Friday, January 14, 2011
Wrapped in Lace
Lately I have been immersing myself in lace knitting, largely because of the influence of this book: Wrapped in Lace: Knitted Heirloom Designs from Around the World by Margaret Stove.
And when she says "heirlooms", this is exactly what she means. Each of the gorgeous, stunning shawls in this collection deserves the title. Each is a masterpiece, a work of art.
Margaret Stove is a master lace designer from New Zealand. I became familiar with her work, Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace some years ago. Already here she was de-constructing knitted lace and explaining how it all works. She then unabashedly went ahead and re-constructed various motifs into her own original designs. All the while teaching us how to do this ourselves.
She continues this process in Wrapped in Lace, while taking us along on her journey of knitting discovery.
In her new book, she takes the shawl knitting traditions of the Faroe Islands, the Shetland Isles, Estonia, and Russia and makes them her own. She re-interprets them by adding some lace motifs of her own design, especially in the pieces evoking her homeland, New Zealand.
Each beautiful shawl design begs to be knitted. It will be a challenge to decide on which one to begin.
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