As you might know, I’m a lace person.

I love lace. I breathe lace. I’ll knit anything in lace.

And based on questions, comments, and letters I’ve received – not everyone is THAT fond of it.

I’m not here to tell you that you should change your thinking or you should suddenly do what it takes to fall in love with lace knitting. I’m here to tell you that you could if you want to.

I wasn’t born with lace knitting skills you know. I just wanted to learn it so bad. And I did what I had to do.

Some things worked well. Some things were waste of my time. For some things – well – I was just too young and stupid for it to even work out… (I’d rather not talk about it…)

So, right now I presume that you’re like me and you really really want to be fantastic at knitting lace.

I also presume that you want my advice.

And I presume that my presumptions are presumable (:D never mind that, got carried away).

I’ll give you a list of my little activities (or challenges if you will) that gave me the power to knit any lace, anywhere, anytime.

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Here we go:

Daily challenges to improve your lace knitting

1. Make a cheat sheet with basic lace knitting symbols and review it daily (yes, it’s like school all over again);
2. Find a simple lace chart and change it to written instructions;
3. Find easy written instructions for some lace pattern and turn it into a chart;
4. Knit a swatch from simple lace chart;
5. Knit a swatch from written instructions for some lace pattern;
6. Review beautiful lace shawls on Ravelry (yes, it’s totally a challenge – have you seen those?)
7. Find an answer to one of your knitting questions (if you do this every day for a year you’ll get 365 answers). You can check out my Q&A section HERE.
8. Knit same pattern using different yarns – that will teach you what are the characteristics and nature of that yarn (oh my, I talk about my yarn as if it was a person)
9. Knit one pattern repeat and make an effort to slow down to observe what you just knitted – really focus and look it like it was a painting. Look where you made your “yarn overs” and decreases. Look how they are forming this pattern you’re working on. Soon you’ll get this “feeling” of pattern and you won’t need your charts and stuff anymore. This is called “reading” your knitting.
10. Slow down when you knit! I know it’s super hard and this is why it’s a challenge. It feels like I’m telling you to meditate while you’re driving a car (“I need to get to my destination fast”), but it’s super important. See the stitches, feel the yarn, enjoy forming the pattern…

So – taking a challenge? 

By the way, we will do all this and so much more in the knitting class “Lace Knitting for Beginners”. It’s a practical course on how to knit lace simply and without tears. I want to take the fear out of lace knitting and give you the liberty to knit exceptional pieces without any resentment.

Click here for more information and to check out the class curriculum