Knitted Lace: A Collection of Favorite Designs from Interweave — Everything You Need to Know Before You Pick Up Your Needles

There is something deeply meditative about knitting lace. The rhythm of yarn-overs and decreases, the way a seemingly chaotic web of loops transforms into something breathtaking when you finally block it out and pin it flat — it is one of those fiber arts experiences that stays with you long after the project is finished. For knitters who have caught the lace bug, or those who have been curious about it but never quite known where to begin, the book Knitted Lace: A Collection of Favorite Designs from Interweave has long stood as one of the most respected resources on the subject. Compiled from the archives of Interweave, a publisher that has shaped the fiber arts community for decades, this collection brings together some of the most beloved lace patterns ever published in their magazines and books. In this post, we are going to take a deep dive into what makes this collection so special, who it is for, what you can expect to find inside, and how to get the most out of it whether you are a curious beginner or a seasoned lace knitter looking for your next obsession.

What Is Knitted Lace: A Collection of Favorite Designs from Interweave?

Interweave has spent decades publishing patterns, tutorials, and inspiration for fiber artists of all skill levels. Over those years, their editors and contributing designers have developed an eye for what makes a lace pattern not just beautiful, but functional, wearable, and achievable. Knitted Lace is the result of that curation — a carefully assembled anthology that pulls standout designs from across Interweave’s publishing history and presents them in a single, cohesive volume.

The book is not the work of a single designer, which is actually part of what makes it so rich. When you are reading a single-designer book, you get a unified aesthetic, which is wonderful in its own way. But an anthology like this gives you range. You move from one creative mind to another, from one approach to lace construction to something completely different on the very next page. For knitters who love variety or who are still figuring out what kind of lace knitting speaks most deeply to them, that breadth is invaluable.

The designs in this collection span a wide range of garment types and accessories. You will find shawls and wraps, which are perennially popular in the lace knitting world because they showcase large, open stitch patterns beautifully. You will also find more structural pieces — garments with fitted elements that require the knitter to think about how lace interacts with shaping. Smaller accessories like scarves, stoles, and even some decorative pieces round out the offerings and give knitters at every level something to reach for.

Why Interweave Lace Patterns Have Such a Strong Reputation

If you have spent any time in the knitting community, you already know that Interweave carries a particular kind of credibility. Their magazines, including Interweave Knits and Knitscene, have been trusted by knitters for generations, and their books consistently offer high production quality alongside technically sound, well-tested patterns.

Lace knitting in particular requires a level of precision in pattern writing that not every publisher achieves. A single misplaced yarn-over in a chart, or an ambiguous written instruction, can send a knitter in entirely the wrong direction — and because lace often involves long, complex repeats, catching an error might mean hours of frogging and re-knitting. Interweave’s editorial standards have historically been strong, which means that the patterns collected in this book have been vetted carefully. That does not mean you will never encounter a typo or need to check the errata (every knitter learns eventually to check errata), but it does mean the foundation is solid.

The designers who have contributed to Interweave publications over the years include some of the most celebrated names in the lace knitting world. Many of the patterns in this collection come from designers who went on to have significant independent careers, and seeing their work here in its original published form is a kind of historical record of the broader creative community.

Who Is This Book For?

This is a fair question, because lace knitting is genuinely not for every knitter at every moment. It requires focus, a willingness to read charts (or at the very least follow line-by-line written instructions carefully), and a certain tolerance for going slowly and methodically. If you are the kind of knitter who likes to watch television while your needles fly, pure lace might not be your meditative groove — but then again, many lace knitters say it is precisely the requirement for attention that they love most about it.

For beginners who are genuinely new to lace, this collection will be more useful as an aspirational resource than a starting point. Some of the patterns are accessible to relatively new lace knitters, but having a working understanding of yarn-overs, basic decreases (knit two together, slip-slip-knit), and how to read a simple chart will serve you enormously before you open this book with needles in hand. If you are brand new to lace, there are dedicated beginner lace resources that walk you through the foundational techniques first — and once you have those under your belt, this collection becomes much more welcoming.

For intermediate knitters who have completed a few lace projects and want to expand their repertoire, this book is essentially a treasure trove. The range of difficulty levels means you can challenge yourself progressively, moving from designs with simple repeats and clear structure to more complex compositions that require holding multiple pattern elements in your head at once.

For experienced lace knitters, the appeal of the book is partly technical and partly sentimental. If you have been knitting lace for years, you may recognize some of these patterns from their original publication, and seeing them collected here is like visiting old friends. You will also find designs that push even advanced knitters to grow, particularly in the more architecturally complex pieces.

What You Will Find Inside: A Closer Look at the Designs

The collection covers a genuinely impressive range of aesthetic styles. Lace knitting has a long and varied history across many cultures — from the intricate Shetland lace traditions of Scotland to the bolder, more graphic lace of Scandinavian traditions to the fluid, painterly shawls that have become popular in contemporary hand-knitting. This book does not confine itself to one tradition, and you will feel that openness as you page through it.

Shawls and stoles are among the most prominent categories. This makes sense for a lace collection because rectangular and triangular shawl shapes allow a designer to showcase a stitch pattern without the complication of shaping, which means the lace itself can take center stage. Some of the shawls in this collection feature border patterns that graduate from plain stockinette or garter into increasingly complex lace, which is a wonderful design approach because it lets the knitter ease into the pattern before the full complexity arrives. Others are lace from edge to edge, requiring commitment and careful attention throughout.

Wraps and scarves offer a somewhat smaller canvas, which can actually be a good thing when you are working with a particularly intricate stitch pattern. A scarf forces the repeat to remain legible and lets you see the pattern clearly without being overwhelmed by scale. Several of the scarves in this collection feature elongated, vertical compositions that make the most of a narrow format, with flowing lines and open negative space that make them look extraordinarily delicate when finished.

Garments — sweaters, cardigans, and tops with lace elements — bring a different kind of challenge. Here, the knitter must think about how lace interacts with fit and with the human body. Lace has a natural stretchiness after blocking, and garments need to account for that when shaping. The designers whose work appears in this category clearly have a sophisticated understanding of construction, and studying how they have handled the integration of lace into wearable structures is genuinely educational.

Smaller decorative pieces and accessories round out the collection. These tend to be excellent practice ground for new lace techniques because the time investment is lower and the learning per stitch is high. A small lace edging or a delicate collar can teach you as much as a large shawl, in a fraction of the time.

How to Get the Most Out of This Collection

Owning a beautiful knitting book and actually making things from it are, as many knitters know, two very different activities. Here are some practical thoughts on how to move from admiring the pages to actually knitting your way through them.

Start by reading, not knitting. Before you even wind your first skein, spend time with the book as a reader. Look at the photography, read the pattern notes, and pay attention to designer comments where they appear. Many experienced knitters skip this step and miss context that would have made their project smoother. Understanding why a designer made certain choices — why a particular yarn weight was chosen, why a border begins where it does, what the construction sequence is — will make you a better executor of their vision.

Swatch, and block your swatch. This is lace knitting’s most important piece of advice and the one most often ignored. Lace before blocking looks like a crumpled, incomprehensible tangle. Lace after blocking looks like magic. Your swatch needs to be blocked before you can evaluate your gauge, your tension, your yarn choice, or really anything meaningful about how the finished piece will look. Knit a generous swatch, wet-block it using your preferred method, and pin it out before you make any decisions.

Choose your yarn thoughtfully. Lace patterns depend heavily on the halo and sheen and drape of their yarn. A pattern designed for a smooth, high-twist wool will look completely different knit in a fuzzy mohair blend — and while that can be a lovely creative choice, it should be a deliberate one. Generally speaking, smoother yarns show stitch definition more clearly, which is why many traditional lace patterns call for them. Mohair and similar fibers produce a softer, dreamier effect where the individual stitches are less visible but the overall silhouette is romantic and airy. Neither is wrong; they are just different.

Use markers liberally. Lace patterns with long repeats benefit enormously from stitch markers placed at every repeat boundary. When something goes wrong — and in lace knitting, something always eventually goes wrong — markers let you isolate the error to a single repeat rather than hunting across an entire row. This one habit can save hours of frustration.

Trust the chart. If you are new to working from charts, this collection is a good place to build that skill because Interweave charts tend to be clearly drawn and logically organized. Read the key carefully, note whether charts are read right-to-left on right-side rows only or on every row, and give yourself permission to work slowly until the visual language of the chart becomes second nature.

Yarn Choices That Work Well for These Patterns

Because the patterns in this book span such a range of styles and scales, there is no single yarn answer that fits every project. That said, a few general categories tend to serve lace knitting especially well.

Fine merino wool is probably the most versatile choice. It blocks beautifully, holds its shape after washing, and has enough memory to recover from the inevitable stretching that happens while you are knitting. Many of the patterns in this collection will suggest laceweight or fingering weight, and a smooth, well-twisted merino in either of those weights will rarely lead you wrong.

Silk and silk blends add a luminosity that suits lace extraordinarily well. The way silk catches and throws light makes open stitch patterns glow in a way that plain wool does not quite achieve. Silk has less memory than wool, though, which means you need to be more careful about yarn choice when working garments that need to hold their shape.

Plant fibers like cotton and linen are less commonly used for traditional lace but can be beautiful in the right pattern — particularly for summer shawls, scarves, and lightweight accessories where drape and coolness are assets.

Mohair and mohair blends, often held with a strand of fine silk or nylon, produce that romantic, hazy lace aesthetic that has become enormously popular in contemporary knitting. If you are drawn to shawls that look like they are made of woven clouds, this fiber category is worth exploring.

The Legacy of Interweave in the Fiber Arts World

It is worth pausing to appreciate what Interweave has meant to the knitting community over the decades. For many knitters of a certain generation, receiving an issue of Interweave Knits in the mail was a genuine event — something to be read cover to cover, with patterns cut out and saved, notes made in margins, and ideas sparked that would eventually become actual projects. The magazine nurtured a community of designers and knitters who took the craft seriously both as art and as technical practice.

The fact that this collection exists as a curated anthology is itself a reflection of that legacy. Someone at Interweave cared enough about the best work that had passed through their pages to assemble it in a form that would outlast individual magazine issues, which can be difficult to find and fragile with age. For collectors and serious knitters, having those patterns in book form is genuinely valuable.

Final Thoughts: Is This Book Worth Adding to Your Library?

For any knitter who loves lace or wants to fall in love with it, Knitted Lace: A Collection of Favorite Designs from Interweave earns a place on the shelf. It is the kind of book you return to — not just once at the beginning when everything is new, but years later when your skills have grown and a pattern that once seemed too challenging suddenly looks inviting. The range of designs, the quality of the curation, and the trust that comes with the Interweave name all contribute to making this a genuinely enduring resource.

Whether you work through the book systematically, knitting your way from one design to the next, or use it as a reference and inspiration source to dip into when the mood strikes, you will find that it rewards engagement. Lace knitting has a way of changing how you see the craft as a whole — it slows you down, asks more of your attention, and gives back something proportional to what you invest. A book like this, assembled with care from decades of excellent pattern publishing, is exactly the kind of companion that long and rewarding craft journey deserves.

Pick up your finest needles, wind your most beautiful skein, and let the yarn-overs begin.