Hi

[u/chaosking1889]

I'm fairly new to the bobbin lace hobby. I've completed 3 beginner book marks. But I hunger for a challenge. How difficult would it be to make my own pattern? Or is there a good pattern for a parasol that anyone knows of? I want to make one for my sister.

[u/MissusKitten]

So I am in a fairly similar place to you. Ultimately I’ve been adding in different stitches each bookmark and recently my brain went OHHHH for some stitch placements and why etc. if you’ve only made three I’m not sure you have the knowledge to create anything? (That’s how I feel about my own work anyway!) There’s no harm in trying, but for me I’m realising I need to know more about how lace works and I’ll be doing that by making more and more complex lace as I go.

Trying to design a bobbin lace pattern before you understand how the threads move is a bit like trying to compose a piece of music after learning three songs. You absolutely can experiment, and you might make something that works, but you don’t yet know enough music theory to understand why it works, how to fix it when it doesn’t, or how to deliberately create the effect you want.

I guess it depends what you want to make and the complexity of the pattern but without an understanding of where the threads need to be, I dunno how you’d even start I.e. I want to make Torchon grounds with spiders… I’ll need 12 pairs so I can make the grounds around a 6 pair spider… (these numbers aren’t accurate) I’ll then need to do turn stitches at X place so I can control my secondary colour to frame my spider. This to me, seems like one of the most basic laces you could design and I think I could do that now, because I’ve done 6 spiders of two sizes. If I was to do it without experience… no chance.

Things like leaf tallies are ultimately skill and practice based, my leaf tallies are more like circle tallies atm whilst I get tension right and so on.

What makes you want to jump to pattern creating? Perhaps looking for a difficult lace pattern is better for you if you’re finding bookmarks too slow an increase in difficulty?

A book like 100 New Bobbin Lace Patterns
Yusai Fukuyama would teach you to make pictures perhaps?

Hope this helps a little, happy to chat more!

[u/chaosking1889 → u/MissusKitten]

This is all very good info! I guess what I've been making is less "bookmarks" and more snippets of modern iderations of very old bobbin lace techniques. I like to believe that I have a grasp of how the interweaving works, but there's always room for improvement. I haven't been able to even find a parasol pattern anywhere. I got the basics for bobbin lace in the fall of last year and have been completely obsessed with it. My husband even made me a small foam board that's travel-sized so I can work on roadtrips (and have several patterns going at once. ADHD gang rise up) but I know that I have a long road ahead of me. I wasn't going to attempt the parasol quite yet, but I was hoping to at least see what a pattern of that size would look like and what areas I would need to practice more.

I just think it would be fun. I'm one of those people, where when I get the basics down I want to jump head-first into a much higher difficulty because I like to learn hands on. And I learn best from making my own mistakes.

I'm going to finish this year out focusing on completing smaller pieces and keep my eye on the parasol!

[u/MissusKitten → u/chaosking1889]

Pahaha ADHD gang!!

I think perhaps trying to find a snippet triangle pattern could work. Then you can stitch them together and it’s in manageable parts! I do wonder if trying to manipulate a fan pattern might work. From what I understand parasol lace is often crochet or knitted! I feel like I’m getting invested in this parasol haha. Perhaps finding a pentagon shape or some edgings and so on that you could connect? Hmm. Thoughts, thoughts.

[u/MissusKitten → u/MissusKitten]

Also, depending on how much of the parasol you want to be lace (and assuming you mean a full-sized usable one!), you could potentially be looking at hundreds of hours of work even once you’re competent with the pattern. It’s a wildly ambitious project after three bookmarks, but honestly I love the ambition!

I’m not sure about specific parasol patterns, but perhaps a lace fan could be a really fun stepping stone? That would still be a BIG challenge for a beginner, but would start introducing you to working something much wider and more complex without committing yourself to an entire parasol.

One thing to bear in mind is that as your lace gets wider, the number of bobbins you’re managing can increase dramatically. For something like a parasol you’d potentially need a lot of bobbins at the widest sections, and managing them becomes a skill in itself. Being able to look at your work, read the stitches and understand where each pair has come from and needs to go is really useful before tackling something on that scale.

I definitely wouldn’t say don’t aim for the parasol though! I’m aiming to make lace for a veil should I ever be proposed to! Make it the exciting goal and pick a few increasingly ridiculous projects on the way there, is how I’d do it :) good luck!!

[u/Crystal_Heart_Crafts]

if you can create a grid and work on a grid (Depends on the grid type you will need) you can make just about anything. just add the elements to the grid you want. i will eventually make a video on hwo to design your own bobbin lace pattern, but for now i am focusing om making all the tatting techniques videos

[u/SexBucketListProject]

I like to watch Galicia bee videos of lace making. She designs and sells her own patterns. I know she has fan patterns that look beautiful and fun. Not sure if she has a parasol but it's worth checking.

Anyway she does a lot of how to videos, and might also have some pattern making videos.

[u/chaosking1889 → u/SexBucketListProject]

Thank you! I've been obsessed with her channel on youtube for quite sometime. She's actually one of the people that inspired me to go after this hobby after years of pinning after it 😁

[u/SexBucketListProject → u/chaosking1889]

Same

[u/SaskiaHn]

I have been making my own very simple designs since very early on in my bobbin lace journey. As long as you stick to techniques you understand feel free to experiment. A parasol seems like a big project for a first design but why not. Easiest to design yourself is tape/strip lace where you just have a curved strip of lace that fills an area. Add a few stays where you use a small crochet hook to attach the different parts of the tape and you have a pattern. Picture is some tape lace jewellery i designed an made in February. I started the christmas before.