Learning to Make Lace

In addition to the rughooking groups that I attend, I am also a member of the South Cumberland Fiber Guild. The meetings take place on the 3rd Saturday of the month at the Shippensburg Library annex. This is a diverse group of people interested in all aspects of the fiber arts, including spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting, dying, basketmaking, rughooking, raising sheep and other fiber animals, and growing fiber producing plants.

You can get more information on the website www.southcumberlandfiberguild.com. Along with a schedule of events and activities in which we participate. Some months we have a demo or learn a new skill. Others we simply bring our own projects to work on. We are a very relaxed, laid-back group. Literally!!! This is Linda, relaxing at the tapestry loom. I think she had a difficult week at work!


Pam K. is knitting a lovely throw. She spins, knits and raises llamas and alpacas.


This month we are learning the basics of bobbin lace, under the direction of Candy K. I won't go into the history of bobbin lace, there's loads of good information on the web, along with companies who supply books and materials.

The simplest explanation of bobbin lace is, lace made by twisting and crossing of threads that are wound on thin wooden pins. The threads are woven back and forth to make patterns. For our beginning piece we only used 14 bobbins, but in more intricate pieces, up to 100 bobbins may be needed.

Candy is trying to get us off to a good start by explaining how to set up the bobbins to Stephanie and Nancy.

Shirley and Pam have made some progress. I think they understand the basic technique.

Yes! Vicki and Stephanie are doing well, too!

A few samples of the basic lace that Candy has made. Her lace pillow (the purple thing) is a purchased one that she found on the internet.

This is my lace pillow which I made myself many years ago. I became interested in bobbin lace after seeing it done at an antique show in Harrisburg way back in the 70's. At that time (no internet!!!) information on lacemaking was difficult to find. Luckily we live near The Mannings in East Berlin, PA and they had a few small beginning booklets and some bobbins. But like many other things I have tried, after accumulating all the equipment, I went on to something else!

Nowdays there are many good lacemaking instruction books. The covers show some of the lovely lace that can be made when you become proficient.

These are my two small samples that I made a few years ago when I decided to get out the lace pillow and try again. Needless to say, that's as far as it went!

Nor have I worked on my rughooking for several weeks now! Shame on me!!! I don't know what I'm doing with my time! And now here it is, only a few days till Thanksgiving and the house needs cleaned up. Yuck!!!

Have a great Turkey Day!

Keep on Hookin'!