Blog #49 Barbara Abbey's Knitting Lace (Edgings)

Dear Knitter,

Barbara Abbey’s Knitting Lace is now in a convenient digital format.

book cover of Barbara Abbey's Knitting Lace in blue with shawl edgings

Barbara Abbey's book has 100 unique lace edgings and is a wonderful resource. Two of these edgings can be seen on Elizabeth Zimmermann shawls in her book, Knitting Workshop. 

On her Square Baby Blanket (purple below), I used Barbara Abbey’s Narrow Aspen Leaf Edging, and on EZ’s Stonington Shawl (silver below), Barbara’s Double Circle Edging was applied (pg 75 in Knitting Workshop). 

  purple shawl with edging from Barbara Abbey's Knitting Lace     white shawl with edging from Barbara Abbey's Knitting Lace

A key for working an edging around a shawl with square corners is to add fabric at the turns, so that the edging will lie flat. Note: Alternately, you could work short rows and create a mitered corner, but that involves planning and some detailed technique. I much prefer to simply continue with the edging I am working, but add a few unattached rows before and after the corner - the wider the edging, the more unattached rows you should work to ensure the corner does not curl.

The basic idea for an edging is to knit it perpendicularly in relation to the border of the completed project (in this example, a shawl). During every other edging-row, the last edging-stitch is worked together with a border stitch. As you approach a corner, work as follows (for a medium-width laced edging of about 12-18 sts):

At 6 sts from the corner,

1. work the lace over and back without attaching to the shawl.

2. work the lace over and back and attach the last edging stitch to a shawl stitch.

Repeat those two rows to the corner; attach the edging to the corner stitch,

then repeat the two rows over the next 6 sts on the other side.

You can see how the corners lie nice and docilely on the shawls from EZKW.

Another instance of my use of BAKL is the lace edging on my Mananita Shawl from the DVD, ‘Knitting Lace with Meg Swansen’. I chose the ‘Very Narrow Lace Edging’ from Barbara’s book, which I think suits the shawl very nicely (see image on cover).

cover of Knitting Lace DVD with Mananita

 

Barbara Abbey’s Knitting Lace has a superb array of choices for the knitter looking for a lace border - from simple, narrow motifs to complex, deeper borders, all illustrated, and with clear row-by-row instructions. The new digital format is less expensive and allows you to print out the motif you wish to work and carry it with you - you can also team it with knitting software in its pdf format.

Good Knitting!

Meg