Now, it so happens that I am half Chinese, but that's not why I like this lace pattern--and although it's nice that anything so lovely has the word "Chinese" in the name, I'm not sure this means that the pattern actually originated in China. (It was contributed to BW's 2nd Treasury by one Marjorie B. Bialkowski, Richmond, VA, so perhaps she could tell us its provenance. I'm curious about the many contributors to BW's Treasuries, by the way. Are they knitters, designers, historians? Marjorie is only one of many: a few others are Leona Hughes, Sarasota, FL; Pauline Balbes, Hollywood, CA; Dorothy Reade, Eugene, OR; and the prolific Hildegarde M. Elsner, Aldan, PA, who must be either a remarkable innovator, or a compulsive pattern collector.)
But I digress. Here is the entire page from BW, including her (or rather, M.B. Bialkowski's) directions for Chinese Lace. It is a 24-row repeat and quite enjoyable to work--but it's kind of hard to get a sense of where the pattern is going from the written directions.
So I charted the pattern. I really like working from charts; not only do you get a 
better sense of how the pattern is constructed and how it progresses, but it then becomes simple to work in the round if you wish. One thing you don't get from either set of directions (but which is visible in the photo) is how the decreases and increases pull the lace so that it curves gently from side to side. (Note: When I converted the charts into jpg format, some of the YO symbols came out looking rather bizarre; the horseshoe-shaped thingies as well as the circles mean: YO!)
If you like the Chinese lace without the ridges you might also like a pattern I found in "The Big Book of Knitting Stitch Pattterns" called Bellflowers. on pg 225 it looks very similar to your modified version of Chinese Lace.
Dee
Posted by: deeknits | March 12, 2006 at 10:59 AM