This pattern was designed for a friend going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. The symbol of St James is the scallop. Pattern 179 is a single scallop headside, which she used as a badge.
Pattern:
Bobbins: 14 pairs (5 pairs pale brown, 9 pairs white)
Style: Torchon
Stitches:
half stitch
cloth stitch
cloth stitch and twist
Details:
scallop headside (yellow and grey)
rose ground (green)
cloth triangle (red)
twisted footside (grey)
joining shapes horizontally
Description:
Follow the links above for explanation of how to work the different parts of the lace. Click here for an explanation of how to do a triangle and footside together.
You need to join the scallop to the triangle by doing half of each, doing the stitch that joins then, then finishing off each in turn. Click here for a further explanation.
The start uses false pins as it is a diagonal start. To give a strong start, I did a couple of rows of cloth stitch through all pairs before starting, then took out the false pins and pulled the threads through. Then the pattern was started as marked. If you do not do these couple of rows of cloth stitch, then the point of the scallop and bits of the rose ground would be a bit wobbly. I suggest that you also finish with a couple of rows of cloth stitch, for the same reason.
The colour has been chosen carefully. The workers of the triangle are pale brown (the starting point is given in pink). So are the edge pair and the workers of the scallop. The edge pair for the first scallop will be used for the first two rows of cloth stitch for a neat start (see last paragraph). That is why you do two rows of cloth stitch, so they end up back in the correct place! The edge pair and workers swap over at each scallop. All the other passives of the scallop are white, which is why they are marked differently in the pattern (as grey). Finally, the footside has two pale brown pairs, the passive, and the edge pair. At every footside stitch, the edge pair and the triangle worker pair swap over, but they are both pale brown so this does not matter. I know this is a lot of fussing over colour, but I think it high-lights the different shapes well. You can, of course, do the whole thing in the same colour if you wish.
The imagery is scallops, representing St James, triangles for the local mountains, and the rose ground forms crosses, and perhaps brings to mind the Virgin Mary ("Rose of the world"). The song "Green Grow the Rushes O" crossed my mind while working this. There are twelve scallops ("Tweleve for the tweleve apostles"), eleven crosses ("Eleven for the eleven who went to heaven") ande ten mountains ("Ten for the ten commandments" - these were brought down from a mountain). "Green Grow the Rushes O" is an excellent song for walking!
© Jo Edkins 2016 - return to lace index