Thursday, February 21, 2013

How to crochet a lace scallop trim 3

There's a little lace museum and shop right down the road from my house in Sunnyvale, California.  It's a small place, but it contains an impressively large collection of lace, including tatting, bobbin lace, needle lace, crochet lace and others.  They teach classes there, and they call themselves the Lace Museum & Guild.  If you're ever in Palo-Mountain-Cuperville, you should stop in and take a look.  When I moved to the area, I did just that, and as an avid collector of craft book, I bought a couple how-to-make-lace books while I was there.  One of them was on tatting, but I never quite mastered even the basic tatting knot.
The other book I bought was on Irish Lace Crochet by Therese de Dillmont (1846-1890).  I had a lot more success with her book because I already knew how to crochet from childhood.  Dillmont's designs are great.  Over a century old, however, the language in the book is archaic.  The terms for things have changed since she wrote her book, so I had to really study her photos and rewrite her text before I could make out what she did and duplicate it with my hook and string.

After much fiddling, I made a how-to video on Dillmont's layered flower.  Then, I rearranged her basic scallop technique to make a simple lace scallop trim.  And then I made a different trim using the same technique, which is now my most popular YouTube video.  It's the "lace scallop trim #2" with over a half million views.  See it here:
Now, a year and a half later, I finally made a new one.  This is trim number 3, similar to the first two but with two sizes of scallops instead of just one.  Here is the video.
Below I include selected stills from the video with some further comments.

Hooks and Yarns: use lace weight or fine yarns for a bracelet.  If you use bulkier yarns, you wont have very many repeats around your wrist, and it might be hard to see the pattern.   When using lace weight yarn, use a fine hook and make tight stitches.  If you are making a long skinny scarf, you can use bulkier yarns.  I think this design would make a cute skinny scarf.
Here you can see me wearing the black silk bracelet while holding a beaded Borromean Link.
Here is a closeup of the two pieces, with a drawing of the general method for creating the scallop trim #3.
The purple piece really stretched after the above photo was taken.  It stretched about 50% making an 8 inch strip closer to 12 inches.  While the design still looks nice, it was long enough to be an anklet.  I didn't want an anklet; I wanted a bracelet.  So, to shorten it, I wove the pink yarn through the scallops, tied a loose knot with the ends, and I wove the ends in.  I really like the 3D sculptural effect of the two yarns woven together.

Unfortunately, I found that the way I used the pink yarn removes almost all of the stretch from the bracelet.  A little more stretchiness would be nice, better.  If I were to do it again, I'd probably try knitting an i-cord with the pink fluffy angora yarn before weaving it through the lace scallops.  That would still allow me to make the bracelet shorter while keeping it stretchy and therefore, more comfortable. I might rip it out and redo it later. 

Below are the crochet instructions in text and as a chart, all color coded for your viewing pleasure.
The basic crochet stitches are as follows. 
ch is chain stitch.
sl is slip stitch.
sc is single crochet.
HDC is half double crochet.
DC is double crochet.

Want to crochet this on the train?  Then print the following two images.  Thanks for looking.


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