This is a traditional English Midland headside, made into a simple pattern.
Pattern:
Bobbins: 9 pairs
Style: English Midland
Stitches:
plait
lazy join
picot
join - 2 pair + 1 pair
cloth stitch and twist
Details:
crown headside (pink, green and blue)
twisted footside (grey)
Description:
In English Midland lace, it is important to sort out which line on the pattern is a plait, and which is a single pair, twisted. In this pattern, the footside (grey) has single pairs, while the headside is made of plaits. The headside has three plaits constantly crossing each other, to make this attractive pattern. Each colour shows where that plait goes.
The cross-over is done with a lazy join (sometimes called a windmill). The pinholes along the left edge, apparently outside the headside, are for the picots. The pins are there to give the headside its shape, with the points and the curves, and the picots add a decorative flourish.
The start needs a little care. The two starting pins on the right (3 and 2) are just used to hang the bobbins on to work them into the lace straight away. Make sure that you twist them round each other, so the pairs don't separate when you take the pin out. The right two pairs (2 and 2) look as if they are picots, but they are not. Hang the pairs from them, work them into the lazy join pin below them (crossing the plait coming from the right), then remove the starting pin, and tug the bobbins gently to make a neat start.
The footside looks a little strange, as, on the lace side, sometimes the pair from the footside joins the pairs from the headside, and sometimes it is all by itself at a pin. When this happens, just twist the pair, put a pin to its right, then twist again before joining the footside again.
The crown headside is often used in English Midland lace to give a flourish at the edge of a complicated pattern. As you can see, the bobbins stay in the headside, and join the rest of the lace at a pin, before returning to the headside.
© Jo Edkins 2016 - return to lace index