Knitting

2 things:

1. Does she want a knit veil? I knit and crochet lace and I don't want either in my wedding outfit. Also, be sure what kind of veil she wants - there's different lengths, alone with a current trend for wearing capes made of gauze/tulle instead. Maybe ask her opinion on those motifs too.

2. What color is her dress? That yarn will probably look ok with ivory, and will definitely go with cream, champagne, etc. It won't match a bright white dress, nor the sort of sparkle tulle princess thing my sister picked out.

I think you can do it though. Lace knitting isn't that different from regular knitting, just more counting and yarn overs. Learn how to read lace charts before starting - I went in with a "how hard can it be, I do crochet charts" mentality and whoops, had to stop and look it up. Good luck :)

Look into lifelines for lace, a year is enough time if you are patient with yourself. Use markers for each repeat and frequent life lines. This way it is much easier to unravel a mistake you cannot fix by laddering down. Practice each new repeat on spare yarn, so you know what to look out for and don't frazzle your actual yarn too much.

Yeah not to be a total downer but I really do want to reiterate @ChillChillinChinchilla@kbin.social's first question especially. Don't do something like this as a surprise, please I beg of you.

With that out of the way, it's totally doable in a year but weddings are weird and brides are under ridiculous amounts of pressure and you'd need to know exactly what she wants. What shade of white she's wearing (and you will need to see it with the yarn to make sure), what style of dress and therefore what kind of veil if any would go with it. And that's before you can even get started.

It's definitely a discussion and not something you can just make and then gift to her the day before (apologies if this sounds too negative, it's actually a very lovely thing you're doing, but I got married 3 months ago and remember how much extra stress came from people trying to "help" lol).

If you (both, together) decide to go ahead with it you'll want to do a bit of practise of the various stitch patterns, using lifelines etc. Have you worked with laceweight yarn before? It's a big step up from something like sock weight.

Again, absolutely a lovely thought I don't want to come across as a nag here. Just don't want to see you put your heart and soul into something that ultimately disappoints both of you!

You can definitely do this. Before you choose a final pattern and yarn, I'd definitely coordinate with your sister to make sure she likes the choices, and they match her dress/theme. Matching it to her dress choice is actually an opportunity to make the item even more unique and special for her...like adding some bead edging accents that match a sparkle or pearl accent on her dress.

For the knitting itself, a few pieces of advice:

-Do a small test piece with the yarn/needles you're planning to use. This will teach you how to start a pi shawl (fiddly if your first time), if you want more slippery/sticky/blunt/pointy needles, and let you see how it blocks out. This can be your memory doily for your sister's big day, or perhaps give it to your mother (if you're close) or to the bride as an additional memory.

-Lifelines, lifelines, lifelines. I'm pretty cherry about dropping down and fixing complex patterns, but lace is extra challenging because of the fine yarn and the fact that the stitches are often harder to read before blocking.

-I love Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi shawls. But be aware that the outer rounds take FOREVER. So when you've got half the radius done, you are not halfway through. You still have lots and lots (and lots) to go. Just be aware of that from a time management perspective.

Good luck, and I hope your sister and you both love the pattern and yarn that you choose!