Pattern:
Bobbins: 19 pairs + 2 gimps
Style: !
Stitches:
cloth stitch
half stitch
half stitch and twist
picot
gimp
twist pair
Details:
Mechlin ground (grey)
twisted hole ground (green)
solid cloth stitch (red)
picots and passives headside (grey and pink)
Description:
My sister-in-law bought this piece of lace in France. I think it is Mechlin, and I wanted to see if I could reproduce some elements of it. This page shows my third attempt.
My second attempt at Mechline lace (pattern 429) sorted out some of the problems. Mechlin grid seems to be streched length-wise rather than sideways and used twisted hole ground. But there was the problem of the hole in the middle of the Mechlin ground stitch. In this lace, I did the complete Mechlin ground stitch (4 half stitches on top of each other, like a little plait), then put the pin underneath, so the stitch balanced on top of the pin, leaving the pin uncovered. It seems to work. It would be better if there was more ground, but these are quite narrow patterns, trying ideas out!
I have also tried another idea for the solid cloth stitch. Torchon lace (which I usually do) has one worker pair through the entire of a piece of solid cloth stitch. You do a row of cloth stitch, then put the pin between the worker pair and the last passive pair, then take the worker pair back again. Any pairs that get discarded or brought in are done at the other end of the row that you are working on. In this lace, I changed the worker pair at every row. I found that this meant that you had to put the pin inside both pairs at the end of the row. The worker pair (which is the last pair) gets left as as a passive, and the last passive pair becomes the new worker pair. This seems to keep more pairs inside the solid cloth stitch area (or clothwork). It does look messy in places, but this may be because I was making mistakes! I wasn't used to this technique, and I was working with a small pattern and very thin thread. (Which I broke, twice!)
Close up of the lace, so you can see the working in more detail
© Jo Edkins 2017 - return to lace index