Bobbin lace techniques end up somewhat between plaiting and weaving. Any number of threads may be used- from a dozen to over a thousand. The threads are wound on short handles, called bobbins. Lace is worked over a pattern called a pricking, which is attached to a firm pillow. As the lace is formed, the threads are held into position by pins stuck through holes in the prickings and into the pillow (Donna's Pillow Page).

• Thread- Cotton and linen
• Bobbins- have a head, and neck on which the thread is wound, and a handle. Some have a little ring of beads, called a spangle. This adds weight and keeps the bobbin from rolling around on the pillow, and help to add tension. these are hung in pairs, winding each end of thread to the bobbins.
• Pillow- traditionally are filled with tightly packed straw with rounded corners and smooth the the top surface.
• Pins
• Prickings- patterns on parchment.
• Prickers- needle held in a handle.

• Torchon- a relatively simple lace- features regular geometric ground and fan shaped scallop
• Braids and Braid lace- woven around ribbon.
• Bedfordshire- featuring plaits, picots and tallies.
• Buckspoint- fine thread working a delicate net with solid areas outlined by a thicker thread.
• Honiston- fine threads- individual motifs joined or mounted on net.
• Bruges- Bold effect with scrolls and or flowers and various fillings.

A form of lacework that consists of one knot, called double stitch, worked in groups over a single thread. This thread is pulled to draw stitches into curved formations called rings and chains.These in turn are joined in larger groupings or motifs, using a tatting shuttle and smooth cotton yarn.

Tamany's Spinner's Lace - Journeyman's Project

Spinner Lace (so called because it resembles spinnerwebs) is quite delicate, very lovely, and surprisingly simple, there being only a handful of stitches to learn. There is a similar (though much simplified) form of this lace often seen in filler squares in the corners of drawn thread work. Spinner Lace, though, is much more intricate and can be worked independently.

The preferred tools for making this lace consist of a long, thin, blunt needle and a large, smooth, slightly domed cushion, hard-stuffed with sawdust, into which pins are stuck to support the lace as it is made. Cloth and an embroidery hoop, or indeed, stiff cards can be used, with contrasting running stitches instead of pins to support the work. It's a good idea to use a contrasting color for the work surface, so you can see the lace. Paper patterns are often used under the web, to guide the lacemaker in her design.

The pins (or running stitches) are arranged close together, evenly spaced in a circle the size of the finished lace medallion. One extra pin is placed outside the circle, to secure the thread. Advanced lacemakers can work in shapes other than circles or squares. I have seen pictures of paisley-type scrolls done in this lace, as well as shields and hearts and other more intricate forms. The asymmetrical shapes often require special placement of pins/stitches along the center line to allow the proper 'spoke' formation.

To begin, thread about four yards on the needle, but don't tie it off. Secure the tail outside the medallion area, run the needle through the cushion to the center of the circle and bring it up, pulling the thread taut behind. Starting at the 'north' pin, bring the thread around the outside of the pin and cross to the 'south' pin, keeping the thread taut. Circle the 'south' pin, bring the thread back up to the pin just 'east' of the first one, and back down again, making your way like that around all the pins. This forms the two-thread spokes on which you weave your pattern.

After forming the last spoke, bring the thread up next to the first spoke, just outside the center. Don't cut or tie off the thread. Instead, start weaving over and under the spokes, securing the center of the medallion with about five rows of weaving.

Make a half-hitch knot on the thread below the end of the last row of weaving, then run the thread up one spoke a bit and secure it with another half-hitch to start the knotting for the first design row. All the spokes and the center weaving should be done with one length of thread, for strength. Joins can be accomplished in the design portion by using very small knots and hiding the ends in the weaving. If a thread breaks, you need to anchor the new length in the center of the lace, and run up the spokes to well before the break, tracing the old thread to the break and using tiny half-hitches every so often to secure the threads before you can start working again.

From here, various knots and other manipulation techniques (wrapping bars, transposing spokes, netting, etc.) are used row by row to form patterns and designs among the spokes, until the edge is reached. At this point, the last row is tied at each spoke tip (leaving a smooth edge or a picot'ed edge, depending on how close it's tied). The pins are removed, the loose ends trimmed, and the lace is ready to use. The 'under' side is usually considered the 'right' side, since it is often cleaner and doesn't show joining knots as much.

Finished medallions may be sewn together, or sewn into another article, to form larger pieces. Accomplished lace makers may want to string the web of spokes from within a cutwork cutout to form the lace. Lace medallions can also be worked together on a large piece of fabric, with running stitches to form the outline of the article, as well as the seperate medallions. Gaps are filled in with more webbing and stitches, like any medallion. In this way, lace overdresses can be made, pattern-piece by pattern-piece.

When the project is finished, the lace is dirty with skin oils, and must be soaked clean with no agitation and pinned again to dry, with no wringing or squeezing. Lace inserts and appliques can be left in place for laundering, as long as due care is taken, but should be dried flat if possible, to prevent warping. Lace cloth, such as that overdress, may be gently sqeezed in washing but never wrung, and must be reshaped and laid out flat on soft, absorbant cloth to dry.

Spinner lace is stronger than it looks, and can be used for entire tablerunners or overdresses. Since it takes so much time, though, it would best be used for decorative inserts, decollatage and appliques. The best material to make this lace from would be silk, but since there isn't any, fine-spun cotton, sisal or linen may be used. It can take up to an hour to string the initial web (depending on the number of spokes), and can take several hours to complete a simple medallion. More complicated webs, or larger medallions, can take up to several days to complete. That overdress could be made in a month, with a dozen 'webbers' working together on it, each doing one pattern piece.

For RP purposes, you would want to keep in mind the fact that long pieces of thread, like those used for spinner lace, call for lots of working room and tend to tangle. The stitches and knots you'd be working with are very small, and they tend to slip on the spokes if pulled _too_ tight, warping the lace. Since the stitches are so small and tight, undoing mistakes is almost impossible. Some goofs can be salvaged by reworking the design, but most cannot. This means that RP lace must be worked slowly and deliberately, taking care not to make mistakes.

To RP setting up the workpiece, you place the pins at the cardinal points and fill in the rest of the circle, then start stringing. Or, if using running stitches, simply take your stitches all around the shape you'd be doing, making a double run so the entire outline is complete. The spokes would be strung under the stitches and around the points where the thread passes through the material or card.

Needle action descs would be the most used bits, as needles catch the light and flash with movement. Bringing a needle under and over, catching neighboring spokes and pulling them together, wrapping spokes into bars, using the blunted needle tip to loosen a knot for repositioning before the final tightening, doing the tiny little stitches that form the designs, all these can be used and varied as desired, as can hunching over your work, and pulling lo-o-o-ong threads through the knots. Fighting with the ten-foot lengths of thread can also be amusing, as can the firelizard's reactions. Standing on a bench letting the needle and thread unwind almost to the floor is a common sight if you want to avoid horrible snarls. The thread can wear thin and snap at the most inopportune moment, so you want to keep an eye on the condition of your thread.

To avoid getting spammy, just remember -- Spinner lace is very simple, and not very spectacular until the thread tangles and breaks or the webber sees a mistake three rows down! It's also very small scale and hard to see from across a room, so detailed poses aren't always necessary. The suggestion of needleweaving, the flash as the needle is used to transpose spokes, pulling and pulling and pulling the thread out at each stitch, these are the most easily seen actions involved in this lace. Just about everything else is too small to be recognized as more than little movements.

If you want to, you can wrap the long thread around your hand as you pull it through to avoid hitting your neighbor in the face again and again as you work, or pull it out in small jerks and let it fall to the floor. Remember, too, that you lose length with each new row, until you're working with a mere two feet of thread near the end. You could just pose that you're constantly pulling thread, interrupted every now and then with taking a stitch or making a knot. That's pretty close to how it looks. Leave it at that until something happens, like starting a new row, wrasseling with a sudden snarl, or beating off the firelizards.