Pattern Making

Part of the reason that I was so attracted to bobbin lace is that there are ways to work it into shapes, in a way that tatting isn't nearly as forgiving with.  Tatting is a single line that you have to work with, but the line has rules, it needs to touch itself every so often, it can be misshapen and just in general it is not as flexible in shape as other forms of fiber work.

Bobbin lace can be whatever two dimensional shape it wants!  You just have to make a pattern in the shape that you want.  I'm not going to pretend to know what I'm doing though so... This project may end up like crap!

Bobbin Lace

I found this thing on the internet called bobbin lace and looked it up, and found it just fascinating!  It's a way of creating lace, which is why I learned to tat, and is a pretty antiquated technique these days.  So much so that I had trouble finding much instruction on the internet.

I got a book called 'Beginners Guide to Bobbin Lace' to get me started, and a set of 24 bobbins.  The bobbins were about $15 for the pack off of amazon and I thought 'Oh that'll be more than I ever need!'.  The funny thing about bobbin lace is the sheer number of bobbins needed.  It looks fun and interesting in pictures, but when you have it in front of you all you can think is what a terrible mistake you've made with your life.

I made the pillow out of some leftover packaging foam, a bucket lid, and some fabric.  But any kind of solid foam pillow will work.  It doesn't even have to be round.


The first few patterns in the book I found to be quite easy, and simple to understand.  A few patterns in I got very confused though, and had to seek help through youtube.  I still don't consider myself very good, but if you're interested in trying it I do have some comforting news!  First, there are only two movements: cross or twist.  Every single stitch is a different variant of crossing and twisting.  The second bit of good news is that you only work with two pairs at a time, usually moving one pair across the line.

 Keep in mind that in my photos the bobbins are NOT in any kind of order.  If I were still working on the piece they would all be spread out flat and kept in order.  As they are I tied off the ends and just let the bobbins hang while I took photos.