Discovering Slip-Stitch Lace

    Is it possible to make lace using only slip-stitches? 

 

It's not a silly question! When making traditional crochet lace we do so using a combination of tall stitches, crossed stitches, clusters and chain. Most of these things are not possible with slip-stitches alone. Whether you go with Back Loop Only or Front Loop Only or inverse stitches, all traditional Slip-stitches are very short in height. (I talked about all these stitches here.)

How shall I begin?

I assume that we could learn something from knitted lace but, having forgotten the little I ever knew about knitting, I must set out to find the solution on my own. 

I think I should start by choosing a flat, fairly open but simple stitch. So I am choosing to work in the front loop only pattern, known as garter stitch.

 

Using only these shallow stitches how shall I make lace? It seems sensible to use chain to create holes in the fabric. My first experiment is made of alternating rows and Chain2 loops.

    Row1. Slst into back bump of foundation chain across. Turn.

    Row2. (3Flo, Chain2, Skip2) repeat across row ending 3Flo. Turn.

    Row3. (3Flo, Slipst under 2loops of chain x2) repeat across row ending 3Flo. Turn.

    Rows2&3 are repeated.

While the swatch looks quite different to the original It doesn't look much like lace!

 

The obvious solution seems to be to make bigger holes. I also chose to stagger the holes, instead of placing them one on top of the other as in the last swatch. Here is what I did.

    Row1. Slst into back bump of foundation chain across. Turn.

    Row2. 4Flo, (Chain3, Skip 3 sts, 3Flo) repeat across row ending 4Flo instead of 3Flo. Turn.

    Row3. 1Flo, (Chain3, Skip3, Slipst under 2loops of chain x3) repeat across row ending 1Flo. Turn.

    Row4. 1Flo, (Slipst under 2loops of chain x3, Chain3, Skip3) repeat across row ending 1Flo. Turn.

    Rows3&4 are repeated.

I think this fabric is very successful except the beginning and end of the rows, probably Rows2&4 should begin and end with a taller stitch. 

I remade the sample with a Flo Half Treble (Hdc-US) or Chain2 at the ends of Rows2&4 replacing the first Flo.

 

Simplifying that stitch into simple chain loops, I've ended up with this.

    Into foundation chain:

    Row1. 3Flo (Chain3, Skip3, 1Flo) repeat across row ending 3Flo. Turn.

    Row2. (1Flo, Chain3, Skip3) repeat across ending 1Flo. Turn.

    Rows1&2 are repeated.

Once again, I think Row2 should begin with a taller stitch, so, I had to check that out and began and ended Row2 with a Flo Half Treble or Chain2.

 

There is one more slip-stitch that I discovered recently, that is the 'Yarn Over Slip-stitch'. Quite literally you yarn over the hook before placing the hook into the stitch, catch the yarn and pull through all the loops on the hook. This has a little extra height.

    Row1. Slst into back bump of foundation chain across. Turn.

    Row2&3. (1Flo Yoslst, Chain3, Skip3) repeat across ending 1Flo YoSlst.

    Row4. Slipst under 2loops of each chain across.

    Row5. Flo of each stitch across.

    Repeat Rows2to5.

Now that is more interesting!

Can I use spike stitches to open up the fabric?

After some unsuccessful experiments I offer this. 

    Row1. Working into the back bump of foundation chain; 

    (3Slst, Chain5, Skip5) repeat across ending 3Slst. Turn.

    Row2. (3Flo, Chain2, Slst by placing the hook under the centre of chain5-loop, Chain2) repeat across. Turn.

    Row3. (3Flo, Chain5, Skip5) repeat across. Turn.

    Repeat Rows2&3 ending on Row2.

  

There are some more open-work stitch combinations which we might consider 'lacy', like this one which is Back loop only, Inverse Back Loop only repeated over an even number of stitches.

I thought I would work that between rows of Front loop only in order to contrast the more open rows with the solid ones.

I worked over an even number of stitches;

    Row1&2. Flo across the row. Turn.

    Row3&4. (Blo, InverseBlo) repeated across the row. 

    repeat Rows1to4.

The result also has two sides which both give a different effect. 

 

Perhaps it would work better with a larger hook and an additional row of Blo,iBlo. This swatch has 3 rows of Flo and 3 rows of (Blo, iBlo).

 

I'm very happy with that, whether you consider it to be lace or not is a matter of debate!

 

After talking over the problem with Anna MmatildasVirstad, it occurred to me that it might be possible to Yarn Over the hook more than once. 

This swatch shows 4 rows of Flo Slst made into a chain foundation row;

4 rows of Flo YarnOver Slst;

4 rows of Flo Double YarnOver Slst;

4 rows of Flo Treble YarnOver Slst.

 

I remade the very first deep blue swatch, replacing all the Slst with Double Yarn Over Slst, the spaces are chain2. I wrapped the yarn twice around the hook before making the Slip-stitch as usual. The fabric is quite thick but also soft.

 

Anna then reminded me that with a big enough hook and the right kind of 'yarn' any slip-stitch pattern becomes lace. Consider something stiff like paper or raffia. Alternatively, perhaps cotton, linen, jute or hemp and some heavy starch. Below I have used a cotton/jute mix yarn and worked Back-loop only in the round.

To see Slip-stitch crochet as you/I have never imagined it before, I tried working with a 28gauge copper beading wire and worked Front-loop only in the round.

Thank you for your help and inspiration Anna!

 

So, what do you think? I remain convinced that there are other solutions. What did I miss? What else could I try? I eagerly await some clues to unlock this mystery!

fastening off...

    

Wire Crochet Experiment.

 This week I have mostly been crocheting with wire!

Nick has been busy doing something in his man-cave, so when I spotted this coil of 0.25mm coated copper wire going begging I just had to see what I could do with it.

The only thing I knew about wire crochet was what I had read in 'Crochet Masterclass' and the chapter written by Nancie Wiseman. She uses 30 gauge Brass wire and a 2mm hook to make a sweet little purse.

I couldn't really think what to do so I grabbed up my copy of Edie Eckman's 'Connect the Shapes Crochet Motifs' and a 2mm hook. The first motif I made was No.17. It looks a lot different when it's worked in wire rather than yarn and presents different problems. The first thing I realised was that it was quite hard to identify the different stitches. The trebles (Dc-USA) look quite strange. When I'd finished I couldn't work out how to block it!

My next experiment was motif No.20 and I used a 1.5mm hook. I was hoping that this smaller hook would create tidier stitches. Those treble stitches are still not quite right and no matter how much I stretched it, it still won't lie flat. This little chap measures 6.5cm and weighs a mighty 4 grams.
 
It occurred to me that a design made of chain stitches and slip stitches or double crochet (Sc-USA) might look better. So still with the smaller hook size I moved onto motif No.25. I'm really happy with the way this has turned out. It was easier to pull it into shape, and with a little tweaking it will lie reasonably flat.

Being a practical person I am of course wondering what I can do with these motifs. With a few beads added the right motif would work well as a pendant. With a textile backing perhaps a brooch.

The fact that one of my motifs wouldn't lie flat made me think I could make a bowl or a bangle.

After a few(!) false starts I got the hang of it. I found that a bigger hook size was better. A large tapestry needle helped to open up any stitches that had got squished. Once the disc was large enough it was easier to work the bowl from the outside. I also found that putting some of those self adhesive thimbles on my non hook hand helped! It's definitely hard on the hands.

 
I worked the bowl in a spiral, increasing 6Dc (Sc-USA) per round for 8 rounds. A total of 60 stitches in the 8th round. At that point I continued without increasing.

I finished the edge of the bowl with a row of Slip Stitches. My finished bowl measures 9cm/31/2" in diameter and weighs 16g. It might look nice with a ribbon woven around but what I'm going to use it for I have no ideas!

I decided to make the 'Edie Eckman' motifs into greetings cards. I chose to sew the copper designs onto the cards, rather than attempt to glue them in any way.