When I was making my big fan, a friend (who is a Buddhist) remarked that one of the panels looked like a Buddhist symbol, called a vajra. I decided to design a piece of lace for her using Buddhist symbols.
Pattern:
Bobbins: 30 pairs (24 pairs background, 6 pairs gold as gimps)
Style: Torchon (with gimps)
Stitches:
half stitch
cloth stitch
cloth stitch and twist
twist single pair
gimp (pink)
Details:
cloth stitch diamond (red)
half stitch diamond (blue)
double Torchon ground (grey)
twisted footside (grey)
Description:
Follow the links above for explanation of how to work the different parts of the lace.
The edge pair is worked across all other pairs at start and end, and the passive pair is as well, to make a frame to the lace.
The gimps are not single thick threads, but pairs, as I didn't have any thick gold threads. Proper gimps would probably work as well, but it would need to be a dominant colour. The 'gimp' pairs are worked in cloth stitch and twist across other pairs (and each other) as required. There are no pins associated with them (apart from hanging them when they start being used). They are started and finished within the lace, of course.
The vajra needs two pairs of gimps, one for each side (although they keep crossing over). It is fairly straight-forward except where the diamonds met. The gimps surrounding the top bit cross over, then one of those pairs become the worker pair for the middle diamond, and the other the middle passive pair for the diamond. Then when the middle diamond has finished, the gimp pairs cross over again, and surround the bottom bit. There is only one pin where the diamonds meet. I found it best to make this pin the top pin of the new diamond, and do all crossing over before it.
The tricky bit is the gimps of the wheel. There are 6 gimp pairs! There are 2 pairs forming the rim of the wheel, one on each side. Another gimp starts at the top and goes straight downwards, through the centre and out again. This has stitches of 'normal' pairs within it, so the 'normal pairs' are worked through one thread of the gimp pair on each side, do their stitch, and then go out the other side. The gimp pair is twisted between each stitch to try to keep it together and not separate. Next - the diagonal spokes: These actually have a 'normal' pair inside the whole way, so only one 'normal' pair enters from one side, does the stitch, and out again. I did twist the gimp pair between the stitches, but since the 'normal' pair inside was in the way, I twisted the normal and gimp threads to get the gimps inside, twisted the gimps, and twisted the normal and gimp threads again to get the gimps outside. A bit fiddly, and I don't know if it was necessary. The final gimp pair makes the horizontal spokes, and worked rather like the vertical spokes except I was working straight across the lace - not very normal for Torchon! Then there was where they all cross, which was, I admit, rather a business. Essentially, for the vertical and horizontal gimps, you take one thread of the pair past all threads in the way to the other side. Then you cross over the diagonal gimps and central 'normal' threads using cloth stitch. Then you take the remaining thread from the vertical and horizontal gimps across to meet its pair. Then twist everything hopefully to keep it all together. And don't get muddled up as to which thread belongs to whichpair! Essentially, you need each gimp pair (and normal pair) to cross over to the other side in as straight a line as possible.
Vajra is a Sanskrit word meaning both thunderbolt and diamond. It represents firmness of spirit and spiritual power.
I altered the pattern from the panel on my fan to make the middle look smaller, and to put little bobbles on the end, to make it look more like the symbol. The pattern in the end bits is now half stitch rather than honeycomb, as well. I've only just realisied that the Vajra is made of (lace) diamonds, which is satifying, somehow.
The symbol in the middle is the dharmachakra, or eight spoked wheel. It is connected to the Noble Eightfold Path.
The lace should be turned round, like the pattern, but I've put all other lace on my website that way, so have decided to keep it the same here. The vajra is repeated just because I thought it looked better. There is no symbolic meaning to this. I am not a Buddhist, and I hope that this piece of lace does not offend any Buddhists. I don't think it will. They seem like nice people...
© Jo Edkins 2017 - return to lace index