Ostrich Feather Lace Kerchief
Finished
November 30, 2023
December 3, 2023

Ostrich Feather Lace Kerchief

Project info
Ostrich Feather Lace Kerchief by Dawn Prickett
Knitting
Other HeadwearKerchief
Needles & yarn
US 1½ - 2.5 mm
Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud Lace
0.25 skeins = 110.0 yards (100.6 meters), 12 grams
Green
Notes

Cable cast on with 2.5mm (so-called US 1.5) needles. I wish I had sharper needles but both my 2.5mm needles (Addi sock rockets and Knit Picks Options) more dull than I’d like for lace.

Had plenty of yarn so decided to do one more repeat of the chart. On the final increase row I cast on 16 on either side to provide longer ties. Bound off with US 2 needle to try to keep it loose.

After blocking it is about 18” x 10.5”. I wish I had used a larger needle… that would get the same dimensions without needing to do the extra repeat and also would allow the lace to open up more.

I considered doing the optional beads; maybe next time. I did find a great online source for small quantities of beads with low shipping rates: https://www.barrelofbeads.com/

Rather than smoothly increasing to create a triangle like many shawls, this pattern casts on stitches at the beginning and end of every 12th row which gives it a stair-step edge. I think that edge nicely complements the easily memorized ostrich feather lace pattern.

I was inspired to make this pattern by a recent reddit question asking how to do the cast on stitches. A few of the Ravelry comments raise the same questions. Here’s how I did them:

Beginning of row: cable cast on 8 to left needle, then knit across.
End of row: turn work, cable cast on 8 to left needle, then purl across.

One concern some commenters had was that this works an extra row on the right-hand cast on. One commenter even went so far as to use a separate yarn to cast on the end-of-row increases so that they’d be the same height as the beginning-of-row increases. But the extra row on the right-hand cast on stitches is not noticeable in the finished object (especially in lace weight yarn) so that seems like overkill to me.

If you really want the cast ons on both ends to be the same height, I think a better option than using a separate yarn ball (or at least a solution with fewer ends to weave) would be to cast on incomplete stitches at the beginning of the row (for example backward loop cast on) and complete stitches at the end of the row (for example knit or cabled cast on).

I did the central decreases wrong for the first 13 rows! I slipped the stitches separately instead of together so the right stitch was on top instead of the center stitch. shrug

viewed 26 times
Finished
November 30, 2023
December 3, 2023
About this pattern
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About this yarn
by Knit Picks
Lace
100% Alpaca
440 yards / 50 grams

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  • Project created: November 29, 2023
  • Finished: December 3, 2023
  • Updated: December 5, 2023