Crocheting with yak yarn is incredible. This is the type of material that I have been looking for for several years now.
Project Notes:
Yarn: Lotus Tibetan Yak 2
Hook: Aluminum crochet hook 4/0 (2.5mm)
The yak yarn is very soft lace weight yarn. I feel I need to work with it in terms of what the material dictates about the placement of the stitches rather than rigidly imposing a fixed pattern on the yarn. For example a picot might be “ch 3, sl st in st at base of ch-3″ when the pattern says “ch 3, sl st in 3rd ch fr hook.” It really depends on how the stitches hold while I am working. So yes, there are fixed written patterns but I find that I often follow the yarn more than the pattern.
Yak yarn is resilient and strong, but at lace weight it can break easily at areas were staples are joined. This doesn’t seem much the situation with Lotus.
I have done some research on projects made with lace weight yarn. Most seem to be shawls, but I believe I can do delicate wear with it.
My first project with yak yarn is this experiment with triangle motifs joined into a strip. Then the ends of the strip are joined together to form a closed loop. Afterwards, I crocheted a lacy picot edging along one side of the loop, and a shell scallop along the other side.
The stitches in detail.
I washed it and hang it up to dry and my husband thought I was washing my knickers.
These aren't my knickers but that's an interesting idea.
Now I am using it as a scarf. I wear it by tying a knot at one end.
I'm in love with the yak!
The material is really very soft and resilient and is perfect for this kind of scarf. With cotton, it would’ve been too stiff and will make me feel choked.
I tried to make another project with the yak yarn, starting with an octagonal motif. Now this shape doesn’t seem right to me. It isn’t what I want with this type of yarn. I think the problem is working with regular shape motifs. What this yarn really needs is irregularity, unpredicatbility and spontaneity. This brings me back to free-form crochet and the Irish leaf motif. I decided to use the openwork leaf.
Motifs are an advantage because the work is done in small pieces joined together. I like that because errors are very difficult to rectify in lace yarn. I also like the pattern that comes out of non-regular shapes brought together.
Finishing an openwork leaf.
The leaf starts with a ch-25 midrib, then hdc in 5th ch fr hk. Ch 2, sk 2 ch, dc in next ch, ch 2, sk 2 ch, tr in next ch, and so on. The next round is a 3 sc in each of the sps with ch-3 in between each sp. I used ch-3 rather than a picot because I noticed that picots are weak sts in lace yarn. The round of sc makes the leaf stronger too.
The ch-3 loops are used to join the motif together along the sides. I start with sc in a ch-3 loop, ch 3, dc in next ch-3 loop, ch 5 (or longer or shorter depending on distance bet leaves that is desired), dc in ch-3 loop of corresponding leaf, ch 3, sc in next ch-3 loop of same leaf, ch 3, dc in ch-3 loop of same leaf, ch 5, dc in ch-3 loop of first working leaf where first dc was made. Then ch 3 and sc in next ch-3 loop of same working leaf. And so on and so forth. The joining stitches take on a Y shape which I like very much. With the joined leaves I decided to make a lace top.
The lace top in progress.
I have added straps in after making a tube of my size. I don’t sew in the back of the straps but rather tie them with acrylic yarn so that later I can make adjustments to fit. A “skeleton” will later need to be worked through the lace shell. I am also thinking of crocheting a mesh lining for the top.
Work is going quickly, quite surprisingly.
