Katie Rempe: This week we are continuing our topic of stitch magic with one of the most versatile and alluring of stitch patterns, and that is lace work.
James Divine: I love lace. It's so fascinating and has such amazing uses. I have lots of pieces that have lace on them that are really fun.
Katie Rempe: Yes, it's the holes you make on purpose for decoration.
James Divine: As opposed to the holes I make on accident. Oh, yeah. I have a lot of those. Yeah. In my knitting.
Katie Rempe: We're going to talk all about exactly when that tilts into your favor in this episode. So tuned.
Light from Lantern presents Knit a Spell. I'm magical maker Katie Rempe. And I'm the maker of magic James Divine. Join us as we stitch together the symbiotic relationship between crafting and the craft.
James Divine: Oh, and it's May 1st.
What does that mean? It's May 1st. It's Beltane!
Beltane Bonus on Patreon
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Katie Rempe: Oh yeah, Beltane!
James Divine: If you want to learn what Beltane is, we've decided not to include it in this episode, but we do have a little special that we're putting out on Patreon. come over to our Patreon. It's very inexpensive and super fun, and you can learn a little bit about Beltane and how to celebrate it in your knitting.
Katie Rempe: All the details are in the description as always and we would love to have you.
History of Lace
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James Divine: So katie. I guess I always thought that lace was crocheted. I don't know why I thought that, but what is lace knitting?
Katie Rempe: There's definitely lace in crochet, so that's not an unfounded idea. I think lace is a general term and not craft specific unless you are trying to apply it to a certain craft and then it will be. So in this case, it is lace. Knitting. And lace knitting is a derivative craft.
It evolved from the desire of the hand knitter in the 18th century to emulate as closely as possible the products of handmade needlepoint and pillow lace. In the process. evolved a distinct and fascinating new genre of knitting.
James Divine: so was there already lace before that time?
Katie Rempe: Yeah.
The history of lace is much further back than the knitting involvement.
And to date, the earliest garment that we have found featuring lace faggoting in diagonals is a mid 16th century pair of silk trouser hose, which is in the Dresden Museum right now.
James Divine: What'd you call me?
Katie Rempe: Oh P. S. Faggoting is an embroidery term in which threads are fastened together into bundles, and as you might see, it is not aged well.
James Divine: As any faggot of wood.
Katie Rempe: That's right. Yes. And in
James Divine: other countries, of course, grabbing a fag like a cigarette or something like that is not as horrible of a term as it is in the United States, but that's hilarious. I am deeply entertained by this and I totally want to do it now.
because I'm into faggoting.
Katie Rempe: Yeah, then it's right up your alley, oops, maybe that's a little on the nose. Sorry.
James Divine: Okay, so I have no idea what this looks like. These are groups of threads that are knotted together. And then, are they spread out like a little bow tie? And that's how they do it yeah.
Katie Rempe: They're like pinched together to create little decorative holes, and then depending on where you put those, creates an overall pattern.
James Divine: You keep pinching them in other places, and I see, that's really cool.
Katie Rempe: Now we have known that from Falcon's history of the machine rot hosiery and lace manufacturers, that by the 1700s English framework knitters were hand tooling a variety of framed knitting lace patterns from Spain. And the lace attachment tickler bar was not invented until 1764.
P. S. Do not Google tickler bar without the word knitting, or you're going to get interesting results.
James Divine: unless you want to see what's around. Yeah, that's up to
Katie Rempe: you.
James Divine: So I had no idea that lace goes all the way back to the mid 1500s that's amazing! Yes.
How to Knit Lace
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James Divine: So then, okay, tell me about, like, how do you actually create lace?
Katie Rempe: This is where the power of the yarn over.
James Divine: Okay, wait. Every time I made an error on my knitting, Clovin would say, Oh, that's a yarn over. So I have yarn over associated as a super beginner knitter with I made a mistake or I, did it wrong.
Katie Rempe: That's right.
James Divine: I can do it wrong on purpose?
Katie Rempe: Yes, when you're doing it on purpose, it's not wrong.
James Divine: It's like that weed that you like becomes something that you keep in your garden.
Katie Rempe: Exactly. It's one of those things that as we progress in our knitting, like you said, it's something we dread accidentally doing is making a hole because we've made an accidental yarn over an extra stitch that we didn't intend for and it's not connected to anything.
So that's why there's a hole. And then we learn how to harness that as a power. So once was an error, now is an intentional thing. And that is how we get these super intricate Lace patterns.
I
James Divine: just keep thinking, the power of the holes!
Katie Rempe: Exactly! And then, depending on where you place the yarn over, versus where you do the decrease, also changes the shape of the fabric. It quickly becomes a thing where there's so many possibilities depending on what your intention is.
James Divine: So freaking cool. Do a lot of people knit lace or is it a pain?
Katie Rempe: It is a more advanced skill. So not usually something you learn right away because you want to learn how to knit and learn how to purl and see how that looks.
Yeah. But then, you can easily do basic lace patterns after that. But it's like anything, the more you practice, the more you do. And if you're just not afraid to make a mistake, you can do it.
James Divine: if I just did every stitch had a yarn over, would I just end up with a more open, like a bunch of holes, like a mesh or a net or something like that?
Katie Rempe: Ooh, yes, good instincts.
Let's take a quick break, and when we come back, we will have some examples of exactly that, we'll be right back.
James Divine: So you've taken my intro to palmistry course, and I'm wondering, do you have any realizations as a result? I realized that this entire time I have been a Muppet who uses their hands to express and emote. After taking your course, I've realized I've probably been giving away my own unconscious motivations this whole time.
But only to the people who know the divine hand palmistry method. I gotta be in the know. And if people are familiar with the divine hand method, your repeated gestures with your hands. definitely give away your unconscious motivations. You can be a mind reader. Do you find that you can get insight into other people based on their hand gestures?
Oh yes. I'm hyper aware of, is it the right hand where it's more of your outer personality? Is it the left hand that's featured more of your inner personality? I am now overanalyzing. Especially as you come into election season, which seems to happen every year these days. It's so fun to watch for repeated gestures.
I highly recommend anyone who might be interested or curious in learning more about Intro to Palmistry to take Jim's brand new online course. It's self paced and it's available at introtopalmistry. com. That's where you can find out more information and sign up.
Katie Rempe: Hey knitters! Jim and I talk an awful lot about all of the patterns that I design on the show. But we don't always mention where you can get them. All of my patterns are available on Ravelry. Odds are if you're a knitter, you're already familiar with this website. However, if you're not on Ravelry, That is not a problem.
You can still just send me an email to hello at lightfromlantern. com with which patterns you're interested in and I'll help you make it happen. Thank you so much for your continued support and remember that you can always stay up to date on the latest news and coupons by signing up for my newsletter at lightfromlantern.
com. Merry make!
Lace in Nature
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Katie Rempe: Welcome back. All right, Jim, how would you imagine that lace fabric could be used in spell work? What might it symbolize?
James Divine: I think like why did people want to make something lacy or what was the attractive quality of it?
I can't help but think about the lacy looking things in our natural world, and what people might be trying to emulate.
One example is a spiderweb. I would love to be able to wear something that was as delicate and as beautiful as a spiderweb covered with dewdrops. How could I possibly create that?
The closest you could probably come to it is lace.
Katie Rempe: Such a great point.
Lace Corespondances
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James Divine: Maybe what we can do is, like we've done on other episodes, you can share a type of lace pattern. And then maybe you and I can come up with what do we think magical associations might be with that. How does that sound?
Katie Rempe: I love it.
What are popular lace patterns?
Chevron Lace
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Katie Rempe: There's many patterns, but we're just gonna talk about a handful of them And so I figured we would start with a simpler one That is probably easy to see in your mind's eye if you're not watching us on YouTube Which I highly recommend because we're gonna have examples for you to see anyway is the chevron lace.
It is a whole pattern that goes in a chevron So that you can present Yep, a zigzag.
And that can be applied to anything.
James Divine: So when I look at the picture of chevron lace,
is it like just a couple yarn overs in a regular repeating pattern, is that how that chevron lace is created?
Katie Rempe: it's worked from the bottom up. you're basically stacking them row by row on top of each other. Like you're playing Connect four.
It's one row, if you're doing this pattern in particular, maybe mostly knits and then you could do five knits and then one yarn over. Five knits, one yarn over. And then the next one, you might do a yarn over on either side of that original yarn over, too. Of the original. Yep, and then that's how you're blocking it out, is one row at a time that you build on top of each other.
James Divine: Got it. Yes. So it is a few yarn overs in particular spots on each row that create the zigzag. I totally get it.
Katie Rempe: In this example, I could see perhaps the original person saw the mountain range and were like, Oh, I need to be wearing the mountains. I want big energy. I want it to reflect, my love of nature and the thing I see every day.
James Divine: Yeah. I also think about, the zigzag pattern goes way back in Europe. There's Slavic symbolism of the zigzag that has a lot of magical meanings. It can mean or symbolize the river or it can symbolize like a flow back and forth.
On Native American pottery, the zigzag can represent the river but in European, symbolism, the zigzag, can also mean stitching something together, or it can be the mountains, like you said.
Katie Rempe: It could mean anything you want it to be. These are just some things that we're coming up with.
James Divine: The things you can do is knit that with any intention that you want or plan your lace based on what you want your intention to be, what symbol might match.
Diagonal Lace
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James Divine: What's another pattern?
Katie Rempe: Similar, and one that we talked about earlier, is the diagonal lace pattern. Oh, yeah. And this one is the mesh. If you think of yarn over, knit two together, yarn over, knit two together, that's basically what you get. This is the fabric.
James Divine: so it does look Like a thick mesh. This is really cool. This is like netting. Yeah. And is that netting was knitted? It wasn't it? Or is that, or like knotted, but it couldn't be knitted too. I love this because it can literally be associated with a net as in catching things or filtering things.
It can be creating a. Lighter level of protection. Like perhaps you want the good things to come through, but to block the things that are not aligned with you.
What does this bring up for you metaphysically?
I do like the permeable aspect of that.
Katie Rempe: Especially since, literally it can be very breathable, so it's practical, I like that. I also like that it's the diagonal lace, it looks like it's just straightforward, but it is shifting a little bit. I get very chess vibes from that, like maybe you could find a different way to get through a certain situation. So it almost is like an open roads.
James Divine: Yeah. I love that. Imagine this in yellow as a mesh sort of cap sleeve top or something. And your intention is open roads because you have these open holes. It's allowing you to flow through. That could be a really cute.
idea.
Katie Rempe: Good one.
Embossed Leaf
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Katie Rempe: The next one I figured you would like, especially since we're looking for real world inspiration is the embossed leaf stitch. I have a variation of here knitted that I use as a little coaster. And this is actually an applied lace border, but it's very similar, like with the leaf idea made in a way.
Beautiful. And so gosh, what could they have possibly been trying to reference with that?
James Divine: Certainly the natural world, right? The, emergence of a leaf symbolizes life. It means the tree or the plant is alive or growing. They might not have known that way back then, but, Leaves absorb the energy and today we could associate it with, creating an energetic vibe or, livening something up, which is associated with life.
Katie Rempe: Yeah,
James Divine: it
Katie Rempe: always makes me think of veins and the circulatory system in everything. Lacework is so good overall for energy work because you are manipulating the fabric, like the energy of the fabric, to flow into different directions of your will.
This stitch in particular is one where, much like the growth aspect, you might be new to the idea of lace knitting, and then you do this one, and your mind is like, oh my gosh, I can't believe it's like shaping into this leaf just by doing these steps, and it's like a big growth period just for you.
James Divine: What an amazing way to facilitate your own transformation by knitting something. This one has a lot of apparent direction in it because the leaves are pointed and they're going a certain way. So if you were to be knitting this. into a sweater in a certain section or if you were doing an entire, piece, do you want the leaves to be pointing up or across or down, or even, diagonally?
You could figure that out somehow. But however those leaves, are pointing would also, in your association where the energy is directed so I could imagine if you had a pullover sweater and the leaves were all pointed into your heart chakra, what an amazing, piece that would be, which is, I want to enliven my heart.
Or you had the leaves going up as a couple of pals on a cardigan or something and that inside spot, maybe that would be like growing up and like a vine around the neck. Those kind of things I think could really be like part of a magical design that you're putting in.
Katie Rempe: I love the idea of being very conscious with the directionality. Yeah. Is it all the leaves of abundance falling towards you or are you sharing it out and they're growing out onto the branches?
James Divine: Because if you look out at the trees, there are some plants where the leaf is growing up and there's somewhere the leaf is Plopped over and you know absorbing the sun floating there with the point down a little bit.
So good
Katie Rempe: point.
James Divine: Yeah,
Katie Rempe: be mindful in the leaves that you're making. Yes, even within that there's a big variation .
Feather and Fan
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Katie Rempe: And then the last one here is a lace Classic. Odds are if you are someone who knows somebody who knows lace knitting, and you say, Feather and Fan, they'll be like,
Oh, yeah, Feather and Fan. big time Afghan stitch. Give me those size 10 needles and the bulky yarn. I'm making it for my grandkid who's going to college. This is the one.
James Divine: I would have never guessed that this was lace.
This looks to me like ribs. I think it's really beautiful, because I've never really seen it before, but I guess if you've seen it a million times, it's really beautiful.
from the 70s. You're like, yeah,
Katie Rempe: This one in the example is very nice. It's made in like a modern gold color. Although I guess it could be fairly retro. If you're thinking about it, what the hell do I know?
James Divine: It has a scallop sleeve
Katie Rempe: Exactly.
This is a perfect example of how where the yarn overs versus the decreases are affects the shape of the pattern.
James Divine: This does have a certain feathery nature to it.
Katie Rempe: So I
James Divine: think if we think about that, we could think about. Lace that's found in nature, like on insect wings or in bird wings, right? So this has a certain quality to me that might represent freedom or flight or escape or transcendence or even transformation.
Katie Rempe: Definitely transformation. You are transforming that fabric to something that would otherwise knit straight to something that knits with a ripple.
You could be intending to make a big splash when you wear it. Like it's something that maybe you make also in a very bright color so that you can make the most of it.
James Divine: For sure. And
Katie Rempe: I do think because it is, a stitch pattern so steeply riched in knitting history that you could also use it as like a ancestral stitch. If you wanted to knit to certain people or with someone or connect to a past loved one or something like that, odds are they've probably knit it.
So this would be a good way to connect with them.
James Divine: What a cool idea to emulate a piece that one of your beloved dead has made for you or left for you. If your sister has that Afghan, that grandma made what an amazing way to connect with grandma by making your own version of that.
And imagine you knitting with your beloved dead. That would be such a fantastic. way to honor them.
Katie Rempe: That is a very moving idea. I love that. I would
James Divine: put a picture of them and a little votive candle while I'm knitting and light that candle while knitting.
Maybe grandma liked a little bit of Sherry or a glass of water at least. Whatever they were into. Yep. You can set up that, spot where you're knitting and then knit thinking about all your memories with them that make the rich tapestry as you're knitting whatever the pattern might be.
Katie Rempe: What a magical thing to have. And then, like you said, it's almost a gift that you're making for them.
And so anytime you wrap it up, so meaningful,
James Divine: right? I mean they can no longer knit and so in some ways you're offering That pleasure to your beloved dead.
Katie Rempe: that is a good point. And something we don't always consider is that gifts for the altar doesn't always have to be something that you buy.
It can be your time. It can be just talking to them. It can just be, like you said, doing the thing that they enjoyed reading some of their favorite book. If they had a favorite poem, whatever. Just honoring them by something they would want. Yeah.
Oh this is such a fun episode, Jim.
What do you think? It was so
James Divine: fascinating that my mistakes can actually be good things used in the right way. That's right. And, lace is amazing. These patterns are so pretty. I know they're all super professional knitters that are excellent at what they do, I think this is beyond my capacity right now, but one day.
Katie Rempe: You just might have to do it a couple of times until it's the way you want it to be. Luckily, yarn is easy to pull out and reuse. Woo, that's the true magic.
James Divine: Oh, yeah. I can always tink it.
Katie Rempe: Tink it, that's right, or rip it out.
James Divine: Ha.
Frog it.
Katie Rempe: That's right.
James Divine: I was so glad to learn those last week.
Katie Rempe: Oh, and you retained it so well. Pass!
James Divine: I can't wait until next week.
Katie Rempe: Ooh, yeah! We're gonna talk all about how shapes summon spells, so stay tuned for that.
James Divine: So fun.
Katie Rempe: We'll see you then, everybody.
Buh bye!
Outtro 2022: Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review on iTunes and Spotify or following Knit A Spell on Instagram.
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You'll receive a free knitting pattern as a thank you gift, then follow Katie on Instagram @LightFromLantern for even more magical making tips.
See you next week. Next week.
