Needle Lace

Needle lace is made by couching threads to a pricking, then overcasting or working buttonhole stitches over the couched thread. This technique is older than bobbin lace and examples of needle lace can be seen in many pictures from the 1500s. This is my very, very first attempt at needle lace--a bookmark project taught to me at a Society for Creative Anachronism workshop. (And if I could remember how to spell the teacher's name, I would include it . . . sorry, my lady!)

Experienced (and, I'm sure, even inexperienced) lacemakers can readily see that I have serious need of practice before I can claim anything close to proficiency in this craft. My tensions are terrible, I have lousy control of my thread, and I have inadequately connected some of the elements together. The two middle sections appear to me to have been the most successful in this particular piece.

There are a lot fewer needle lace resources on-line than there are bobbin lace resources. To learn more about needle lace, see these links:

Lace Magazine Home Page (Supplies available)
Arachne's Web Server (Includes a list of suppliers)

For supplies, see also these links:

Snowgoose
Lacis
Van Scriver Bobbin Lace