I’ve been knitting lace.

(Knitted lace, for the uninitiated, is a system of decreases and increases which make a holey, lacey fabric. You can, in theory, knit lace patterns with any yarn, but this project was knitted in lace yarn which is thin and fine.)

It’s been a while since I’ve knitted lace. Largely, I think, because it takes a lot of time, and in my recent state of mind I’ve needed to make things that either grow fast, or finish fast, or both. (Readying a manuscript for submission is a bit like knitting lace in itself; making the words stack up exactly right to form the pattern is a job that needs hours, precision, and concentration.)

Also, there was the great Icarus Disaster, followed by the Pinkerton Disappointment. Both of which have made me a little cautious around lace projects.

But mostly, I think, I haven’t knitted lace in a while because you knit it and knit it and it looks as though if you’d stuck a couple of kittens in a box with your yarn and left them to it, you’d have got the same result.

But then you add water, and pins.

And you get Lace Magic.

And I get something pretty to wear to the 14/4 Literary Dinner on Friday.

Sometimes you just have to wait for the good bit to happen.

(Knitting info: Pattern is Icicles by Susannah IC, yarn is Juno Lace in Heather Shadow, black size 8 beads from Debbie Abrahams beads, no changes to the pattern.)