Irish Crochet Lessons Buettner

Design Lessons and Instructions 1910

Irish crochet is fascinating because it allows for such freedom in how you use the delicate motifs in your design and its artistry.

In regular crochet, the work progresses in rows or rounds and worked one upon the other by carefully counting out your pattern.

In Irish lace, numerous sprays of flowers, leaves, ball, etc., in more or less conventional style are worked over a cord foundation. these rather sold pieces of crochet are arranged according to your likes or fancy and firmly sewed on a foundation pattern. The spaces between the sprays are then filled in with lace-like bars of crochet and the piece is finished with the edgings characteristics of Irish crochet lace.

In the sprays the cord padding is an important factor, for its tightness or looseness stems or leaves of various designs can be curved in any direction and given a life-like appearance to the flower, which the counted stitches along can never give. The directions for a spray can be followed carefully by two different crocheters and yet give a different result. that in itself is one of the mysteries of crochet.

The object of this article is to help you produce the most artistic work possible, by altering a curve or adding a leaf to any spray you can create a design that is pleasing and you should not hesitate to follow your own artistic eye.

These instructions are intended as a guide and rarely will you find two crocheter’s work alike, and the same spray from these directions by two different people, might turn out to be a different size based on factors such as thread weight and style.

I want my readers to bear in mind as you work each design, that they can add interest to your work by incorporating your original ideas as you become more familiar with the Irish crochet lace..

This article is intended for the experienced as well as the inexperienced crocheter.

Collar and Cuff Set

Lace Edging

The beautiful lace edging shown below looks intricute but is not very difficult for the beginner. It is composed of six different sprays, some very simple and a few are a bit more challenging.

Irish Lace Collar

The large collar shown below is a beautiful piece of work and is an excellent example for this next lesson, as it has three different sprays, one very simple and the other two a bit more elaborate.

Please remember that if you find the more challenging sprays too difficult for you, you can substitute some of the simpler ones and still have a beautiful collar. Any of the sprays which are included will work.

You will learn them in order, giving the easy one first and the most difficult last.

Collar with Jabot

The collar with jabot is composed of one spray, composed of figure 16A and 16B.

Yoke with Collar

Figure 17 shows a beautiful yoke with collar composed of two different sprays. figure 18, which is the very simple way and is used for a number of purposes, is started with the stem. The whole is worked over a cord foundation with double stitches only.

Lace and Collar

The beautiful lace and collar, are both made and composed of the last two sprays described and finished with the edging shown in figure 3.

Drawstring Irish Crochet Lace Bag Pattern

Turnover Collar & Cuff Set Figure 23

Lace with Clover Leaves

Insertion Figure 25

Laces

The next two images, show two very fine laces patterns, which are entirely different from anything you’ve seen so far. They are of older Irish origin. they are formed of a rosette and a six-leaf spray. Both of these designs should be worked in a fine weight thread (60/70), as this lace does not look good if worked in a heavy thread.