn through your live stitches with a tapestry needle. The lifeline should be long enough to hang out either side of your project. If you make a mistake somewhere past your lifeline, you can unravel your project back to this point instead of having to unravel the entire project.
Patterns
The feather and fan pattern is a popular one among knitters. It's an easy pattern and perfect for beginning lace knitters. The increase is a yarn-over, where the yarn is placed in front of the needle before knitting the next stitch (instead of behind the needle as is custom when doing the knit stitch). The decrease is a simple K2tog, or knit two stitches together. It's a four-row pattern and three of the rows only require straight knitting or purling. You only knit the lacework on row three of the pattern.
Begin with patterns that have "rest" rows on alternate rows. The most complicated lace patterns have no rest rows; you knit lacework in every row.
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