Heirloom Knitting

by Sharon Miller

Heirlooms are a family's link from its past to the present and a legacy for the future. They are special things that have personal meaning. Knitting at its best can produce lovely articles that are used today and will readily become heirlooms. The lace knitting of the Shetland Isles has created much treasured family knitwear. This book is for both the everyday and expert knitter, presenting the craft in an understandable form. It is intended as an instructive guide, and in addition to an overview of Shetalnd lace, there are helpful explanations of technique and useful information on design, including how to develop your own patterns; there are practical tips too. To finish, there is a comprehensive project section detailing typical shawls, stoles, baby jackets, rounding off with a masterpiece - an intricately patterned christening robe. Above all though, this book has a wide-ranging collection of charted patterns - classified for convenience into centres, borders and edgings - that are carefully graded to suit the learner as well as the most experienced knitter interested in creating original yet traditional knitted lace.

Genres: Knitting, Nonfiction, Reference, Crafts, History

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely stunning book of Shetland lace patterns. It includes some back matter (history, tips, tutorials ect) which are fascinating to read as well as a fairly comprehensive stitch dictionary of lace patterns. I'm knitting my first major Shetland lace shawl right now and this was a very useful reference.

[Saralyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heirloom Knitting is the ultimate guide to knitting Shetland lace. In the 19th century knitters of Shetland, a cluster of small islands north of Scotland, developed one of the most advanced lace traditions in the world using hair-fine yarn spun by hand from the wool of their unique sheep. A shawl 6 feet (2 meters) square would weigh only a few ounces and could be drawn through a wedding ring. This gave them the name "Wedding Ring Shawls" and that is about all most people have heard of this remarkable textile tradition. Sharon Miller has preserved in "Heirloom Knitting" a wealth of knowledge that might otherwise have soon died out, as very few Shetland lace knitters are left today. If you want to be able to design your own Shetland lace in the traditional way, this is the book you need. It includes a huge amount of information--history, photographs, a large selection of traditional motifs, suggestions for how to use them, and instructions for several projects ranging from beginner level to so advanced I can hardly imagine attempting them. Even if you have no intention of knitting shawls with gossamer-weight wool, the stitch patterns are lovely and unusual and could be applied to other projects less monumental in scope. Most of the book is made up of instructions and charts for center patterns, borders, and edgings. It also includes design tips and techniques, and guidelines for making scarves, stoles, square or triangular shawls, and baby jackets.

[April Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely phenomenal book. I learned so much and highly recommend this book for any knitter who wants to learn about lace. It’s a must have for any library.

[Red Urchin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though unfortunately unavailable at the moment (ETA August 2017: Revised new print available for pre-order on Sharon Miller's etsy shop, yay!)"Heirloom Knitting" is a must-have for any knitting library, no matter if you are into spending months on knitting thousands of yards of thread with needles as thin as wires into something delicately beautiful (and Shetland shawls are huge) or just a knitting aficionado.

With this book, Sharon Miller brought an ancient tradition back to life, its history, the skills of its makers and the atrocious conditions they lived in while at the same time enabling modern knitters to follow their footsteps. Patterns that were once only at the back of the head of these women who have been knitting Shetland Lace shawls since the early 19th century, have been transcribed into modern charts and hence the book is an almost endless resource for both knitters that want to dig deep into the tradition as well as the one that just wants to find a nice lace edging for a baby blanket.

One "unvention" (and here I am quoting the famous EZ) I absolutely adore - and normally do not find in knitting patterns - is the number of knit stitches between lace stitches. I find it incredibly helpful to see at a glance how many stitches I have to knit, before the next set of k2tog, YO, and stuff begins.

[Morandia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book dealing with lace construction. The patterns are clearly charted and it is a pleasure to read as well as to knit the projects. Definitely not a beginner knitting book, but a fantastic edition to anyone's library.

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful, traditional Shetland Lace Shawls

[Mindofwinter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible resource for lace and design.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

a beautiful book and I did order the kit to make the wedding ring shawl.