Pattern:
Bobbins: 17 pairs
Style: Torchon
Stitches:
half stitch
cloth stitch
cloth stitch and twist
twist single pair (grey)
Details:
zigzag half stitch headside (red)
half stitch zigzag (red)
Torchon ground (grey)
twisted footside (grey)
Description:
Follow the links above for explanation of how to work the different parts of the lace.
The bobbin count needs care. Normally with Torchon, I would draw a line across the lace at the narrowest part, and count the dots on the Torchon grid there, allowing two pairs per dot (see Number of bobbins needed by a pattern). However, this doesn't work for this type of headside - there wouldn't be enough pairs to fill out the point. If I draw a line across the broadest part, I would get a total count of 18 pairs. But this lace was copied from an existing old piece of lace, and they used 17 pairs. So I tried to do the same, and it seemed OK. Using 18 pairs would put more pairs in the headside, so the points might be filled out better, but then the narrowest part of the lace would be even more squashed together. So perhaps the original lacemaker made a compromise.
This was copied from a piece of lace on a lace pillow in the Museum of Cambridge. It took me some time to work it out, as someone had tied each pair of threads to a single bobbin. Presumably this was to stop the bobbins being messed around and so confusing the pattern. It just confused me instead. ("Only 17 bobbins for lace like that? How?")
© Jo Edkins 2016 - return to lace index