New Books

During March I got two new amazing books:

Victorian Lace Today:

My dear friend Kristina gave me this book as a birthday present, even though my birthday is in December. The problem was that by then the book was not available in the shop, they had only the one to show in the shelf and they didn't want to sell it! So, Kristina decided to give me a gift card from the shop so I could go and see what I could get as a birthday present. The only thing I really wanted (from this shop) was THIS book so I had to wait patiently... THREE MONTHS later the book arrived. Now, I must say that the wait was TOTALLY worth it!

This is a beautiful book, from beginning to end. It has a lot of patterns and a really nice section with instructions with very good and clear illustrations at the end of it. I can hardly wait to start knitting something from it! I'm sure it will be hard to choose among so many cool patterns.

I must admit that I am a bit afraid (well, maybe not afraid but a bit worried) because these patterns look a lot more complicated than the ones from The Knitted Lace of Estonia (another of my big favourite books that I have been using lately)  and Þrihyrnur og Langsjöl (that I bought mainly for one pattern: Hyrna Herborgar).

There are several patterns that involve knitting lace pattern on both sides (I mean, the ones on which the wrong row are not simply purling but doing all the staff, as yo and decreases). The problem with that is the fact that I am left-handed and then I have to be really aware of what I am doing to avoid making mistakes. I have to mirror all the instruction and sometimes that can be a bit confusing. My only experience doing so was the Percy Shawl, in which there is one section, called frost flowers, that is patterned both sides. It was difficult at first, it required a lot of attention but after a few repeats wasn't so bad at all. Now, I can't wait to get rid of my queue to start one of this shawls!!

The Haapsalu Shawl:

My interest for knitting lace began when I knitted the Swallowtail. That was the first time I ever heard of the Lily in the Valley pattern and had to knit these crazy beautiful things called nupps. Thanks to this shawl I got to know that there was an amazing knitting lace tradition in Estonia.


I have always wanted to take a trip through the baltic countries and now I have one more reason to go there!

The first lace book that I bought was Knitted Lace of Estonia, a wonderful book that is definetely on my top list, from which I have knitted already two shawls: Maikell and Hagakiri. Then, one day I was at my favourite yarn store in Hafnarfjörður and I saw this book, The Haapsalu Shawl, I took a look at it and fell in love with it immediately... but I didn't buy it bacause I thought it was a little bit to expensive. Mistake! Because when I finally decided to get it, guess what!? It was no longer available so, the same story... I had to wait. Fortunetely the wait wasn't as long so in just a couple of weeks I became the happy owner of this book.

What I like about this book is the fact that it is more of a pattern dictionary than a book full of recipes for shawls or scarves. It has many body stitch patterns (a lot of variations of the same patterns) and some lace edge patterns. So, there is plenty of room to create something as you wish. It also has really nice illustrations with instructions, some history and explanations about the origin of the patterns (most of them based of nature).

The only think I am not really convinced about is the way the patterns are charted. The charts look too full. Maybe I am wrong and it is better. I don't know. I will only know that when I put my first project on the needles!