New to knitting lace? 4 tips for the beginner.

Lace is a technique in knitting that creates lovely and delicate patterns. Lace looks fancy and complicated, but if you can do a yarn over (YO) and know how to decrease (k2tog and SSK), you can knit lace!

If you've never knit lace before, consider The Soul Warmer by Justyna Lorkowska (March KAL 2024), which is a sampler-style cowl with just a couple of lace sections. It's also a great pattern to use up fingering-weight scraps or mini-skeins. (See photo below of Nancy's finished Soul Warmer!)

Read on for four sanity-saving tips for knitting lace! Plus a bonus — a FREE lace knitting course from Tin Can Knits!

1. Stitch Markers — Lace-knitter's best friend.
Whether you're new to lace or a veteran, stitch markers are such a helpful tool. In the photo above, the stitch markers are placed every 12 stitches, since the lace motif is a 12-stitch repeat. Placing a stitch marker at the border of each lace segment helps you learn to "read" your lace, which is essential as you learn to spot any mistakes. 

In some patterns for lace, on a particular round of the pattern, you might need to move all your markers one stitch over  — don't panic! This is why locking stitch markers (like the ones above) are extra handy! 

2. Like a turtle — Slow and steady wins the lace race.
Lace is not a race! Go sloooooow like a turtle! Review your work after each and every segment to be sure you've followed the pattern correctly. Catch your mistakes right away and it's so much easier to fix them.

3. Friends don't let friends knit lace at night.
Figure out your best lace-knitting environment and make this your "happy lace place." You might find that lace is best knit alone when you can really concentrate — and perhaps for you that IS late at night when your house is quiet. Or maybe your best and most focused lace-knitting is done first thing in the morning, with fresh eyes and bright, natural light. You decide!

4. Throw yourself a lifeline. 
Use a proactive lifeline (video here from VeryPink Knits)! If you're very nervous about lace, a lifeline offers reassurance, just in case you need to rip back a few rows. Ripping back when using any kind of fluffy yarn like mohair is not very fun at all, so let's all say the lace refrain together now... Lace is not a race!

Learn Lace in 3 with Tin Can Knits!
We love the folks at Tin Can Knits for their fabulous patterns with many designs available free, in-depth tutorials and blog posts, and now a handy app! We've now selected two of their patterns as Knit Alongs at The Goat. The photo above is Love Note by TCK our Spring 2025 Knit Along.

The good folks at Tin Can Knits have a FREE self-paced course on lace — Learn Lace in 3 — that you can sign up for here.

Have you tried knitting lace? Do you have any tips or resources that have helped you? Let us know below, if so!