Lace Makers

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Members: 63
Latest Activity: Nov 13

All lace makers welcome

This group is mainly to gather together lace makers, any type, bobbin,needle tatting etc to share our blog links and general lace oriented chat/dissusion/help. For example,I've never tried needle lace so I will be looking to find out more about that technique.
Anyone with an interest in lace is welcome :-)
(photo is lace from the Lace School in Bruges)

Discussion Forum

The Plot Thickens: Tatting masquerading as Point de Neige Needlelace

Started by PattyD Nov 13.

new to lace making and need help setting up! 11 Replies

Started by Amanda Broughton. Last reply by Lorelei Terry Halley Nov 12.

Help Wanted: Tatting Shuttle Tester Needed 2 Replies

Started by Shirl. Last reply by Shirl Nov 10.

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The Plot Thickens: Tatting masquerading as Point de Neige Needlelace

I was looking at some pictures of Point de Neige needle lace and the thought grabbed me that the ground especially could be imitated by tatting. This kind of needle lace has motifs with bars linking them and the bars are amplified and decorated with rings and picots everywhere. There are ornaments on ornaments.

I have always held the idea that while Tatting is knotting, it frequently has the appearance of needle lace and when I pull the core thread with the shuttle I am also aware that it is…

Pillow for needlelace

I have been looking online to buy a pillow for making needlelace but can't find any in the U.S. -- just pillows for bobbin lace. I'm not very handy so would prefer not to have to make one. I know it sounds odd from someone who does needlework, but I hate to sew or make craft items and am not good at it, but I will make one if I have to. I see instructions for making a pillow in Valerie Grimwood's Introduction to Needlepoint Lace, but I don't know what the U.S. equivalent is for the U.K.'s "polys…

Picot Joins

Hi There, Thanks to the people who helped me before, and now I am looking for some more advice.
Is there any tips you can give me to make my joins of one ring to another via a picot neater?
I have found that when I do a Dora Young Knot to the picot below, they look really nice and tidy, but when I do a normal picot join it looks messy.

Any help would be great!
Ruth

Puncetto valsesiano

Greetings,
I am looking for a book on this italian needlelace. I was wondering if any member of this group had ever seen one. There are a few pages in the Anchor needlework book but I am really interested in learning the basic technique and finding some patterns. Thank you for any help you might be able to offer me.

Bro. François Sainte-Marie
France

Shuttle Tatting

Hi There. I am new to this group and to shuttle tatting, but very new to stitching fingers.

I would like to know if there are any shuttle tatters on this group, and if there is, is there any advice/tips you can give me? Also can you tell me about your favourite patterns and any that you can recommend to a beginner. I currently have 2 shuttles, but one of which is a basic one that I find a bit big. The other is a basic clover, with a point, that I love to work with.

Comment Wall (211 comments)

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211 Comments

Comment by Lorelei Terry Halley on November 12, 2009 at 10:50am: Jenny
Your bookmark design is just fine. I'm glad to see that you are beginning design work so early. I was always too timid. But starting to design as soon as you understand how to make a piece hold together is the best way to go. Then as you add technical tricks to the repertory, work those into new pieces. I've going to have to follow my own advice on that issue. I want to design Beds, Binche, and Flanders but have felt I don't know enough. I need to stop delaying.

In regard to my pink and beige piece: I've made several torchon pieces using several colors. I have avoided variegated thread because I didn't want the thread manufacturer to determine how the piece would look. So I wind different colors on different bobbins and just go. At certain points in a torchon design I can control which color dominates. At the top pin of a clothwork motif I can choose which pair is the weaver, and then the weaver's color dominates that motif. When I come to a tally I can choose which of 4 threads will be the weaver, and then that thread determines the color of the tally. If I use half stitch all the pairs split up and then everything goes crazy for the remainder of the piece. That is what i did with my pink and green piece.

So I am working both with control of what happens where, but also with a deliberate choice not to control everything. So the lace structure itself determines what happens in many areas, but I control what happens in others. The interplay between control and choosing not to control satisfies me in a way that is hard to explain.

Comment by Guzzisue on November 12, 2009 at 2:33am: Hi, a quick link for the tatters amongst us, a tatted mask

Comment by Jenny on November 11, 2009 at 7:12am: Hi Lorelei,

My bookmark design would be unusual because it is one that I have deveopled. I took an edge from Nottingham's book, mirrored it, then added some tallies down the center. There are certainly things about it that I would change for a "next time". I look upon that as a design process.

Your finished pieces are as usual gorgeous. I love the way the different threads & colours in the Torchon piece have intertwined & blended to form so much interest.

Comment by Lorelei Terry Halley on November 10, 2009 at 4:07pm: Hi Everybody
I'm on a "finishing all my wip's" kick. So I just posted photos of 2 pieces I've finished in the last few days: the white tape lace and the pink and ecru torchon. Both are really simple pieces, but fun to do. Please go to:

http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=23apcp24qdsnn

Comment by Lorelei Terry Halley on November 10, 2009 at 4:05pm: Jenny
Nice bookmark. The design is kind of unusual. Is this one from the Pam Nottingham book?

Comment by Jenny on November 8, 2009 at 2:53pm: Hi Everyone,
Just thought I would let you all know that I have finished my current Bedfordshire bookmark. It is on my blog if you wish to see.

Lorelei, certainly some interesting pieces on that site you posted. Thanks for sharing.

Comment by Lorelei Terry Halley on November 5, 2009 at 10:57am: Hi
Those of you who are interested in very modern free form bobbin lace might like to look at http://www.caddy33576.talktalk.net/jacquis/jacquisindex.html
She also has traditional Honiton bobbin lace and some interesting needle lace pieces as well.

Comment by Jenny on November 2, 2009 at 10:45am: Lorelei, I am so used to working with grids, it didn't even dawn on me until your comment that I didn't need them with this one. I use the drawing program a lot with my Drawn Thread designs & have used it with all of my Beds pieces so far, so it naturally came into play again. I think I will be still using a grid of sorts with this next piece, just scalloped instead of straight. Yes, I am learning heaps, after all, this is why I entered this challenge.

Comment by Lorelei Terry Halley on November 2, 2009 at 10:29am: Guzzisue
Your new torchon piece is going to be beautiful. What thread did you say you are using?

Comment by Lorelei Terry Halley on November 2, 2009 at 9:50am: Jenny
Your comment about all the work being about learning the computer program is one reason I don't use lace design programs for designing bobbin lace. I can manage to learn any program I really need, but the learning curve is often too steep and frustrating. If you are trying to learn how to design, paper and pencil (with a nice white eraser) are the best tools, I find. That way my focus is on understanding the lace structure. And I don't think you have to be a trained artist to draw the curves and simple shapes of bobbin lace. Also your comment on putting in the pinholes by eye is exactly right. Ulimately that is what any designer does. It is only in torchon that the grid rules, since that is the only truly geometric lace. All the other advanced forms use flower and leaf shapes, or animal shapes and for those eyeballing the pinholes is how it is done.

But I imagine that however frustrating your day has been, you have learned a lot.

I've never been very good at designing braid based laces, but I'm going to change that. I've got some old photocopies of prickings that Doris Southard let me have years ago. They are kind of wobbly and irregular. Trueing them up would be a perfect way to advance my skill in Beds design. So that will be another project I'm adding to my list.