Pattern:
Bobbins: 16 pairs
Style: Torchon
Stitches:
cloth stitch and twist
Details:
cloth stitch and twist diamond (green)
sparse diamond (blue)
Torchon ground (grey)
single twisted footside (grey)
Description:
Follow the links above for explanation of how to work the different parts of the lace.
I hvae called these strange diamonds. Usually diamonds are worked in cloth stitch or half stitch. Here, the top two and bottom two, diamonds are worked in cloth stitch and twist, which separates the stitches.
The middle two diamonds are really strange! I call these sparse diamonds. Here, I do half the rows of a normal diamond. A row is only worked in the pins on each end are level. At the end of each row, the worker pair is taken down from the end pin to the next pin at the start of the next row, on the same side. See diamonds for a discussion of this. When working this, I found a problem with pins. The top half was OK. In the bottom half, the row towards a pin was OK. But when I brought the worker pair down to start the row back, I had to put in a pin between the worker pair and the first passive before starting the first stitch. If I didn't, then the passive wouldn't hang straight before leaving the diamond.
There is another peculiarity about this piece of lace. If you look carefully, you will see no black dot in the Torchon ground. I have tried working the ground without any pins! It is possible. A bit strange, as the ground becomes just a bunched up mess before doing the diamond or footside. However, once the pairs leave the ground and meet a pin, careful tightening makes all straight again. In the past, lacemakers sometimes did this, as pins take time, and they wanted to work as fast as possible, to make as much lace as possible (to sell as much as possible!)
Here is a larger scale photo, to see the working:
© Jo Edkins 2024 - return to lace index