This is what dropped stitch lace looks like when it’s blocked. To add some interest, I had to add these little leaf-like motifs that disrupt the ladders and create an over all polka-dot-like look to the lace.
Prose yarn was perfect for this lace and for blocking because of the wool content. I know that it would have a great “memory” for its blocking measurements and sure enough, the final piece stayed as it should after removing it from the blocking board.
One important aspect of knitting dropped stitch lace is making sure you count your stitches and that you don’t set the work down mid-row and come back to it later. As you can see, I have a column of stitches that I can’t drop. At the top of the swatch (out of the frame of the photo) I worked the wrong stitches together when I was making a leaf motif and I just couldn’t undo that column of stitches below and it affected the whole works. But I remain optimistic that with this pattern you’ll be able to make a lovely version of this lace as a rectangular stole with some colorful self-striping yarn like Prose. To make this swatch, you need to cast on 27 stitches, but if you’d like to make a cowl or a stole that is a little wider, simply cast on a multiple of 16 stitches, plus an extra 11. Use a long-tailed cast on. Set-up Row 1: K2-tbl, *drop next st off LH needle, yo, ssk; rep from * across, to last st, k1-tbl. (You should now have 15 sts–or a multiple of 8, plus 7) Set-up Row 2: P2-tbl, [p1, p1-tbl] across to last st, p1-tbl.
The cast on edge for knitted lace is a little tricky. My first efforts lacked enough “give”.
If you’ve been following pretty much any of my blog posts on KNITmuch, you’ll know that I like to learn from my swatches, as they are some of the best teachers in the knitting world. As you can see above, my cast on was a bit too tight, despite several tries and experiments with different cast on edges. I finally came up with a solution which will be in the pattern below.
When you make a mistake in dropped stitch lace, there really isn’t an easy fix.
Row 1: K-tbl twice, [k1, k-tbl] 6 times, k-tbl. Row 2: P-tbl twice, [p1, p-tbl] 6 times, p-tbl. Rows 3-4: Repeat rows 1-2. Row 5: K-tbl twice, [k1, (k-tbl, yo, k-tbl) in next st, k1, k-tbl] 3 times, k-tbl. Row 6: P-tbl twice, [p1, p-tbl] 9 times, p-tbl Row 7: K-tbl twice, [k1, k-tbl] 9 times, k-tbl. Row 8: P-tbl twice, [p1, p-tbl] 9 times, p-tbl. Row 9: K-tbl twice, [k1, s2tog-k1-p2sso, k1, k-tbl] 3 times, k-tbl. Row 10: P-tbl twice, [p1, p-tbl] 6 times, p-tbl. Row 11: K-tbl twice, k1, k-tbl, [k1, (k-tbl, yo, k-tbl) in next st, k1, k-tbl] twice, k1, k-tbl twice. Row 12: P-tbl twice, [p1, p-tbl] 8 times, p-tbl. Row 13: K-tbl twice, [k1, k-tbl] 8 times, k-tbl. Row 14: P-tbl twice, [p1, p-tbl] 8 times, p-tbl. Row 15: K-tbl twice, k1, k-tbl, [k1, s2tog-k1-p2sso, k1, k-tbl] twice, k1, k-tbl twice. Row 16: P-tbl twice, [p1, p-tbl] 6 times, p-tbl. Rows 17-28: Repeat rows 5-16. (The number of times you wish to desired length) Row 29: K-tbl twice, [k1, k-tbl] 6 times, k-tbl. Row 30: P-tbl twice, [p1, p-tbl] 6 times, p-tbl. Last Row: Repeat Set-up Row 1. Cast-off loosely purlwise. KNITmuch | issue 5
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