GIY: Making Lace

My instructor's lace

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to attend a bobbin lacemaking 101 class sponsored by the Brooklyn Lace Guild. The instructor had a grant to study lacemaking around the world and between finishing graduate school and her own projects, she teaches classes. Really amazing!

Bobbin lace uses bobbins--special sticks that you wind with thread--I think it took me almost an hour to wind 12. I was easily the slowest person in the class. Basically, you use bobbins to braid the thin strands together--the thread (we used size 40 cotton thread) is so thin, the bobbins give the thread some weight and a handhold so you can braid them--that's really it. Pretty simple in concept.

These are the bobbins, plus size 40 thread

Of course, the challenge is keeping track of where you are in this 12-strand braid. The below video from my non-style instagram shows bobbin lacemaking in action and keeping track with pins. By the way, the work is done on a large flat pillow.

Obviously not me! Our amazing instructor ❤️❤️

A post shared by Ashley P. (@axp259) on Dec 6, 2017 at 9:34pm PST

While you are working, you pin the lace into shape using a pre-poked pattern on a sheet of paper. Sorry I removed some pins in the lower right:

the workspace

My first attempt kind of sucks, but I'm going to try to go to more of these. Below is my finished lace sampler. A sampler is kind of a visual "dictionary" of different stitches. From left to right, there's a whole stitch, a (failed) half stitch, and a cloth stitch:

I tried

Here's what it's supposed to look like:

the instructor's

examples of bobbin lace, lol with mine thrown in

If you would like to get started in bobbin lace making, there are a few YouTube videos on it. You can pick up bobbins, books, patterns, and materials at:

Van Sciver Bobbin Lace (based in NY, ships worldwide)
Snowgoose Lace (based in Colorado, ships worldwide)

Lacis (Based in California, ships worldwide)

This post was part of Craft Along with GIY