Lace Corners and Mats

If you already have a lace corner pattern, it will look something like the pattern on the left if perhaps less colourful! (I always like to colour my patterns so I can see what I'm doing.) The first thing you need to do is to work out where the corner line is. This is a line from the inside of the corner to the outside. You can even draw it on the pattern (see right).

Once you starting working the lace, you must use a pillow which you can get at any side, such as a 'cookie' pillow. You won't be able to use a pillow with a roller. Pin the pattern in the middle, and start working the lace from the top in the usual way.

Carry on working the lace until you get down to the corner line (the white area on the left), but do NOT work over the corner line (the grey area). This means that you will end up with a bottom diagonal line of worked lace, with the bobbins hanging downwards as usual.

Now to turn the corner. Turn your pillow round so the grey bit goes downwards, and the already worked piece goes off to the right (if you have the footside on the right, as most English lacemakers prefer). It should now look like the picture on the right. You'll need to move the bobbins carefully so they hand downwards in the new direction. Now just carry on working the lace! You will find that the outside bobbins have to do much more work than the inner ones. Certain threads have to be considered as well. In this patter, two pairs of bobbins come out of the top corner fan, and need to do something before entering the bottom corner fan. You could plait them, perhaps.

Designing a corner

What happens if your pattern doesn't have a corner? Let us assume that you are starting with the pattern on the left. You want to make it into a corner.

First, you must find the corner line. This is not as easy as with an existing corner, as there are several places that you can draw the line. You must find the one you like best. However, there is a rule - you must NOT cross any lace design except simple ground. Also you must get the line sloping the right way. You want the footside on the inside of the corner, and the headside on the outside, so the line must slope to give you less footside and more headside. You can see on the right that there is really only one place in this pattern where you can draw the line, and even then it clips a headside fan.

Now get rid of all the pattern that is below the corner line (see left). Mirror the pattern above the line to continue below the line, but of course, twist it through a right angle (see right). This is almost exactly like the pattern above, but you will see a pair of threads right at the edge of the corner, apparently heading off for nowhere. These are the threads that I suggested you plaited with the other pair.

You have now ended up with the corner design that we saw above, but you have constructed it yourself.

If you find nowhere to draw the line at all, then draw it between two headside designs, and continue it through the rest of the pattern, even if it goes over a spider of a diamond. Then replace the mutilated spider or diamond with some simple ground stitches. If you like, you can make the diamond smaller, so it comes up to the line, but not over. You can't even do that with a spider! Here are two attempts to make a corner of the left-hand pattern, putting the corner line in different places, and filling with ground stitches as necessary. No, you really cannot continue that diagonal across the corner, however much you want to! The worker pair goes in entirely a different direction once you've turned the corner, and it just won't work.

The designs above are edging with corners. You would use it to trim a handkerchief, or rather, you would fill the inside hole of the lace with material in order to make a trimmed handkerchief, or perhaps a mat or even something bigger (if you have the patience!) However, using this technique, it is possible to make a mat which is ALL lace. Here, instead of an edging which ends in a diagonal and then is turned to go in a different direction, you have a pattern which is a triangle, repeated four times to make a square. See right, with the corner lines marked in red. You work it in the same way as above, but the bobbins in the middle of the mat will only be used in a few stitches. See the diamond mats designs for an example. You can make bigger mats by making a centre like this (but without the footside which would make too obvious a line), then work an edging which fits exactly round the edge, and sew them together. You can make another edging to go round the edge of that as well, if you want, and so end up with a mat as large as you want.