"Beautiful Lace" Translated from Fancy Work Recreations

by Kelly

Check out this little bit of lace that I knit from a pattern in an old ebook titled Fancy Work Recreations. The name of the pattern is 'Beautiful Lace'.

Of course, this is supposed to be knitted as actual lace, using "No. 50-70 linen thread and No. 18 steel needles." But I thought that trying out a vintage pattern that uses old abbreviations, with no picture for guidance, and doing this for the first time with tiny thread and needles, would be just asking for trouble. Especially lace. Grrr...I'm feeling tense just thinking about it. So I used what I had on hand, which was worsted weight yarn and size 8 (US) needles. It's still very pretty, isn't it?

If you're curious to see what else the book holds, check out this link to the book on the Internet Archive. Look over to the top  left of the page you land on, and you'll see a 'read online' link. And don't worry, the book's not just for knitters - there are many beautiful crochet lace patterns too.

And since I had to translate the old fashioned abbreviations used in the pattern, I thought I would save someone else a little trouble, and post a more modern version here. I won't even attempt to match the original gauge - this will only be the written instructions.

I've done the best I could to troubleshoot the pattern, but if you find any typos or mistakes, please let us know in the comments.

The increases and decreases are sometimes staggered, so don't worry if they don't follow each other immediately. But a quick way to check, if you think you've made a mistake, is to count the stitches when you've finished a row - the total should always be 28.

Beautiful Lace

CO 28 stitches and knit across

1. Sl1, k2, (yo, k2tog)twice, yo, k1, yo, k2, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k2, (yo, k2tog) three times, k2

2. Purl this and all even rows

3. Sl1, k2, (yo, k2tog)twice, yo, k3, yo, k2, k2tog, k2, k2tog, k2, (yo, k2tog) three times, k2

5. Sl1, k2, (yo, k2tog)twice, yo, k5, yo, k2, k2tog, k2tog, k2, (yo, k2tog)three times, k2

7. Sl1, k2tog, k1, (yo, k2tog)twice, yo, k2, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k2, yo, k1, (yo, k2tog)twice, yo, k3

9. Sl1, k2tog, k1, (yo, k2tog)twice, yo, k2, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k2, yo, k1, (yo, k2tog)twice, yo, k3

11. Sl1, k2tog, k1, (yo, k2tog)twice, yo, k2, k2tog, k2tog, k2, yo, k5, (yo, k2tog)twice, yo, k3

12. Don't forget to purl the last row!

repeat above 11 rows for pattern.