I have always been interested in the making of lace, whether it is in the form of knitting, crocheting, tatting or Bobbin Lace. I have some pictures of some of the laces that friends have made and I have tried to give a description of some of the more "uncommon" ways of making lace like "tatting" and Bobbin Lacemaking..I hope you enjoy your visit to my lace page!

Romantic legend has it that lace began with a rose and a woman's love. Before riding off to war, a gallant knight would present his lady with a full-blown rose. Day by day, she would watch and pine for him as the rose faded and its petals dropped. Each fallen petal would be stitched to the rose-till all dried and fell away, and the knight's lady was left with a bit of lace in her hand.

As early as the twelfth century, needleworkers learned to draw out a few threads from a bit of cloth, then embroider and decorate the remaining threads to create fanciful patterns. This drawn-work, also known as Hamburg point, Dresden point or Indian work, was especially popular among Victorian women, who found it especially useful for decorating fancy towels and table linens.

In the late nineteenth century, doilies provided a showcase for one's ability with the needle. Prettily appointing nearly every surface in the household, these bits of decorative lace were seen lining the tea tray, scattered down the dining table's expanse, cushioning each item in the china closet. Antimacassars, also know as "tidies", served to protect upholstery, especially from the hair oil called "macassar."

Tatting has been described as threads lovingly shaped around air to create beautiful lace. And that description fits it perfectly!

It is believed that tatting evolved from knotting. Knotting was worked by winding thread onto a shuttle & making a series of knots.

Knotting shuttles were much larger than the tatting shuttles we see today so as to accommodate the larger threads used at that time.

It is difficult to date when smaller threads were first used & smaller shuttles developed. Some feel that it was during the late 1700s or early 1800s. At some point, it was discovered that a series of stitches could be made close together & drawn up into a ring, & that leaving a space between stitches would create a small loop. The loops would be sewn together to make the design. Chains developed in the mid 1800s. Before that, a single thread would be left between rings.

This is a great example of "Tatting" by a good friend of mine in Australia.
Each little loop around the outside is called a "picot" and is created by a "loose" knot.

This picture is of the cover of a Buckspoint Bobbin Lace book I have. It is the most intricate of Bobbin Laces or "Pillow Laces" as it is also called, and so far I have not been able to master Buckspoint Lace. I chose this picture because it is a good example of the lace that can be created by the crossing and recrossing of the threads attached to each bobbin. I have however dabbled in the regular Bobbin Lace and the example below was done by a lady in our Needlecraft Chat room by the name of Rapunzel..She was kind enough to make this medallion and give it to me.

The first known pillow lace patterns of "certain" date are those in a collection called "Le Pompe" published at Venice in two volumes in 1557 and 1560. No one in Italy seems to have published any more patterns until 1591 when a four part series was done by Cesare Vecellio. Thank goodness there are now several books on the subject available for modern Bobbin Lacers.

There are several forms of "Pillow Lace" including Bobbin Lace, Torchon Lace, Buckspoint Lace, Maltese and Cluny Lace and Plaited Lace, Honiton and probably afew more that even I am not aware of!

Bobbin lace is created from a pattern called a "pricking" and these are made with a tool called a "pricker"..usually a sharp pointed object that is used to make holes in the pattern which you use to insert the pin after the crossing of the threads. All threads are attached to objects called "bobbins" and they come in a large array of shapes and sizes. Most bobbins are made of wood or plastic, but some of the antique bobbins are found in bone and ivory. The thread, most commonly "linen" is wrapped around the indented portion of the bobbin and then "hung" on a pin placed in the pattern. From there you simply do the stitches required (crosses and recrosses) and place pins in the "pricked" holes to create the desired pattern of lace. Sounds simple enough eh? Well, it isn't as simple as it sounds, but then if it was the lace wouldn't be so treasured!

Makers of needle lace, using a short needle almost as fine as a hair, produced designs of infinite complexity. The pattern, usually drawn on parchment that topped two layers of linen base, was used to enable the needlewoman to place the outline threads, which were then connected and embroidered upon by numberless variations of the buttonhole stitch. Some designs were traced with more stitches in a raised-cord outline called a "cordonnet". Linking separate motifs were meshes or small stitches called "brides", or "legs" that soon filled in the background area. When the pattern was completely worked, the supporting backing of parchment and cloth was cut away, leaving the delicate webbing to stand on its own.

CHEMICAL LACE

In 1883, German experimenters discovered a new technique for producing convincing machine-made lace. Motifs were embroidered by machine in cotton thread on a background of silk, which was then burned away with caustic acid or chlorine. The cotton embroidery remained unharmed as a delicate tracery. This chemical lace was used primarily to imitate three-dimensional laces such as Venetian gros point.

You are probably wondering why the examples were made by other people and not by me..welllll..I am not in the habit of taking pictures of my work and it will take a couple of weeks for me to get them done and scanned..I just wanted you to see the wonderful work that others have done in my two favorite lace making techniques.

This is a tatted doily that I did. I am trying to get a better scan of it so you can see more of the detail.

This is another tatted doily that I did several years ago.

As soon as I can I will scan some of my crochet lace and put a picture of it up for you to see too!

LINKS
NEEDLEWORK BOOKS--even ones out of print!

This custom background courtesy of my friend QUICK AS A SNAIL

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