This pattern and pattern 200 are worked in human hair (mine), as an experiment. You could, of course, work it in a more conventional thread!
Pattern:
Bobbins: 8 pairs
Style: Torchon
Stitches:
half stitch
cloth stitch and twist
twist single pair (grey)
Details:
half stitch zigzag (blue)
Torchon ground (grey)
footside without passives (grey)
Description:
Follow the links above for explanation of how to work the different parts of the lace.
All right, this one is a real weirdo! I read in a lace book that (occasionally!) lace was made using human hair. This niggled at me - was it possible? My hair is long - not very long, but I managed to find some hairs about a foot long. I picked them out of my hairbrush rather than taking them directly from my head. The pattern was carefully designed. It didn't use many bobbins (there is a limit to the number of good hairs that I could find!) There was no cloth stitch as the workers would require longer hairs which I just didn't have. I was also worried as to whether the hairs would 'catch' on each other, as human hairs are not smooth. Also I was worried that the hairs would break if too much strain was put on them by tightening them if I used complicated stitches. So I did simple half stitch zigzag and Torchon ground (twisting the threads an extra time between the stitches for extra strength).
As you can see, I messed up the start. There certainly wasn't enough length of thread to wind two bobbins per hair. So I knotted two hairs together to make a pair, and that tends to make a messy start at the best of times, and I suspect that I must have made a mistake or two. It was also tricky to handle the hairs. I am starting to go grey, which means there were brown and white hairs in the sample. I had to stick to the brown hairs and do all work against a white background to even see what I was doing. The hairs were very thin, and they also tended to curl slightly. They were also tricky to keep wound on the bobbins, as the knots tended to slip. The pattern was too big for the thinness of the 'threads' as well, so it looks very spread out.
Still, once I got going, it was surprisingly easy to work. Nothing broke. I managed three zigzags before I ran out of 'thread'. (I suspect that I could have knotted more hairs on if I wanted, but enough is enough!) Not a very beautiful bit of lace, but I've done it, and I could probably do better next time, but I don't intend too! (However, see pattern 200.) The principle works. I hope this whole idea doesn't freak people out too much, but as my husband says, it's no worse than working with threads from a silkworm's bottom.
© Jo Edkins 2017 - return to lace index