Remember how I said the Be Sweet Skinny Wool clearly wanted to be brioche? The Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace clearly wanted to be lace. And not just any lace: I pictured it looking fabulous in Estonian lace, complete with nupps.
I was wrong.
Lace, yes. Estonian lace, sure. But nupps? Not so much. Working my first swatch according to a pattern in The Haapsalu Scarf, I realized just how Scrumptious Lace is different from yarns traditionally used for Estonian lace. With its 45% silk content, it has gorgeous sheen and drape but no halo. Nupps fail to bloom into poofy points of interest, but instead fade into the backdrop – as you can see here:
can you see the nupp in the center of each motif?
me neither
I was underwhelmed by this swatch, but decided to stick with the Estonian theme. This time, a nupp-free pattern from The Haapsalu Shawl did the trick:
much better
For good measure, I tacked on a “modern” lace edging (worked from picked-up stitches, rather than worked separately and sewn on). It’s a miniaturized version of an edging in Nancy Bush’s Knitted Lace of Estonia. I really like this edging: it’s simple, yet effective. If I were to do it again, though, I’d probably use a different bind-off: the traditional Estonian bind-off, done using larger needles and two strands of yarn, created an edge that’s a tad too hefty, compared to the delicate nature of the rest of the fabric.
All the more reason for swatching, right? To find an appropriate combination of techniques and stitch patterns that truly suit a given yarn’s characteristics.
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