See pattern 432.
A scallop is a common Torchon headside made of cloth stitch and twist. It has a top half and a bottom half, separated by a "stem" in the middle, where the worker pair workes across all the passive pairs. This scallop is a cloth scallop with special effects at the edge.
Click here for an animation of how to make a scallop. I suggest that you do some conventional scallops before trying this variant.
Pattern for this type of scallop:
Diagram showing where the worker pair goes.
The normal stitch for this type of scallop is cloth stitch, but the edge passives are worked as cloth stitch and twist, similar to fan headside with decorative edge (2)
This is not the only effect at the edge. Normally a scallop is worked in two halves, with a stem in the middle. The top half starts with every passive pair but one (which is only part of the stem), then gradually reduces the number of passives in the row until - for a normal scallop - you only have two pairs, in the row near the middle. For this scallop, there are less rows, so the shortest row has three passive pairs in. then, as usual, the workers do two long rows with every passive pair (to make the stem). Then, for the bottom half, the first, short, row has three passive pairs, then the passive pairs get reintroduced until every pair is in the row except one (the bottom of the stem).
This sounds complicated to describe, but eaasy to do! It produces an effect of a solid band of cloth stitch along the edge, which holds the two halves of the scallop together. A normal cloth scallop can break into two halves rather easily.
Here is an old piece of lace with a similar type of scallop, except there are more passive pairs in the cloth stitch band at the edge, and the stem is worked as cloth stitch and twist between the two halves.
© Jo Edkins 2019 - return to lace index