Yarn Geeks Please Help!

[trailerparkmedic]

I want to make this. The suggested yarn is only available online. I'd rather go to the local yarn store (always looking for excuses!) and I want to start it this weekend anyways. It's a heavy lace weight yarn but still lace weight. I am a complete lace newbie and I'm wondering if using regular lace yarn would look ok. I'm thinking the stockinette would be more open but I'm cool with that.

[Green_Fairy]

the wonderful thing about knitting is that usually, you can use any yarn you want. regular lace yarn would probably be perfectly fine. lol i don't think i've ever used the suggested yarn for a project...good luck! and you'd better post pics when you're finished ^_^

[Magpie]

Ok, I know I missed the "this weekend" deadline, but here's my take on it anyhow, for the future.

It's a shawl. What's going to happen if you don't have the right tension? If you use a lighter yarn and the same size needles you'll get a airier shawl. I agree that with a shawl you want to be careful about the drape of the fabric, but you can generally get really interesting effects by making the same shawl in different yarns. They aren't necessarily the same, but they're good.

There's a lot of range in lace weight to start with. Also, because this is silk, it should have fewer yards per pound than a yarn which is 100% wool. If you're going to a proper yarn store (rather than buying your yarn at craft stores which is what I normally do), then you can take the pattern in (with pictures) and talk to the staff. They should know which yarns are approximately the right weight, and will often be able to tell you about what sort of effect you'd get with each yarn.

[Solumina]

Yarn stores are amazing. My mother is a huge knitter and I know almost nothing about knitting (she tried to teach me but I was 12 and it didn't involve ponies and it wasn't shiny so I didn't pay a whole lot of attention). I have gotten her quit a few yarn gifts over the years since she always talks about all of the projects that she wants to work on starting about a month before Mother's Day (she is an expert of the well times yet very subtle tip). I'll go to this really lovely little yarn shop in Middleburg and tell them what she is making and they help me find all of the right stuff. Sadly we don't do this much anymore as I live far away and she has taken to getting way too much yarn at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

[dalesys]

Have any of you yarnies been following the Devil's Panties webcomic recently?

[Green_Fairy]

i love that comic! and lately it's been all yarny and awesome ^_^
ever hear of the knit princess? another webcomic, totally knit-based. kinda cute.

[Magpie]

Well if we're discussing comics, I should put in a pitch for Handknit Heroes.

And Soulmina: what do you mean it knitting isn't sparkly? (I wanted to put links, but most of the sparkly bits don't photograph well).