New England Lace Group - Shetland Lace Knitting

The Magic of Shetland Lace Knitting
Elizabeth Lovick
Quarto Publishing, London, Martin's Griffin press, US (www.stmartins.com)
ISBN 978-1-250-03908-8, 144 pg. soft cover, 2013

Lace knitting books are on my lace and embroidery shelves because some knitting is related to lace and to textiles and needs to be in a research library like mine. Last year, I bought a fresh infusion of knitting information in the form of books. This motivation was the result of following some leads in the January/February 2015 Knitting Issue of PieceWork magazine.

From these, I am choosing to tell about this author, whose body of work is very impressive. She proves you can live in a remote location and support yourself making lace with knitting needles. She lives on a remote Orkney island north of Scotland, called Flotta. Her website, listing products, is www.northernlace.co.uk

The book I bought, by her, is about lighter-than-air shawls and more - very delicate with clear charts/stitch diagrams and delightful patterns. In PieceWork, there are some references leading to her. She was one of the organizers who brought together 200 knitters in 2013 to make knitted garments for a not-for-profit film about WWI called "Tell Them of Us". You can read/see about it at www.wagscreen.co.uk or http://ww1film.wordpress.com

Lovick had to re-write many vintage patterns for the film, which became a collection of 74 patterns in another book, "Centenary Stitches: Telling the Story of One WWI Family Through Vintage Knitting and Crochet." You can pay to download some patterns or a couple of her books, one being "Fine Spinning Workbook" via her website.

Blog: https://northernlace.wordpress.com/ This can keep you entertained for many hours. For those who cannot afford to travel, this is an experience without hassles and expense. After 15 minutes, you'll think of Elizabeth Lovick as one of your closest friends.

You'll love her tales about life in the Orkney Islands, her thriving knitting business, her teaching travels to many places, her rescued Scottie dogs, etc. A shut-in could spend many happy hours reading the Blog - from present to past. Children will love the dogs. First, she had a Scottie (now deceased) named Scottie, then she adopted two Scotties: Isla and Meg. The Longhope Lifeboat crew has a mascot Scottie named Hector. He has his own life jacket with a pocket containing a hip flask of brandy!

Well, this review has veered away from Lace Knitting, but I assure you the Blog has lots about that, too.

One thing I learned in the past few days (didn't write down the source) is that it is less expensive to have a British book published in the U.S. than it is to ship from overseas.

Jeri Ames
Lace and Embroidery Resource Center