Crafty hours on

I know how to count

I know how to read

It's a term one of my friends came up with - the lace rot, or lace rot disease, usually affects fibre artists (or budding fibre artists) when they're seeing other people make lace, and then suddenly they're consumed with the desire to make lace as well!

It works like this: you're innocently scrolling tumblr, and suddenly come across pictures of an incredibly beautiful, gossamer thin knit shawl, with elegant pattering and beaded in sparkly gems. It looks so intricate and complicated! Then somebody links the pattern, and you look at it, and figure out that it's actually just increases and decreases and some yarn overs. Oh, you think. You could make one too!!

At this point, it's already too late, and the lace rot has set its roots in your soul. There's no point trying to fight it. You will acquire new sharp needles, and more beads than is wise (they are so sparkly!), and oh look, you already had lace weight yarn in your stash, who would have known, and then you will knit a lace shawl. And then another lace shawl. You're browsing ravelry. Your mutuals are helpfully bringing you new patterns. Then somebody mentions crochet, or needle lace, and suddenly you're catching yourself rifling through antique pattern libraries for tatting inspiration. You're suddenly learning four new additional crafts. You make another lace shawl while yearning for more complicated lace shawls, a beautiful, gossamer thin knit shawl, with elegant pattering and beaded in sparkly gems. It looks so intricate and complicated! Yet it was surprisingly easy to create. You post it to tumblr.

I made a little zine to help quickly pick out yarn for your projects! This is just a one-pager zine so I couldn't fit much, but if you want to learn about yarn materials in more detail I recommend checking out the yarn guide on the Knit Picks website. I found it super helpful!

slip all but the last two sts of the dec pwise, p2tog, then pass each of the slipped sts over the p2tog and off the needle one at a time.

and then I ignore said project for a few months and when I come back to it I panic because I cannot remember what hook size I used