Yarn on Thursday - Lacey Lamb!

First, the subject of today's discussion: Jade Sapphire's Lacey Lamb. It comes in cute little boxes:


It's quite thin:


As close to Actual Size as I can get the photo!
And it comes in a TON of colors:


There are actually MORE colors!!
Back in 2007, Amy Herzog used LESS THAN ONE BALL to make her amazing Curved Shawl. (She's also got other amazingly beautiful projects on her blog, StashKnitRepeat.com; check her out!)


Amy's closeup of her amazing shawl
Gina (she of the Sleepy Eyes Knits podcast) has also played with Lacey Lamb - see here for her project, and a GREAT list of Places for Lace on the Internet!!

Now as you can see from Amy's photo of her shawl, Lacey Lamb is THIN. Gossamer, cobwebby, really, really, really, thin. The stuff from which wedding ring shawls are made. What's a wedding ring shawl, you ask? Basically, a shawl that, when finished, is so delicate and fine that you can pull the entire thing throug a (lady's) wedding ring. And yet this yarn is NOT splitty, and (in my experience), doesn't tend towards breakage at all. This is key, because if you're knitting something that may be around in 100 years, it's nice if it's solid. Back to the Wedding Ring Shawl: see here for an example - the quote there is "This project for the ultra-skilled knitter requires time, concentration and patience but in the end, all efforts will be rewarded by the finished shawl - a delicate webby patterning of geometric lace motifs, large and small." Yeah - patience is KEY. Making a shawl from this stuff is A Project, and, depending on how quickly you knit, could take a long, long time. (I'm doing a shawl in a similar weight mohair - yes, I'm insane - and I have to work on it about eight hours at this point to get any noticable progress. But someday, I'm going to have a lovely, soft, fuzzy kickass hot-pink lace shawl.)

The key to it all seems to be "heirloom". As near as I've been able to figure, patterns are one of five categories: beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert, and heirloom.

Heirloom = weddings for a lot of folks, and this little yarn makes for some fabulous wedding finery:


monotran's exquisite Bridal Shawl for Steph
If you're thinking of perhaps trying something heirloom yourself, I had a chance to fip through this book over the weekend, and it's got some really Lovely-with-a-capital-L projects. (Plus, I like Nancy Bush's patterns; they work for my brain.)


Nancy's Bush's "Knitted Lace of Estonia"
It's not all shawls, of course. I'm sure there are lots of lovely things than can be made with this soft, extra-fine yarn. Checking Ravelry, it's shawls, stoles, scarves, capelets, a pair of socks, some fingerless gloves - and my favorite, a wedding garter.

This entry brought to you by the fact that, this past weekend, I scored a ball each of royal blue and blaze orange Lacey Lamb. Because nothing says "girly" like making a delicate lacy shawl to wear from your favorite football team's colors!!