This is a sampler of several different grounds that you might meet in Torchon lace. The grounds in the centre have a basic unit of 3x3. You can adapt the pattern as you choose, by replacing one ground with another, or even doing all the same, to give you a lot of practise!
Pattern:
Bobbins: 18 pairs + 2 gimps
Style: Bucks Point
Stitches:
half stitch
half stitch and twist
twist pair
cloth stitch
picot (dark green)
gimp (purple)
Details:
Bucks point (grey)
cloth diamond (red)
Kat stitch (green)
twisted hole ground (blue)
honeycomb ground (turquise)
hexagonal ground (pink)
lattice ground (dark grey)
half stitch diamond (blue)
picots and passives headside
Description:
Follow the links above for explanation of how to work the different parts of the lace.
Since this is Bucks Point, the grid is hexagonal. The stitches are worked in the same way, but the grid makes the pattern look squashed vertically (and so wider across the width of the lace). For various stitches, such as Bucks Point ground, this can make little hexagons - see above. However, conventional shapes such as diamonds are a different shape to Torchom.
After the cloth diamond, there is some Kat stitch. This uses half stitch, pin, half stitch, like Torchon ground, but the threads go in different directions. Sometimes they go straight down!
Then there is twisted hole ground. This looks different to its effect in Torchon lace, because of the grid, and I don't know if Bucks Point uses it at all. But it does give you practice in the stitch you will need for honeycomb.
Honeycomb has the pattern of Kat ground, and the stitch of twisted hole ground. This is used a lot in Bucks Point, and is an attractive ground.
The next is hexagon ground. The sides of the hexagon are little plaits (half stitches on top of each other). I made a bit of a mess of this until I anchored the plaits with pins at top and bottom. You can see where I started doing this by the little holes!
The next is lattice ground, which is just half stitch at every pin (without the extra twists that Bucks Point has. It looks quite pretty, but is very loose. It is worked in diagonal rows, as a ground, not in rows. There is a "proper" half stitch diamond below, worked in rows, and looking a bit weird because of the grid!
To start, hang all bobbins. Then take the left pair, and work in cloth stitch across all the rest, pin, then work back again. This gives a thin strip of cloth stitch which provides a firm start. You can do the same at the finish as well, before tying off.
I've made a bit of a mess with the gimp at one point as well. A gimp is a single thick thread, often used to outline a part of the lace in Bucks Point. You don't use a pin with gimps - you just pass it between two normal threads of a pair, which anchors it. However, you still need to tighten the gimp (gently!) I've not done this at one point. One shouldn't work lace late at night...
Here is a larger scale photo, to see the working:
© Jo Edkins 2024 - return to lace index