The Sexy Knitter’s Club is starting a new knit-a-long, centered around lace. I am very excited that lace was chosen, as there is nothing more entertaining than the mental puzzle of deciphering a lace pattern. I became so obsessed with lace when I started knitting that I refused to knit a sweater unless it had yarn overs in it somewhere. But when I took a leaf out of Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style last year and looked at my wardrobe with a critical eye, I was forced to admit that there are some pitfalls to wearing knitted lace garments.
Pitfall #1: Transparency
Some styles of lace tops look a lot better with a camisole underneath them than others. At first, my lace obsession blinded me to the sometimes awkward or even risqué effect of wearing a sweater that had lace accents with nothing but a nude bra beneath. These sweaters didn’t reveal that much, but the overall effect was still a bit of a “peekaboo” distraction, that drew attention away from me, to the little holes interspersed in my garment.
When I discovered this by looking
at myself closely in the mirror, I switched to wearing a white camisole beneath
all my lace sweaters. But that is not always a good look. However beautiful my
“lace nightie” inspired top is because of the Handmaiden Sea Silk, the conflicting
colors and straps of the top and bottom camisoles drive me to distraction.
The straps never line up perfectly
together, and there are the bra straps to deal with as well. An excellent
suggestion was made to me that I wear a strapless tube top and bra underneath
this camisole to avoid that problem, and that is probably a great idea for most
people. Unfortunately for me, I get so uncomfortable in strapless bras and tops
that I would probably be pulling at my neckline all evening. Ever since my high
school friend’s strapless dress and bra slipped halfway through a dance at
Senior Prom, I’ve been a bit paranoid about the strapless thing. In my memory,
the kids were batting the party baloons around the
dance floor, and when my friend stretched up her hand to catch the baloon, her dress and bra traveled in the opposite direction,
and her date’s eyes bugged almost out of his head.
The Solution:
Sarah Hatton’s Rowan design, Eerie, is perhaps my favorite example of
a lace/camisole combination. Obviously, with a top consisting entirely of lace, there is
no option but to wear something underneath it unless you are REALLy going for a sexy look. But I think this particular
style of lace top is perfect for a white camisole. The two garments match each
other in color and airiness, and the overall effect is ethereal, in keeping
with the name of the sweater. Here is my ethereal photo to match.
In my opinion, Kim Hargreaves’
design, The Chevron Lace top, is also
a good combination with a white camisole underneath.
What both Eerie and the Chevron Lace
Top have in common is that they provide full-shouldered coverage, so
instead of the eye being drawn to camisole straps, it focuses instead on the
full effect of the lace pattern against a white backdrop. It helps that these
lace sweaters are knitted in summer colors and worn with white pants that match
the white camisole underneath, creating an overall light effect.
Keeping those discoveries in mind, I
am choosing to knit Louisa Harding’s Dorothee for my lace project in the SKC Knit A Long.
This is simply one of the most
romantic and feminine designs that I have seen for a long time. The shine and
delicate color of the yarn are a good match to the
ethereal look of the lace, and there is full-shoulder coverage, ensuring that
the straps of the camisole I wear underneath will not be a distraction. Because
the overall effect is metallic, I am rather tempted to wear either a
rose-colored camisole that matches the yarn, or a metallic camisole that echoes
the highlights of the metal finish.
Pitfall #2 Ribbons and Lazy Finishing
My biggest pet peeve with a lot of
the lace garment patterns out there is how little effort the designer seems to
put into giving them a finished look.
Most of these sweaters look incomplete
to me. It’s as if the lace is supposed to be enough in itself, and the designer
doesn’t expect you to actually WEAR the garment. My feeling about that is, if I am just knitting lace for its own sake, I’m going to
make a blanket or a scarf. If I am knitting a garment, I expect it to be
finished with more than a ribbon. Here is what inevitably happens to these
knitted ties and ribbons over time:
Lydia, by Rowan
They deteriorate and grow floppy, so you have to keep them tied together or disguise them somehow!
One of the things that I like so much about the Dorothee pattern is that cables and ribbing are used to finish the edges of the garment, giving it a crisper look.
However, I am not happy with the wavy edge at the bottom of the cables,
and am thinking of maybe starting off with a few rows of ribbing to give the
sweater more structure at the bottom
Lydia, by Rowan
Speaking
of limp, droopy ribbons and ties, in my opinion, the third and final pitfall of
lace sweaters is that some of the designs look too young or too old for most of
us knitters.
Pitfall #3: Age Appropriateness. The danger of lace sweaters is that they edge towards one of two categories: little princesses decked out with ribbons and bows, or grandma. Not that there’s anything wrong with identifying with either category. It’s just that when a thirty-something woman decks herself out with a pink, ribbony top, it may not be her best look.
Rowan's Eveleen
Do
you know who likes my version of Eveleen more than anyone else? My cousin’s five year old daughter. I don’t think that's a coincidence. I
should have knitted Eveleen for her instead. Little Emily was so
enamored of this knitting project when she saw it at the age of four, that a year later she insisted that i teach her how to knit and purl. If I’m being
honest with myself here, at the age of 39, sweaters like this are more appropriate for her than for me.
Kelmscott
At
the opposite end of the spectrum, lace sweaters can be ageing, making us
look older than we are. Particularly if they are knitted in white or pastels. I will
probably call the ire of many knitters on my head by saying this, but when I saw
the pattern, Kelmscott,
the first thing that popped into my mind was that the wide, lace shawl collar,
particularly in white, gave the young woman who was wearing it a spinsterish,
old-fashioned look. It is a popular pattern, and I am sure beautiful versions
will be made of it using a more dynamic colors or other modifications that will give it a more contemporary look. I am looking forward to seeing the variations of Kelmscott that are
knitted in the Sexy Knitter’s Group. Everyone
has their own opinion of what is stylish.
But I think there is no getting away from the fact that many of us
unconsciously associate lace with an old-fashioned, grandmotherly character, or
with a little girl, and we should keep those archetypes in mind when we are
eyeing the amazing variety of knitted lace patterns, looking for the one that
most perfectly fits our own style.