Page 356 - J. C. Turner "History and Science of Knots"

350 History and Science of Knots

Bobbin lace (II) may be considered as a form of `off-loom weaving'. Bob-
bins are wound with thread and hung from pins whose positions are pre-set
by a marked card (pricking) encoding the design. Essentially, there are only
two movements in this craft: twist-when the thread on the right is lifted over
its left-hand neighbour, and cross-when the thread on the left is lifted over
its right-hand neighbour. All the several hundreds of bobbin lace `stitches' are
built up from these two movements (much as all knitted patterns are based
upon permutations of knit and purl stitches) and many variations of a design
may be made from a single pricking. In some patterns a heavier thread (gimp)
is carried through to give an outline or raise the lace, while in others raised
bobbin stitches perform this function. Yet more interest may be given by
use of picots, coloured threads and changes of scale. Bobbin lace has two ex-
tra sections: footside-the straight edge where the lace is stitched on to its
mounting fabric, and headside-the free edge, often scalloped and trimmed
with picots.
When the design and ground are made together (IIa) the work is some-
times known as `trolley lace' (from `trolle kant'.) Here, a typical thread path
will travel from footside to ground, possibly over a gimp into the design area,
through the motif into the headside, and back again. Thus the whole width
of the lace is worked together, and large numbers of bobbins are required. [A
rule of thumb for Torchon (the simplest of the trolley laces) is: `3 pairs for the
foot + 7 pairs for the head + 2 pairs for each pinhole on the longest diagonal
and about ten pairs over for luck!'] For Valenciennes, a lace much prized in
the C18th, 4 pairs per pinhole would be required for the ground, and a piece of
10 cm width could involve as many as 1200 ends. Moreover, only one person
could work on a piece at any one time, so that progress was slow. The main
expense in setting up this style of lace is the cost of all the pairs of bobbins and
pins, particularly in the days when pins were individually crafted. Sometimes,
where a great width of trolley lace was required, strips were made and the
sections joined.
Where toile and reseau are made separately (IIb), the design motifs may
be worked with fewer bobbins, and at each stage the lacemaker needs only to
concentrate on one part of the finished piece. Among other advantages, this
speeds the unpicking of a mistake; thus progress is much faster and the skill
more accessible to the lacemaker. It is also possible to achieve extra variation
by using different scales or threads for the motifs and ground. The completed
piece had the additional advantage that in case of snagging, only a part needed
to be repaired-where in a trolley lace the continuous thread run could pull a
whole trim out of shape. This is likely to have been an important consideration
in the purchase of a piece of lace.
`Peasant laces', as some forms of braid lace (IIc) are called, are worked
continuously with the design (often symmetric) being formed by a meandering