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This page is a companion to our beginner classes, written for people who would like to know what
they are getting into. It won't teach you to make lace by itself. Nothing on paper will. Lace is
learned with your hands, sitting next to someone who can see what your hands are doing. But it may
help the words make sense when you hear them. N.S.
What Bobbin Lace Is
Bobbin lace, also called pillow lace, is made by crossing and twisting threads that are wound
onto bobbins. The threads hang down over a firm pillow in pairs. On the pillow is pinned the
pricking, the pattern, which is a strip of card with holes pricked in it wherever a pin will
go. As you work, you set pins in the holes to hold the stitches in place, and the lace grows down
the pricking pin by pin. When it is finished and the pins come out, the lace holds its shape on its
own.
It is not knitting or crochet, which make loops in one long thread. Bobbin lace is closer to
weaving and braiding. Every thread runs its own path through the work, and a good piece of lace can
be followed thread by thread under a lens. (In November I will show you how. Bring your grandmother's
handkerchiefs.)
The Tools
| The pillow | Beginners use a cookie pillow, round and fairly flat, a little bigger than a dinner plate and firm enough to hold a pin upright. Lacemakers keep a dark, plain cloth over theirs, blue or green, so the white thread is easy to see and the eyes don't tire. |
| Bobbins | Small spools with a long handle, usually wooden, sometimes bone. The thicker Continental bobbins have plain ends. The slender English bobbins used for Bucks Point carry a ring of beads, a spangle, for weight. For Torchon, either kind will do. You will need twelve pairs to start. |
| Pins | Brass lace pins, which don't rust. Finer laces need finer pins. A full pillow can have hundreds in it, so buy a box. |
| The pricking | The pattern, on stiff card. The holes show where the pins go, and the lines and dots drawn between them tell you which stitches to make. Your first ones will come from the class. |
| Thread | Linen is the traditional thread. Beginners do better with a smooth cotton in a pale solid color, a little heavier than sewing thread, so you can see each stitch clearly. |
| Also | Small sharp scissors, a pin lifter or a pair of tweezers, and two or three cover cloths to keep the finished work clean. |
Winding the Bobbins in Pairs
Bobbins are always used in pairs, two bobbins joined by one length of thread. To wind a
pair, wind thread onto the neck of the first bobbin, measure off what you'll need, cut it, and wind
the other end onto a second bobbin, so that the two are joined in the middle. Then put a
hitch, a simple half hitch, around the neck of each one. The hitch keeps the thread from
unwinding on its own as the bobbin hangs. To let out more thread, you lift the bobbin and turn it
the right way, and the hitch slips just enough. You'll learn the motion in five minutes and then
wonder how you ever didn't know it.
Wind every bobbin in the same direction. It matters. I learned this the hard way in 1985.
The Two Moves
Here is the remarkable thing. Every stitch in every kind of bobbin lace, from the plainest Torchon
edging to the finest Honiton, is made of only two movements, done in different orders. You always
work with two pairs at once, four bobbins, which you number 1, 2, 3 and 4 from left to right. After
every movement, they are numbered again by their new places.
| Move | What you do |
| Cross | Bobbin 2 passes over bobbin 3. The two middle bobbins, left over right. |
| Twist | Bobbin 2 passes over bobbin 1, and bobbin 4 over bobbin 3, at the same time. Right over left, within each pair. |
And from those two:
| Cloth stitch | Cross, twist, cross. Also called whole stitch. One pair, the workers, travels across the row, weaving over and under the pairs that hang down, the passives. The result looks like a little strip of woven cloth. |
| Half stitch | Cross, twist. Lighter and more open than cloth stitch, and a little harder to keep straight, because a single thread travels across the row rather than a pair. |
| Torchon ground | Half stitch, pin, half stitch. Make a half stitch, set a pin between the two pairs, and make another half stitch to close the pin in. Repeated across a pricking, this makes the open net of Torchon lace. |
Say them out loud as you work. "Cross, twist, cross." Every lacemaker I know still does, under her
breath, and Peter does it out loud.
Your First Piece
In class we go in this order, and I recommend it to anyone teaching herself:
| 1. | A straight strip of cloth stitch with eight pairs, until the workers go back and forth without your having to think about it. An inch or two is plenty. It will look uneven. That's expected. |
| 2. | The same strip in half stitch. Notice how differently it behaves. |
| 3. | A strip of Torchon ground with a straight edge, the footside, on each side. |
| 4. | A Torchon bookmark with a fan edge, about twelve pairs. This is the first piece most of us kept. Mine is in my mother's Bible, and it is not very good, and I wouldn't trade it. |
A few things I wish I'd been told
- Set each pin leaning a little backward, away from you and toward the finished lace, so the threads you ease down toward you can't slide up it.
- After each pin, ease the pairs gently down to snug the stitch. Gently. Thread breaks, and so do tempers.
- Keep your bobbins lying in order, side by side. Most mistakes come from picking up the wrong one.
- If you make a mistake, take it out one movement at a time, in the reverse order, and count as you go.
- Stop while you are still enjoying it. Tired hands make crooked lace.
- Lace is unforgiving of hurry and very generous to patience. In that it is like chemistry, and most other things worth doing.
Words You'll Hear
| Pair | Two bobbins on one thread. Lacemakers usually count in pairs, not bobbins. |
| Workers | The pair that travels across the work. |
| Passives | The pairs that hang down and are worked through. |
| Footside | The straight edge of a lace, usually the edge that's sewn to the cloth. |
| Ground | The net that fills the spaces between the pattern. |
| Fan | A scalloped shape along the outer edge of Torchon, usually in cloth stitch. |
| Spider | A Torchon figure where several pairs cross through one another around a single pin. It looks just like its name. |
| Picot | A tiny loop of twisted thread on an edge, made around a pin. |
| Gimp | A thicker thread that outlines the shapes in Bucks Point. |
| Sewing | A join made by drawing a loop of thread through an earlier pinhole with a fine hook. Honiton is held together with them. |
| Spangle | The ring of beads on an English bobbin. |
| Hitch | The half hitch that keeps a bobbin from unwinding. |
| Cover cloth | A cloth laid over the finished lace and the bobbins when you stop, to keep off dust, light and cats. |
Questions are welcome at [email protected]
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