Yarn Weights Explained (courtesy of Meg Swansen)

In her iconic book A Gathering of Lace, first published in 2000 and with a cast of 34 fiber artists, Meg Swansen explains the differences of yarn weights clear at the back of the book. Mind you, it took a few hours to get there since the lace projects are intriguing to review, but when I found the chart (copied above), this was a revelation to me.

For a long while, I thought a "DK" weight yarn was the abbreviation for "Double Knit". Thanks to a chart I found in the back of this delightful book, I learned the exact size and look of a DK weight yarn, as well as other sizes of yarns.

The chart pictured above can be found on page 165 of the book A Gathering of Lace. Here is the site where you can purchase it on Amazon.One more trick that I learned from this book is quoted from page 4 of the book:

When it comes to joining in a new ball of wool, the usual methods are not very satisfactory for lace knitting.. (but) splicing... when done done properly, ... is totally undetectable. If you have a 2-ply wool, separate the last few inches of the old skein into its individual plies and break off (do not cut) one ply several inches from the end. Repeat this procedure on the end of the new skein. Now overlap the two ends in your left palm, moisten your right palm (spit does work better than water) and rub your palms together briskly for 5 to 10 seconds...or until you can feel heat. You have fused the fibers and, because you broke off one of the plies on either end, the diameter of the wool remains constant.

Let me tell you, this method works! The fusion is invisible from either side of your knitting.

Here is a picture of a the Clair lace shawl (pattern can be found here), compliments of Vyonne Senecal on Ravelry, where this method of splicing yarns was applied yesterday as I was knitting a shawl with the new possum and wool fur from Dunedin, New Zealand.

About half way up the thirty rows of knitted lace shown in the picture, I had to splice together two balls of yarn. Using Swansen's technique of splicing yarn, there is absolutely no detection of where the splicing occurred.

This was an idea too good not to share!