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Bobbin
lacemaking - an
introduction
Bobbin
lacemaking, as its name says, is done with bobbins on
which the thread
is
wound. The lace is made on a pattern called a lace
pricking which is
pinned to a lace pillow during the work. The threads are
plaited or
woven using just two movements of the
bobbins:
 cross:
a bobbin is lifted over the bobbin on the right
twist: a bobbin
is lifted
over the bobbin on the left.
With combinations of these two
simple movements, all the variety
of bobbin
lace patterns are worked.
There are at least as many kinds and shapes and
sizes
of bobbins as
there are regions in the world where lace has been made.
They all have
one thing in common: they serve as a reel to hold the
thread.
Lace
pillows also come in a great variety of shapes and
sizes. They can
be flat and round or square or rectangular, or
bolster-shaped,
pillow-shaped or almost spherical. Some have clever
mechanisms to make it easier to work lace by the metre.
All of them
serve to hold the pins which keep the lace in form
during the work.
Therefore lace pillows must be very firm.
It
is not difficult to learn to make bobbin lace. Adult
education
classes in lacemaking are offered in very many towns and
cities. First
you learn to wind the thread onto the bobbins and to fix
the lace
pricking to the pillow. At the beginning simple lace
tapes are worked
so that you can learn the various lace stitches. Then it
is time to
move on to simple patterns, corners and curves. By the
end of the first
course you can make real lace and mostly you have become
addicted.
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