The Secrets of Successful Irish Crochet Lace (Heritage of Knitting) (Volume 6)

Anyone who can knit can certainly learn to crochet – in many ways crochet is a more easily mastered needle craft. This book includes the basic crochet stitch techniques. And anyone who make simple crochet chains and work a double crochet stitch can make ‘Baby’ Irish Crochet Lace – one of the easiest, and one of the daintiest, of the different types of this delightful form of lace. Increase your crocheting skills by mastering trebles of various heights, add the Clones Knot for special effects, and you’re equipped to make the finest laces your imaginative talents can create. The making of Irish Crochet Lace on a large scale was born of the necessity for many Irish girls and women to earn a few pennies during and after the terrible potato famine years of the 1840s, the years which saw the exodus of so much Irish youth to the United States. Many of those who did not emigrate learned to do exquisite crochet lace, and indeed to create different types of Irish Crochet Lace, without previous experience of this or any other lace craft. So any competent needle crafter knows that it is easily within their power not only to learn to make this unique form of lace, but to make individual laces which can rival any other form of lace making. Use this book to discover Tessa Lorant’s own methods of adapting modern materials and modern techniques to overcome the more laborious aspects of making and finishing Irish Crochet Laces. You will readily create some of the most delightful, individual and absorbing forms of the art of lace making that can be found, and without taking long to learn the skill. The outlay for tools and materials is very small indeed: genuine, enchanting, lasting hand made lace can be fashioned from a steel crochet hook, a 20g ball of fine yarn and your willing hands – wield your hook and turn fine yarn into an intricately wrought, priceless lace. Awake to the delights of fashioning Irish Crochet Lace and you will spend your time in creative and productive joy.