Lace Headsides

In English lace the headside is usually worked on the left. (There is no particular reason to do this, and European lace usually has the footside worked on the right.) This edge of the lace is most visible, and so usually it has an attractive shape which may be wavy or frilly.

Cloth Fan Headside

The cloth fan headside is worked in cloth stitch. It is similar to a cloth diamond, except you take up and lose threads only from the right. The left edge, which is the edge of the lace itself, is given a slight wave by where the pins are positioned. These are not a normal Torchon grid, but are placed in a curve (see pricking pattern on right). I have given two twists to the thread round the pins on the left, to give a decorative effect on the very edge of the lace. You can give more than two twists, or one or none, if you prefer. The fan is used both in Torchon lace (as in the diagram on the left) and Bucks Point (the photo above) which has different proportions.

The photo on the right shows a fan headside with a thin trail of cloth stitch inside. This is taken from the narrow zigzag pattern.

Half Stitch Fan Headside

The Half stitch fan headside is worked similarly to the cloth fan headside, except it is worked in half stitch. The photo on the left shows it next to some Torchon ground.

The photo also shows the effect if you twist the bobbins several times at the edge of the lace. If you don't do this, you can end up with rather a loose edge. See photo on the right. This has a trail of half stitch next to it.

Whenever you work half stitch, the pairs of bobbins get split up.

Other types of Simple Fans

There are many types of fan. In each row, you can twist the workers (the bobbins which move across the pattern) just before the outer passives (which hang down). This gives the effect of the fan on the left in the photo. Or when half way through the fan, you can twist each pair of passives. This gives the fan on the right.

You do not need to restrict yourself to a single type of fan in a pattern. The photo on the right shows several fans in one piece of lace. The butterflies lace has an even more bizarre combination, where half the fan is cloth stitch and the other half is half stitch, with a cunning use of colour, so the cloth stitch part looks like butterflies. The clutter of spiders has fans of different sizes.

Twisted Fan Headside

This headside is used in the zig-zag lace pattern. The pricking pattern is on the right. If you want, you can make the outer edge of the pattern more curved, like a fan.

The worker threads for the main fan are red. They work across the passive threads with cloth stitch and twist. There may be extra twists in between to keep the pattern taut (although I haven't shown any). There are no pins for most cross-overs (see pricking pattern on the right), only at each end of the zig-zag of the worker threads. Although I haven't marked them, you may prefer to have pins at the right edges of the fan as well, to get the threads in position before and after the working of the fan. It depends what you have to the right of the fan.

The worker threads of one fan become the outer edge of the next, and vice versa. This means, with careful chosing of coloured threads, you can get alternate fans different colours (see right). You can even swap the colours over mid-fan - see fireworks lace for several effects.

This lace will need careful tightening while being worked, as you have a lot of cloth stitch and twist without pins. If you work this pattern with cloth stitch instead, you get a different effect (see left). It also needs less tightening!

Plaited Headside

This is a simple but effective headside, and there are two versions of it. The one in the photo and diagram, and top pricking pattern is used in the diamond mat. This is based on a Maltese lace mat. The other is a headside in English Maltese lace. It is the same, but with two picots added along the outer edge, as in the second pricking pattern.

This uses 4 pairs of bobbins in two groups. Each group is plaited between the pins. The two groups cross over with a lazy join. Add the picots if you like them. If you don't, then the two pairs of the outer group go either side of the outer pin at the point.

This type of headside has its threads independent of the rest of the lace, unlike Torchon headsides, which tend to be an integral part of the lace. This means that it is easy to add these plaited headsides onto different designs, but the working may vary from one design to another. If the leg of the headside is meeting another leg, then you can cross them over in a lazy join, which means that some bobbins will leave the headside and others join it. If the leg is meeting a single pair of bobbins (such as in a footside) then you can work the single pair of threads across the threads of the leg in cloth stitch, pin, then cloth stitch back again. I've shown this on the left.

When using plaits, make sure that you don't do too many stitches between the pins. This makes the plait too long to fit, and will give a baggy result. Too few may let you see the individual threads, but will at least be taut. The correct number will vary on the thickness of the cotton and the size of the pattern. Once you have worked out the correct number, remember it and use it consistently throughout the pattern. It's surprising how often a consistent result looks convincing!

Nine Pin Headside

This is a traditional English Maltese pattern. The name Nine Pin is supposed to be because it uses 9 pins per head. It fact, nine pins seems to be one and a half times the repeat. It is used in this beginner pattern. You can use the diagram on the left as a pricking pattern.

It uses 4 pairs of bobbins in two groups. Each group is plaited between the pins. Where two groups cross over, there is a lazy join. The legs are fastened to the pins using picots. There are spare pins where the headside meets the rest of the lace. You can join this headside to the lace via a lazy join, if it is meeting a leg, or cloth stitch to meet a single pair of threads.

Crown Headside

This headside is used in this beginner pattern. The photo to the left shows it attached to a twisted footside. You can use the diagram on the right as a pricking pattern.

It uses 6 pairs of bobbins in three groups. Each group is plaited between the pins. Where two groups cross over, there is a lazy join. The legs are fastened to the pins using picots. There are spare pins where the headside meets the rest of the lace. You can see in the photo how any threads coming in at this pin just go round the pin and back into the pattern. Here they meet a single pair of threads, so these work across the leg bobbins in cloth stitch. If this headside is next to other legs, then they can cross each other in a lazy join.

Trail Headside

This headside is often used in English Maltese patterns. It is used in this flower pattern. It is a trail of cloth stitch, but unlike Torchon zigzags, it keeps the same width, but has different numbers of bobbins in it at different points. This particular trail has one pair of worker bobbins and three pairs of bobbins permanently in the trail. There are two more pairs which join the trail from time to time, then leave it. At the top in the picture, there is the worker pair, and five passive pairs. Two pairs leave the trail to make the top tally, leaving three pairs as passives in the leftwards bulge. Two pairs join again at the second tally, and leave the trail at the bride, in the middle of the rightwards bend. They join again a couple of rows later, at the second bride, so there are five passives at the bottom of the picture.

This technique allows you to 'lose' spare threads by hiding them within the trail. The pinholes are not necessarily regular, as trails are usually curvy. Here I've put slightly more pinholes where there are going to be less passives, to bulk out the trail with more to-and-fro of the worker pair. The different number of threads is obvious in the photo, but not in the finished lace (except to lacemakers, of course!)

The worker pair are used throughout the trail, so need far more thread wound onto them than the other bobbins. The permanent number of passives will vary according to the width of the trail, and indeed the thickness of the thread, how dense the trail, and how many bobbins you can fit on your pillow!

I've twisted the workers twice at each pin (except where I've forgotten, looking hard at the photo!) to give a slightly frilly edge.

Serpent Headside

The lace edge of this headside is straight rather than at an angle like most Torchon patterns. So you need some other technique to join it to the main lace.

The threads pattern on the left shows each pair as a single colour. The worker is red. Since the worker pair does a lot of work, you should wind lots and lots of cotton on the bobbins!

Bucks Point Cloth Fan Headside

The Bucks Point cloth fan headside is worked exactly the same way as the Cloth fan headside. However, the Bucks Point grid is different, with the pinholes set in triangles rather than diamonds, so the fan is a different shape, thinner and more pointed.

The photo shows it set in Bucks Point ground, and the pricking pattern on the right shows some ground stitches round the fans.

You can run a gimp thread round the fans to outline them if you wish.

Bucks Point Passives and Picots Headside

This is a standard Bucks Point headside. It may not be marked in the pricking except as a row of holes. There are at least two pairs of passives (marked green in the diagram). The worker threads are worked across the passives in cloth stitch to the edge. Then they are worked in a picot round the edge pin, and are worked back across the passives to return to the lace pattern.

This is similar to a cloth footside except the worker threads both go to the edge and return, as opposed to one pair going to the edge, and swapping with another, which returns. Also, you don't get picots in footsides!

It is also similar to trail headsides. But trail headsides are usually reasonably independent of the rest of the lace, with the worker threads working to and fro, possibly for the whole headside, and some of the passives disappearing off to the rest of the lace, or returning back again. This Bucks Point headside has the worker pair returning to the lace, with usually a completely different pair coming back again for the next pin.

This headside is used in this It is used in this beginner pattern.

Part Twisted Fan Headside

The headside on the left is used in my wavy lace patterns. This fan has the workers feeding through all other bobbins each time. The position of the pins gives the shape of the fan. It has an interesting hole at the base of the fan.

See right for the pricking pattern of the fan plus a little surrounding ground. The pins on the right of the fan are very close together. The pattern also gets rather sparse on the left, at the very edge of the lace, so instead of the left pair of bobbins being worked with cloth stitch, like the others, they're worked with cloth stitch and twist, and the worker bobbins are twisted just before working the edge bobbins. It is up to you how many twists you do, since this depends on the size of the pattern, the thickness of the thread and your own personal preference whether you like loose or tight lace. Here, I have shown a double twist to the outer edge to give tightness to the edge of the lace. You could give double twists of the worker bobbins round the pins on the left, at the edge of the lace. This will give small gaps right at the edge, which will make the finished lace look more "lacey".

All this twisting does mean that you will have to tighten the threads more often. You will learn from experience how often you have to tighten your threads, probably by having a piece of lace with small loops in it!

Part Twisted Fan Headside

This is rather a strange headside, as it is part of the ribbon footside! Still, this part of the pattern is really more like a headside, and I don't see why you shouldn't use it as such.

All the lines are single pairs of bobbins, worked in cloth stitch and twist, with extra twists if necessary.It is up to you how many twists you do, since this depends on the size of the pattern, the thickness of the thread and your own personal preference whether you like loose or tight lace.

Maltese Headside

The pricking pattern on the right doesn't show the passives, or the workers.