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A bobbin lace cross is an attractive shape. There are two ways to work it, starting from the middle or starting from the ends. This page describes starting from the ends. Click here to find out how to start a cross from the middle. You should find it possible to work a cross pattern using either technique, although there may be differences at the centre or the ends. In my cross patterns I say which technique I used for any particular pattern.
Starting a cross from the ends meaning that each pair of bobbins starts from one end of an arm and ends up at the other. However, each arm of the cross must be worked in turn, and you get different combination of pairs in each arm, so you need to know what you're doing!
Start the lace at the top, and work down to the dark grey line, inwards to the centre. At that point, half the bobbins will want to turn the corner to do the left arm, and half turn to do the right arm. But they cannot do that yet, as there are not enough to work each arm!
So you turn the pillow completely round, and push the existing bobbins out of the way as you are ignoring them for the time being. Wind on a completely new set of bobbins, and work the arm opposite to the first arm, up to the dark grey line, inwards towards the centre.
Now you have all the bobbins in the middle, and they are in place to work the last two arms outwards. Choose one arm, turn the pillow to work it, sort out which bobbins you need for this, and tidy the rest out of the way. Work this arm outwards to the end, tie off the pairs and cut the threads. Turn the pillow completely round, sort out the remaining bobbins, and work the last arm outwards to the end, and tie it off.
The advantage of this method is that you need to wind bobbins less often. Each bobbin is in use for two arms, while the working from the centre method has to wind bobbins for each arm. A disadvantage is that you use twice as many bobbins as you would, strictly speaking, require. If you run out of bobbins, or find that you have too many bobbins on your pillow, then you can always take the bobbins off the threads not in use at the moment, and rewind them again when you do need them, but that rather spoils the point of not having to wind bobbins so much!
Another disadvantage is that two arms work from end to centre and two from centre to end, so the ends of the cross need a little thought. You cannot have a fringe, for example, as it would mean starting with a fringe.
© Jo Edkins 2017 - return to lace index