Pattern:
Bobbins: 24 pairs
Style: Torchon
Stitches:
half stitch
cloth stitch
cloth stitch and twist
twist single pair (grey)
Details:
scallop headside (yellow)
cloth stitch zigzag (red)
half stitch zigzag (blue)
rose ground (green)
triangular ground (green)
Description:
Follow the links above for explanation of how to work the different parts of the lace.
The challenging part of this pattern is the start and finish. The top of the lace is a headside, as well as the sides. You work this by turning the pillow one way, putting the starting pins along one purrple line, and hanging the bobbins from them. There are twice as many pairs as usual, because half will go straight onto working the lace conventionally (but not yet!) The other half work the top headside. Then turn the pillow the other way, hang the rest of the bobbins on pins on the other purple line, and work the other top headside with half of them. Turn the pillow back the right way round, and all the bobbins should be in the right place (once you have rescued them from wherever they have got to!) to carry working down the lace. See starting lace for more details.
The finish will also require turning the pillow to work the bottom headsides. You will find that you need to tie off the threads within the lace, instead of the bottom. This happens where there are * on the pattern. There are pins everywhere, and threads catching on them. Look at the photo above to see what a mess I made of it! It is best to remove pins (if you can do this without affecting the pattern of the lace by tugged threads) or push them up to their heads to avoid them getting in the way. Click here to see more on this. I hope you make a better job of it than I did!
There are some grey lines joining different parts of the pattern, such as the zigzag and the scallop. The pairs need to be twisted between the pins. Sometimes this happens naturally as they leave the previous shape. But if not, give them an extra twist.
This is supposed to be two snakes twisted round each other.
© Jo Edkins 2016 - return to lace index