Again, I have to plug these books and the endless fun I'm having with them. If you like free-form adventures in lace, and have the fortitude to take lace designs and work them into your own projects, you'll have a great time with the three. Content does vary a bit among them. Each volume of the series "The Knitted Patterns of Christine Duchrow" edited by J & K Kliot is available separately from Lacis. Each compiles several German language pattern booklets published in the early 1900s by Duchrow. These 8.5" x 11" facsimile editions are very readable, with the graphs being especially big, but there are a few pages where image quality is a bit muddy (no big deal though).

• Volume I: 128 pages. Combo of wide and narrow strip patterns (borders and insertions), plus collars and jabots, small and medium size doilies (square, round, and oval), tablecloths, some medallions possibly suitable for a pieced tablecloth or bedspread, camisole tops, lace fingerless gloves and some baby bonnets. These patterns are highly geometric featuring lots of triangles, diamonds and squares rather than floral or figural motifs. While directions for the lace patterning are charted and accessible, instructions to use the patterns to make the gloves and baby hat are in German, and are quite cursory. The pattern on the cover is not in this book, it's from V.II.

• Volume II:96 pages. Similar to V1, more wide and elaborate borders and insertions, some with spots to knit in knot style stitches or include beads to add texture, some doilies, a tea warmer, an octagonal lace box (I'm dying to make this up), several large tea cloths/table cloths, some camisole bands. Again, lots of geometrics, I'd rate this book as being slightly more complex to knit than V.I. The pattern on the cover is included in this book. At the end is a one-page modern English redaction of one of the smaller doily patterns (also charted), which might be of use to those who are having problems with the original notation and want to see how it compares to contemporary instructions.

• Volume III: 144 pages. More. Lots more. The emphasis of this book is a little different than the other two. It's mostly on circular and oval cloths and doilies ranging in size from coasters to full table spreads, although there's a goodly sprinkling of strip edgings and insertions, too. Again, the aesthetic is geometric, but looser than the other two books, with stars and petaled flower forms common in the oval and round pieces. A couple of the doilies rival the Kinzel ones in detail. If anyone is looking for a huge graph for a knitted lace altar cloth, there's one in here, along with a knit petticoat and a kids' pullover/hat/gloves/gaiters set (not graphed, with cursory instructions in German). Again, these patterns are a bit more complex than V.I and V.II, but aren't beyond most dedicated modern lace knitters. The pattern on the cover is in this book. There's a lagniappe at the end of this volume - five pages of hand-drawn patterns by Gertrud Wywod, a contemporary of Duchrow's. These are very striking - extremely floral rather than geometric. There is no symbol key for them, but I've made some progress translating the hand-notation to modern graphs for a couple. However I haven't worked my way through a successful test-knit of any of the Wywod patterns yet. When I get one tamed, I'll post my redaction here.

I have run into a couple of challenges knitting from these books. First, not everything is on the graph. For example, edging patterns with ragged left edges (right edge straight, left edge dagged) don't clearly show that on "uphill segments" where the piece is increasing in diameter the knitter should work an increase into the first stitch on the wrong side row; and on "downhill rows" where the edging is narrowing, the first stitch on the wrong side row should be a k2tog. There are also a couple of symbols used on one or two charts that aren't in the symbol glossary, or are problematic. And the most infuriating thing of all is that a purl stitch is represented by a lower case letter l, and a yarn over is represented by the number 1, both of which can be difficult to distinguish from each other in the older style German blackletter font used in the charts.

Still, for all of the challenge of working from books I can't read, puzzling out notation system that's new to me, to make items that I'm noodling out on the fly, I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

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