Roma lace yarn

ROMA LACE YARN

I love lace knitting, and the yarn, well it's a little slice of heaven. The best thing for me is that it's very economical. You can really indulge in superbly luxurious fibres because the fine lace weight yarn goes so far.
I have been loaned Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia and have decided that as I want to knit at least 50% of the designs in the book that I should just purchase a copy of my own.
Not long ago Mum brought me a copy of The Gossamer Webs Design Collection by Galina Khmeleva, this is another lovely book with lots of ideas and swatches of lace designs that are traditional to Estonian knitting. Many years ago (don't ask how long please), my dear friend Margaret taught me how to knit Shetland Lace shawls we sent off to Jamieson by snail mail and waited patiently for the yarn to arrive. It was such a revelation for me as up until then I had never knitted with anything smaller than an 8 ply, mostly because I was knitting practical adult jumpers, and toddler garments. I had a prolific baby garments knitter in my dear Auntie so never bothered with any ply smaller than the 8ply.
Having started with the yarn company it all comes back to me about those early years and my knitting lace shawls. So even though I have taught myself many things from books and love my books to death there is really nothing like the hands on knowledge of a true lace knitter.
Margaret was taught at a young age to knit as many of the women would have been. She loved her fair isle and Alice Starmore, she loved the harsh but beautiful landscape of the Shetlands and had wonderful memories of growing up there.
There is a sad ending to this story, Margaret recently suffered from a severe disease viral encephalitis it left Margaret at only 55 with brain damage, she no longer remembers a large part of her more recent life, she lives very much in the past and no longer has the dexterity to knit or create as she used to. She does not remember how to knit, or that she was at one time a truly talented knitter. The illness has robbed her and her husband of their retirement as now it is a daily battle just to function and get through her day.
This has made me more appreciative of everyday that I am able to take up the knitting needles and knit. And for that bit of yarn I just had to have, stashed away for that scarf I always intended to make, well, now I don't hesitate, I knit it and enjoy every delicious stitch.