OpenTube

I tried lace making at 3 difficulty levels

Morning Mercury

77,886 views

lace cadet

Resources!

Irish crochet lace:

The Guild of Irish Lacemakers tutorial videos:
Irish Crochet Lace - Chain Stitch

Masterpieces of Irish Crochet Lace (abridged), Thérèse de Dillmont (a few of the motifs from the book with the pattern I followed. I found the full ebook at my local library, be sure to check at yours if you want the full thing!):
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sour...

Favorite Irish crochet designs, Rita Weiss (a full pattern book, free on the Internet Archive):
https://archive.org/details/favoritei...

Tatting:

Tatting for the Complete Beginner playlist, Bryce:
Tatting for the Complete Beginner, part 1...

Tatting in Lace, Mary Konior (link to buy the physical book, but I got this one through the library as well):
https://www.abebooks.com/978085219722...

Bobbin lace:

Bobbin lace tutorials, Bryce Adams:
Making a cookie style Bobbin Lace pillow

Katherina Weyssin sampler (From the Wayback Machine, some captures wouldn’t load the photos for me , but the capture from Feb 13, 2020 worked):
https://web.archive.org/web/202002132...

The Bobbin Lace Manual, Geraldine Stott (found after I finished filming, very thorough beginners guide):
https://archive.org/details/bobbinlac...

100 traditional bobbin lace patterns, Geraldine Stott and Bridget Cook:
https://archive.org/details/100tradit...

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Music is licensed from the Youtube Audio Library and Epidemic Sound

Photo Credits

CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

By Ra'ike (see also: de:Benutzer:Ra'ike) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

By Wikkrockiana. Original by Tosk Albanian - Wiki Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

By Malta - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

20 Comments

@Twentynyne 1 month ago

Yarnwork: learning you can't count

@xingcat 1 month ago (edited)

My grandmother moved from Ireland at age 16 (in 1916) and she made Irish crochet lace veils for all her daughters, who all got married in a Catholic church in the 40s and 50s, until my mother's wedding in 1960, when everyone thought that was super old-fashioned and wanted a store-bought veil. She said she always regretted not having a piece of that lace from her wedding like her sisters did.

I love that you have shuttles from your great uncle! It's fantastic to have pieces of craft or tools of craft from our ancestors.

@snoopyandwoodstockforever 1 month ago (edited)

Lace has such an insane history. Honiton lace (a style of bobbin lace work) from Devon in England, for example, takes 9-10 hours per square inch for the simplest stitches! And it was so integral to the local economy that schools were limited to half days so that children could learn to lace/bring money into the family by making lace in the afternoons right up until 1960, which is crazy!

@beheroot 1 month ago

and then you stumble upon reel/short of some old polish lady making kashubian lace with 30 bobbins, where she does it at such speed you cant see movement... it is equally mesmerasing and intimidating.

@Atomic0range 1 month ago

Try Venetian needle lace! It’s great because you can make whatever shape you like, it’s not really pattern-based. It’s kind of similar to embroidery, except instead of stitching through a piece of fabric you lay out some ground threads on top of your fabric, tack them down to maintain their shape, and then tie little knots around those threads.

@lefish5277 1 month ago

How did you know I just started looking at bobbin lace as a new potential hobby to drive me insane!?!? Something in the air! 😂😂😂

@fennickh 1 month ago

i love when crafting supplies gets passed down as heirlooms <3 its such a beautiful connection to be able to use the same tools as artisans that came before you

@bl1776 1 month ago

" I don't think I can figure this out from a book" litterally the story of my life with yarn craft. I would know nothing without youtube.

@iratibibo2426 1 month ago

The last bobbin lace is gorgeous. Looks intricate and expensive

@JulGetCrazy 1 month ago

It's super comforting and validating for me to see and hear you not making a perfect thing on the first try and not getting the right amount of elements, but winging it and still be proud of the result (cause it's super cute and unique that way!) - when I made my first Irish crochet project, following a video series, I messed up a lot here and there and didn't wanna redo the countless hours when I realized at a later step, so I found a way to "save" the piece and learned a lot from that process. I was fine with it but thought "oh well my adhd brain just can't get something right even when cautiously following the steps. Every other person can surely do this." Thank you so much for showing your honest work and thought process, great content!!! <3

@L0op 1 month ago

6:00 half double crochet is almost as wild as the German word "Doppelhaushälfte", half of double house, so, a house. with, another house attached to it.

@grant0617 1 month ago

Can't wait for the lace tapestry

@duckyquack8114 1 month ago

I started making bobbin lace in 2024 with clothes pins and switched to actual bobbins once I realised I very much enjoyed making bobbin lace and bobbins are genuinely so much better once you learn how to hook the thread round the bobbin correctly (with the clothes pins you can just feed it through the pin but it’s very annoying, with bobbins you do a hoop knot thing but it has to be done the correct direction or else the bobbin completely unwinds), bobbins make the movements so much quicker too! A few youtubers whose lace tutorials I find inspiring as well are red cardinal crafts, and galicia bee! (Long ramble, lace is my special interest)

@Alonelysea 1 month ago

You can pretty easily make bobbins with wooden dowels

@nobleelf 1 month ago (edited)

I'll take charts for crocheted lace anyday over written out 'instructions'.My Great Gran taught me crochet, but gave up teaching me shuttle tatting. I learned needle tatting with a tatting needle- about 6" long, very flexible, with a small shepherd's hook at one end. Still can't remember to make the half hitches in the same direction, so Great Gran still shaking her head.

@profanemackerel 1 month ago

I've arrived! I heard lace calling my name from an internet away! ❤

@linr8260 1 month ago

I'd definitely recommend getting actual bobbins. Being able to hold them properly between your fingets makes a world of difference. Personally, I think the ones that get a little rounded and thicker near the base are especially ergonomic, but your mileage might vary! You sometimes find lone bobbins at flea markets and the like (people buy single ones for the Aesthetic I guess) so that could be a way to get a feel for some different ones before you commit, if you don't want to spend a lot of money (understandable)

There's a Japanese channel that I really like for bobbin lace called J'aime La Dentelle. Some of her earlier tutorials and project follow alongs are really good and are what allowed bobbin lace to Click for me. In case you ever want to try it out!

@amandadnama 1 month ago

I picked up Tatting years ago and I still have to stop every now and then and think, “wait which way am I going” it’s like trying to remember if you’re on a knit or a purl. In middle school I conjured up “ hey come here” and “what did you just say” to remember which way to move my right hand at what time 😂 I have my great grandmother’s tatting shuttles, so an heirloom got me into the craft too. ❤️ if you want to stick with tatting and do more, there are ones with removable bobbins so you can wind thread with a sewing machine! That was game changing for me, but I still find the click click of winding a shuttle very meditative.

@murl6943 1 month ago

that high school musical bit made me giggle. this is really impressive! well done! im always so inspired by the way you just try things :)

@AubrianneAnderson 1 month ago

In terms of the sensory experience of bobbin lace, having actual bobbins and a pillow is really nice. The bobbins click in a really satisfying way. I learned on a small cylindrical pillow when I was an exchange student in central Europe, and it gives your hands room to work.

That said, I make a lot of crochet lace, whenever the doily demons possess me. Can I recommend hairpin lace? It's easy and interesting.