Lyra's Off and Running!

The Niebling Lace Knitters group is tackling Herbert Niebling's legendary Lyra. The knitters are being asked to contribute their photographs, thoughts, feelings, frustrations and jubilations, and those of us not knitting the Lyra will be cheering them on.

First out of the gate with her information is Rheba Smith, of Atlanta, GA, USA. She waited to find the perfect thread, and having received it, will be starting her Lyra this weekend (June 7/8, 2008).

Here is the first bit of info from her:

Thread: Presencia Finca No 5 - Dark Turquoise (mercerized cotton)

Needle Size: 2 US (2.75 MM)

Size/Dimention: To be Completed

Challenges: To Be Determined

ID: Rheba Smith (rhebaatl on ravelry)

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA

Thank you, Rheba. We look forward to seeing your Lyra pictures!

JP's Blatterspitzen

JP's beautiful Blattie in red is certainly striking! She has this to say about the Blatterspitzen:

"I've liked this doily ever since I saw it. There's something about the geometric-ness of it all that appeals to me. I used DMC Cebelia #30 cotton and 2mm needles, obviously in the color red."

"I've knit Niebling patterns before. It was a perfectly fun pattern to knit, no real problems for me."

"I thought it made a good KAL pattern because of the variety of techniques and because it gave the knitter a chance to choose different variations at different points of the pattern (such as decrease directions, how many ladder rungs, how to start the pattern, how to finish)."

"I thought the ending of the original pattern was rather odd, but that merely indicates that even Niebling had his off moments. It gave us yet another chance to choose something different. I chose to quit at the end of the lace section and thus skip the stockinette portion at the end."

"I thought the KAL leaders did a good job. I am not including myself in that group; I was merely an enthusiast. Priscilla did a great job with the charting, Judy Gibson did a great job with her notes and point-man status, and Catherine did a great job of organizing and gently shepherding the process along."

"It was fun to do this as a KAL because lots of people chimed in with various comments and perspectives. It's always fun to see how the final doilies turn out, since we all choose different materials and have slightly different ways of knitting and blocking our work."

Beautiful job, jp! Thanks for your thoughts.

Catherine's Blatterspitzen

This Blatterspitzen is the work of our fearless leader, Catherine.

These are her comments on it:

"I used Handy Hands Nr.50 tatting twist in a dark green and 2mm needles throughout. It was exactly 14" blocked."

"The pattern was very straightforward. I think this is a great learning/sampler/primer piece because each section uses a different stitch and it's a regular repeating pattern (which means mistakes are easy to spot). I wasn't sure about the dark color, since dark colors don't show off the stitchwork as well as light colors do. On the whole, though, I like the effect."

Catherine's Blattie is a great example of a smaller Niebling, well-knit and blocked. No wonder so many of us love those designs!

Priscilla W.'s Erbstullgrund

I chose this piece because it encompasses so many Niebling traits. I love the layout and flowers in it.

I chose Opera 20 thread, and 2.25mm needles.

It includes floral motifs, stretches diagonally, a double mesh, beginning and ending with a YO and the 2 stitch winding stem.

For me, it was a frustrating piece as the pattern was only available in German. The instructions seemed very vague as to adding stitches in the rounds prior to starting the border and corners. Also, this was the first piece I made with so many repeats between the bold lines. I worked this on the tail of Jo's in Australia, and never would have made it without her help. A couple of the areas of the chart were so poor that I made stitch errors, and truly she must have heard me yelling in Oz.

I would get up at 3 am to email her for help at a time during which she would be up! She truly is, as she calls it, " a brick ".. (good solid friend).

Priscilla, all that angst was worth it! Your Erbstullgrund is beautiful. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. We'll be looking forward to more of your beautiful knitting on this blog!

Binding Discussion

The Blattranke, from the Beyer-Band 361 reprint, as an aid to our current binding discussion.The Eiche, from the "Tea Cup" portfolio (photo only in the folio, not the pattern).

The Wiesenflor, akaThe Piano Doily.

Discussion for the week of 1/17-12/07 started with Carol G.'s

beautiful "piano doily" from Anna, Feb 2002. Carol's Piano Doily is a cut-down variation, the pattern for the parent/full-sized piece was previously published in at least three places: Anna 0200/01; Burda 085/01 "Erbstullgrund" (the very first piece in the very first Burda Lace

special edition!); and as "Nodi a Sorpresa" in Lavori 11.

Another variation of the full-sized piece, with larger flowers and leaves at the last tier, was published by Meyers as "Wiesenflor" in their singlet #1449.

Since we're trying to put together a catalog of known Niebling pieces and where to find them, identifying 'families' of similar pieces, and the broad variety of locations where they have been published, has become an interesting topic.