Discovering Teneriffe Lace Crochet

    CAUTION! Huge rabbit hole ahead!

 

    What do you think of when I say 'Flower Loom'? Do you see a brightly coloured children's toy and squeaky acrylic yarn? Well that is not this! This is a complex story which will take us around the globe and as far back in time as the ancient Greeks and Romans. This is the history of fashion and the development of lace, with a bit of sociology thrown in. While we're at it we may make the odd button and flower as well! Are you ready?!

    A few posts ago I asked for a definition of lace. Tansy left her definition in the comments;  "lace is a fabric with holes in it. (Deliberate holes, of course.) Nothing more, nothing less!" That works for me, so perhaps I should have asked, "why is lace?" Let's face it, lace serves no purpose except ornamentation. To answer this question I found myself back in the 7th century BCE in Greece when what came to be known as Sumptuary laws were first enacted. These laws have been many and varied, as you might imagine. Their importance for us is that they restricted what we could wear based on our social status, even down to what colour and weave of fabric or fur we could use.

 

    Here is a famous image of Elizabeth I. It is packed full of imagery; from the Spanish Armada being wrecked on the top right, to her hand resting on a globe over which, we are to understand, she has dominion. In an age when few people could read, what they saw had to speak volumes. So of course I was wrong when I said, lace serves no purpose. Ornamentation tells us that this person is very rich and very powerful. Her whole dress is made of rich fabrics and smothered in fine time-consuming lace and embroidery, gold and gems.

    Now I know why lace exists but not how it came to be created in the first place. How did it come about that someone sat down one day to make a time consuming fragile textile? There are so many types of lace and no doubt the origin of each one is different. The history of Teneriffe lace gives us an insight to how it might have happened.

    Our story begins with drawn thread work. This is where some of the threads in a linen fabric are cut and drawn out of the fabric. The remaining threads can then be gathered together to create patterns using a needle. With time the designs got increasingly complex. (My apologies for the image above. It is my own experiment from a sometime ago. It was never intended to be seen by anyone and perhaps explains why I now crochet rather than embroider!)

    Eventually we have found ourselves creating Cut Work, where threads are joined to the cut fabric and overlaid with button hole stitch. By Tansy's definition we have created lace! You can see that from here it was no trouble at all to stop using fabric and just begin with a network of threads.

    Teneriffe lace is a fine example of how this process works. Beginning in Spain in the 16th century with drawn thread work, becoming 'Sol'-sun and 'Rueda'-wheel cut work. It in turn was carried to South America where it retained the name Sol in Bolivia, Brazil and Peru and became Ñanduti in Paraguay. Eventually the fabric was dispensed with and the lace was worked on pins set in a ring. There is a DMC Therese de Dillmont book dating from 1920. (As she died in 1890 it was clearly not written by her.) It states that the lace is made on cushions, or metal or rubber discs.

    Our story is not yet finished! In Dorset buttons were made around brass rings, just like Teneriffe lace in miniature, they date from the 17th century. This skill was taken to Yorkshire where the buttons were stuffed rather than left flat. Not to be outdone, there is also a Lincolnshire button. Before anytime has passed we have found ourselves in the land of Passementerie buttons as well. Let us hurriedly back track before we find ourselves lost for all time!

    From perhaps the 1920s Teneriffe lace seems to have crossed over into our world of knit and crochet, becoming 'daisy wheel'. It finally sees a resurgence as 'flower loom' in the 1970s, with those acrylic yarn flowers that I seem to remember making as a child!

  

  All that is left for us is to see how and where exactly the crochet comes into our story! Teneriffe lace and flower looms now come in all manner of shapes and sizes. I have armed myself with a very simple plastic loom, so let's try out a few techniques.

    My looms come in a simple circle and a square, with one row of pins around the outside. You will also find them with a hole in the middle and additional rows of pins. You may find them small and delicate or large and chunky. In all cases you begin by wrapping the yarn or thread in a sort of figure of 8.

Begin by creating a figure of 8 around two opposing pegs.

Take the yarn straight up to the pin on the right,

Around that pin and straight down to it's opposing pin. 

Continue around the loom, you may wrap as many times as you like. Wrapping like this creates a plumper flower.

Or wrap each pair of pegs a number of times before moving to the next pair. This is called a flat wrap.

Now we must secure the centre. There are many alternatives.

To create an open centre thread a needle with the tail end of your yarn, or with a second colour. Bring the needle down through the middle and back up between the threads. You can choose to go between the individual loops (or petals)...

Or into the loops...

Or both...

Continue working around the 'flower'. This technique is easier if you have a loom with an open centre. If you have one like mine then you will find it easier with a flat needle or a bent needle.

Perhaps you prefer a spiral centre. 

In this case the top of the flower is the under side as it sits in your loom. Take your yarn end or second colour. Secure it in the centre. Take the needle under 4 petals, come back over 3, re insert the needle and repeat around the flower. You must do this one time more than the number of pins on your frame. I have 12 pins so I worked the weave 13 times. Fasten off on the back.

A back stitched centre is worked in a similar way. This time the upper side of your flower is the top. When you sew around the flower go under 2 petals and back over one.

For an over sewn centre, simply sew from one side to the other moving systematically around.

A woven centre is made by weaving under one petal and up over the next. When you have completed one whole round bring the needle up through the middle of the next petal. This 'split stitch' will be hidden by the last stitch on this round. Next weave over the petals that were left empty on the last round and under the others.

As this is meant to be a crochet blog, you might instead surface crochet around the flower. For this you will definitely need an open centre frame. I wish I had known that in the beginning! Instead I had to pre thread the working yarn around the flower. You could combine this with your other centres.

Having completed your flower you may use it as it is, or crochet around the edge using it as the centre piece to a patchwork square.

Now you may join your flowers or patchwork pieces in all the usual ways!

 

    Travelling back in time once more we can recreate the art of button making. For these experiments I have chosen a chunky curtain ring.

Take a metal ring and blanket stitch tightly around the edge...

Turn the tops of the stitches under so that they are hidden at the back..

Now wrap the thread around the button to create spokes. You need at least 6. It helps to mark the positions before hand with an air-soluble fabric-marker pen. Begin with the working thread at the back of the button, bring it down and around back to the top. As you bring the thread down again take it to the second position in the same way that we wrapped the pins on the loom. At first it looks very untidy.

When you have made the last wrap, bring the needle up between two pairs of thread, across the centre and down between two more pairs on the other side. Make a second stitch between another pair of spokes. This straightens the spokes. Before continuing, check to make sure the centre of the wheel is central in the button. These two stitches are enough to hold the threads, but you could continue to over sew all the spokes to create a little nipple...

Now we make back stitches to weave around the spokes. Bring the needle up and back stitch over one pair of threads. The needle goes down and forwards under two pairs of thread and then backstitch over one pair...

Repeat this process around the button to the very edge and weave away the thread end.

There are many other techniques for you to investigate if you have a mind to and if so I highly recommend you use a lace netting needle/shuttle. In any case I hope you can already see the similarities emerging between these two crafts.

 

The Teneriffe instructions begin with the same wrapping technique as the Flower Looms.

This time we secure the loops by chain stitching around the edge. This helps to hold the design on the pins.

We can gather the threads together in any combination that takes our fancy.

Additional rows can be be added creating a grid, and adding further complexity.

Now we may make any of the needle lace stitches available to us such as herringbone,

and darning stitches,

to add shape and solidity to the design.

 

I had to have a go at this as well. I quickly found that I needed more pins than my 12 pin loom. After much frustration I repurposed a much abused old blocking mat. I cut out a circle and stuck 36 pins into the edge. I also found that the DMC book was pretty hopeless for a beginner and instead used Alexandra Stillwell's book. 

The result is very simple but I at least satisfied myself, that with practise, I might achieve some of the more complex patterns.

It seemed appropriate to play around with this 'blocking-mat' loom and see if I could create something that drew on all the techniques I have learnt in the process of writing this post.

My final thought is this: in an effort to bring order to the ebullient Victorian world of design did we end up dumbing down the skills that we once had? I don't think it's too late to add back some of these skills and in doing so create something unique to our age. Any thoughts?

Some useful Links:

Therese de Dillmont's 1920's Teneriffe Lace book.

Alexandra Stillwell's 1980 Teneriffe Lace book.

Gina-B Silkworks UK for supplies and YouTube videos.

Knitting-and.com for Information, links and YouTube videos.

Fastening off...

Discovering Filigree Crochet

    This has got to be, far and away, the most frustrating thing I have ever tried to research! I remain convinced there was once a style of lace called filigree and, it therefore follows, a style of crochet. My evidence is very slim, so you will have to draw your own conclusions. But I get ahead of myself.

    I have in my box of family treasures and keepsakes the broken remnants of two filigree silver bracelets. I believe they are Indian and are either Victorian or Edwardian. Showing you these exquisite morsels is the easiest way to introduce this subject.

Filigree metal work has been in existence since at least 3,000BCE and was practised in Mesopotamia. The word, Filigree, comes from the Latin and is made of the words, filum meaning thread and granum meaning grain. The fine metal work was made from twisted threads and beads of gold or silver.

 

     Hidden within the depths of the revised edition of Therese De Dillmont's Encyclopedia of needlework is this engraving. It is described as 'Crochet Lace with 'metal threads'. Imitation of filigree lace.' It is clearly intended to mimic an image later in the section on Embroidered Laces. Here is my only clue about the history of filigree lace.

     We are told: Filigree lace is the finest of all the Spanish laces... The original forms the trimming to a silk table-cover of the 17th century, of Spanish origin. It is a more difficult kind of work... and requires a very skilful hand. The different parts of the design are made of metal threads connected by button-hole stitches in brilliant thread. 

The needle made lace was to be made in gold and silver embroidery thread, as well as 5 colours of DMC Alsa in size No40. This is described as a brilliant sewing and machine twist.  

    As I have no other examples to show you, I set out to make the crochet version using the original instructions. It would have been wonderful if the thread was still available, sadly it is not. It was to be made with two different threads. Firstly, Gold Embroidery threads (Or et Argent fins pour Embroidery). Secondly, 5 colours of DMC Gold Chiné (Chiné d'or). These were to be black/gold, green/gold, blue/gold, red/gold and ecru/gold. The threads were intended to be size 40 which is incredibly fine and far too thin for both my eyes and hands! I have been unable to find any images of these items so I have no idea what they looked like.

  

    Before beginning I tried out the pattern using No10 cotton threads. The peculiarity of Victorian crochet is that sometimes the stitches are made into the back loop only and sometimes under both loops. The instructions are not specific. I have had to be guided by the illustration, which is not always accurate. But also I have made aesthetic decisions! I think the result gives you an idea, at least of what the lace might have looked like.

   Being forced to do my own thing, I have looked at various crochet and embroidery threads available in the UK. Some are available in coloured metallics and other only in metal shades. I finally plumped for Anchor Metallic which is about a Number 5 crochet thread, the suggested hook size is 2mm. When working with the Metallic threads I chose to simplify the design by using only four colours. I made a few subtle changes to improve on my original interpretation. The first thing that struck me was the number of ends that needed to be woven in. I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of time and patience it must have taken to edge an entire tablecloth!

 

    It's been a very frustrating search for any other examples. My browser insisted on showing me Filet crochet. I even tasked The Researcher with looking from her side of the Pond. But to no avail! (Although, she did find some interesting wire crochet jewellery.) Finally Sue Perez, AKA Mrs Micawber, came to my rescue once again. Back in 2018 she wrote a really cute and original pattern for a Filigree Heart Design. So I thought I would make that using the same threads. Sue's techniques are always original and her lace work is beautiful.

    Although I am presenting these as two different projects I actually worked them simultaneously. Worked in cotton Sue's design requires nothing more than a little light blocking. Modern metallic threads are made on the whole with Viscose and Polyester. It makes blocking extremely difficult. I am assuming that the original threads were made from metal wrapped cotton threads. But once again it is impossible to know.

    Next I tried working the Heart design in Anchor Metallic Fine and a 1.5mm hook. It is a little thicker then a No10 crochet cotton. This yarn only comes in gold and silver colours. I used this motif to experiment with blocking. In the end I solved the problem by heavily starching the design before pinning and leaving to dry. This seems to have worked well and hasn't dulled the gleam.

    In the end I used the thicker Anchor Metallic. I chose this for my Spanish filigree crochet because of the coloured threads. Being more substantial it worked up much more easily but still required blocking with starch.

     It would have been wonderful to show you Dillmont's design in the original threads. The closest I could have got was DMC Diamant. This thread also comes in two sizes. In this case the colours are only available in the finer yarn. It is three ply and while it is heavier than a machine sewing thread it is finer than a No20 thread. I know there are people who enjoy making micro crochet but I have no idea how or why! I tried making a small sample for your elucidation! The thread is hard to control even with the 1.5mm hook. I can not imagine edging an entire table cloth with the Victorian crochet design, not while keeping my sanity in any case!

    So there it is, it's up to you to decide. Was there ever a style of crochet called filigree do you think? Is it worth reviving or should we leave it to the annals of history?

Fastening off...

Discovering Victorian Circles and scallops in lace crochet.

     If you were a time travelling Victorian and you were looking at our modern crochet, I wonder what you would think? You would certainly see things that you recognised, but would you also see something missing? I'm sure you would be envious of our yarns and hooks, colour images and step by step instructions!

In a way this entire Discovering series is all the Victorian crochet that has struck my 21st century eyes as different. Last month I was talking about the geometric motifs and shapes that were used to imitate traditional forms of lace, but I entirely left out circles and scallops. I am able to reproduce some of these examples from contemporary instructions but some shapes seem to have vanished.

Flat crossed stitches are not used a great deal today, but they are an excellent way of joining motifs. When I made the design above, last month, I had to go to my own post on the subject to reassure myself that I was getting it right! So let's begin there with some negative space circles. Just in case you've never met this idea before, the negative space is the empty space! The circles are formed in the space between the stitches.

Circles were as common in Victorian crochet as they are today! Both of these patterns are from our old friend Therese De Dillmont. 

This image feels unfamiliar to me. I wonder if it is the empty space, or the idea that the circle is made as a ring of joined stitches rather than a solid shape beginning from the centre and worked outward.

I have found something similar in another needlework encyclopedia which is referred to as Yak or Maltese work. This encyclopedia is by SFA Caulfield, dated 1882. We find this idea common in traditional needle formed lace...

...and tatting.

 

The above tatted illustration brings us neatly on to scallops. Of course if you are a Victorian you call them Scollops and they are everywhere. No matter what, whether they are rounded or pointed or hanging on an angle they are all just scollops!

This design would have been familiar in the Victorian era. I made life easy for myself and used Betty Barnden's modern instructions. It was not fun to make and I wonder how it is that it has survived while others have been forgotten. I have also found this type of scallop worked  in a combination of crochet and needle work.

It's easy to see how we've got from this mostly needle worked lace to the next entirely hook-worked variation.

This example comes from Butterick's The Art of Crocheting and is dated about 1891.

 

They are, perhaps, the type of shell shapes we are more familiar with. But they are placed so closely together that they are overlapping creating a frill. The following image takes this to the Victorian extreme.

The definition between shell and fan has never been clear to me. It seems they can appear in any orientation and the names seem interchangeable. Perhaps I should remember that this is a craft where it's English speakers cannot even agree on the names of the stitches or on the sizes of the hooks!

 

 

This idea of overlapping scallops led me to two more designs from the Butterick book.

Happily this pattern worked up without much difficulty from the original instructions and was much more elegant than I had expected. Perhaps I should take a moment to be grateful for the advances in both photography and blocking techniques!

My next offering is from a modern stitch dictionary but is by no means a modern technique. It's used in short row laces like those from Brussels and Belgium. It employs the same segment by segment construction. Now we have, almost, an entire semi circle rather than just bite-sized segments! We have flipped our scallops through a full ninety degrees.

Following this train of thought, I'm choosing to call this sample, below, diamond scallops. Possibly I am taking my idea too far, but it mostly employs the same techniques.

I have one more to offer you before we return scallops back to their more usual orientation!

 'Less is more' and 'form follows function' are all phrases from the art world of the modern era. It is probably fair to say that, the Bauhaus movement and the paired-down clean lines of the twentieth century would never have existed without the over stuffed and heavily ornamented Victorian age. Certainly, to my eyes, the deep scallops and complex edgings are surprising. And yet they must have featured on pianos, mantelpieces, tables, beds and in fact any flat surface!

I chose this pattern from a stitch dictionary published in 2018. I have shown it here as an edging rather than a fabric, because it takes us nearly back to the beginning of this conversation! It echoes those Victorian tatted scallops and negative-space circles. At the same time, it shares the deep shield shapes of my final choice, but with a cleanliness of line, which speaks to our modern sensibilities.

Returning to Butterick's, The Art of Crocheting, I found these deep scallops. This type of motif was common in both needle formed and crocheted lace. Either in the shield shape as here, or as a rounded half lozenge. The book's editor offers the image without instructions, telling us; "This engraving pictures an edging that may easily be made from the illustration." I have heroically attempted it for you! I don't think I got it quite right. Once again I wonder, was my great great grandmother so much more skilled or would she have been as annoyed as I am by this lazy author?

Before I sign off, I have to tell you about our most talented friend Anna, from Mmatildas Virstad. She too has been researching historical crochet but she has been searching in the dusty basements of Swedish museums. She has found two amazing waistcoats. She wants these unique garments to once more see the light of day and has written a post for English speakers which you will find here! Tack Anna!

Fastening off...