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Bobbin lace square mats

Click here for circular mat patterns.

The basic lace shape is a strip of lace, where all the pairs on threads start at the top, and get worked in such a way that they all end at the bottom. If you cut through this strip at any point from one edge to another (what a horrible thought!) you would cut through all the threads.

Bobbin lace strip

However, a common lace shape is a mat:

Bobbin lace mat

How do we work this?

You will see that there is a dark grey line cutting diagonally through the pattern from one corner to another. This is not part of the pattern. You do not work it. It is there to show you exactly where the different sections start and finish. It is similar to the dark grey line for lace with corners. Click here to see how to work corners. It is important that you understand that before starting on a mat.

Look at the mat pattern, and concentrate on the dark grey lines. Imagine each quarter as a completely separate piece of lace. Below shows the pattern divided up. You do not do this to the pattern! But you must be able to identify each quarter of the pattern in your own mind.

Bobbin lace mat

Take just one quarter on the pattern (in your own mind!). It is a triangle. Imagine it as a strip of lace. The left-hand side is OK - it's a headside. The right side looks odd. It is certainly not a footside! It is just a single stitch. However, ignore that for the moment. Identify the starting pins. These will false pins, and they will be the row of pins above the dark grey line (see starting and finishing mats page). Hang the bobbins and start working the lace.

Bobbin lace mat

Start working the top headside, and gradually work downwards in the normal manner. You will find that you only do a single stitch on the right. This does not matter - carry on working, doing more on the left than the right, until you have done the last headside before the bottom dark grey line.

Now turn the pillow, exactly the same as you do for a corner, and carry on working. All the same points apply. Remove the false pins and pull through the threads. Do not remove the real starting pins, or the second row of pins, but push them in up to their heads so they do not get in the way as you turn the pillow. For mats in particular, I suggest that you remove the pins from the headside rather than from the middle of the mat (which is the right side as you work it). While the few stitches on the right side of the working may have been done some time ago, so tempting you to remove the pins, they are actually very close to the current line of working, so leave them in. Push the pins in up to their heads if they are getting in the way.

Eventually, you get back to where you are started, and you finish in the normal way. Mats tend to be even messier than edges, as everything is bunched together near the centre.

This page describes working a complete mat (without a hole in the centre). The edge page describes working the edge of a mat, or a mat with a hole in the centre. It is possible to work a complete mat in two (or more) stages. You work the centre of the mat in the normal way. Then you work a mat edge which exactly fits round the outside of this centre. You can sew the two together after both are finished, or you can attach the second to the first using sewings, with a crochet hook, while working the second piece. Pattern 233 shows this technique. It is common in antique lace mats. The reason for doing it this way is that each part can use a reasonable number of bobbins, but when you've joined the two pieces, you have made a much bigger mat than would be possible if you'd tried to do it with that number of bobbins, all at once.

So far, this page has been talking about Torchon lace, which is worked on a grid with lines of holes at 45° to the vertical, so lines cross at right angles. This means if you turn the pillow four times, once for each corner, you get back to where you started. It is possible to have a hexagonal or pentagonal mat.