Crochet or bobbin lace? - A little guide to lace types (for online sellers?)

I'm not very good at crochet, and I still have not finished that first bobbin lace bookmark. But I understand what the techniques are about, so I was growing increasingly surprised (and slightly annoyed) when I saw many online sellers (including the very knowledgable proprietor of Vintage Textile!) describing what I knew to be bobbin lace (even if of the machine-made-type) as crochet. Why is that? The techniques are completely different! Not only do they work in completely different ways, they usually look different.

It probably would not bug me so much if it went both ways, but it's always bobbin lace labelled as crochet. Are people simply not familiar with the technique of bobbin lace? That would surprise me with Czech sellers; bobbin lace is rather big here. (As in, traditional and admired.) Is crochet somehow considered "desirable", as opposed to bobbin lace?!

I do not want to sound like I'm looking down my nose on crochet because I can't get it right. Consider this:


This is a vintage/antique crochet trim I got from my Wonderful Crafty Grandma. (It was probably originally sewn into a bedding piece or something like that.) It's approx. 4,2 cm wide and 1 m long. All handmade.

So, yes, consider this, as an example of what crochet looks like - click on the picture to see it in detail. Of course, this is a specific style of crochet (filet crochet), and there are other ways that make it look different, with scallops and picots and what-have-you.

(The only other example of crochet lace I found at home...)

But it's still crochet: a technique that works with one continuous thread, working it into chains and what is called "stitches" (English sucks here; it's called "columns" in Czech, which gives you a much better idea of what it looks like). There is never, I repeat, NEVER, a simple, "unworked" thread to be seen in a crochet work.

Unlike here:


This is a machine-made bobbin lace trim (again from my grandma). As you can see, hopefully, bobbin lace is completely different. Bobbin lace is, essentially, a type of weaving. It works with several threads and weaves them together. Sometimes it's quite open, like here.

Sometimes, there are tighter-woven motifs, like here:

But it's still very different from crochet. Simple, "unworked" threads. Weaving structure. Obvious on first sight.

The mix-up would not surprise me so much with this trim:


This is machine made just like the two examples above, and seems to be playing up to the crochet similarity. (BTW, as far as I know, there is no machine-made crochet. Feel free to correct me if you know otherwise. If you know it for a fact.) But if you look closely, you can still see the weaving structure here: there are several threads, not a single continuous one.

So here, that's the one signature difference, and now you should be able to tell crochet trim from bobbin lace.

(Note: Some types of sewn lace can look similar to bobbin lace, but those are rarer. Also, I'm only dealing with the cotton thread kind of lace in this post - I'm not as knowledgeable on the techniques involved in the making of other types of lace, like the - usually artificial fibre - stuff you find on your underwear.)

EDIT: Here are some more examples of what bobbin lace can do, from my grandma's work:





This, by the way, is the butterfly my sister wore in her hair to the Latvian exhibition opening.

Look what I've got! - the supplies edition; A 1930s tidbit and a giveaway at Brambelwood Fashion

(Don't you love long post titles? And posts with lots of tags? I've introduced a new one, "Blog events", to keep track of that kind of posts.)


If you're long-time readers of my blog, you might remember that some time ago, I wrote these bragging posts about things I got from my Wonderful Crafty Grandma TN (taboo name).


I realised there were many things I have not shown you yet. Some of them because I have not taken pictures of them yet, some - like these spiral bones - just because I forgot I have not written about them yet.

So here: spiral bones, apparently taken out from some sort of garment - guessing by their lengths, it was probably some sort of Edwardian bust enhancer. Because that's about the time grandma estimated their age at.
They're kinda aged, but not rusty at all. I may be able to use them again.

And here's a buckle - probably mother-of-pearl? Or is there a way to fake that? Not that I care that much either way. Again, taken from a garment it originally was sewn to.

I'm not sure why, but this very much puts me in mind of a 1940s evening cape or dress with a slit neckline. It'll probably be the dress - I have no use for an evening cape! But it will have to be wool crepe. That's just the way it is in my mind. Getting quality wool fabric in the colour I have in mind won't be fun... so it will take time.

I'll show you more of my little treasures later. With an intermission post explaining the difference between crochet and bobbin lace. You'd think it's obvious. By the number of bobbin lace I've seen described as crochet online, I guess it's not. Thus, a post on the subject.

("Nad Tichým oceánem", illustration by Václav Junek)

Also, somewhere in the meantime I'll probably post some things to go with the blog event at Brambelwood fashion. Today, we were supposed to write a research post on a 1930s subject. I could not really come up with anything worth the name "research", though.

So here's my tidbit, which is not quite historical, rather literary... but hey, it's from 1930s. And there is history, as you will see.

You see, this week I re-read two books (published in one in my 1976 copy) by Czech writer František Flos, who wrote adventurous books for children and is considered one of the first to write such in Czech. They're not just adventurous books, though - these particular ones, Albatros (1935) and Nad Tichým oceánem ("Above Pacific Ocean", 1938), include lots of geographical and biological and cultural info. So, in a way, the books are a product of their age - and their writer's job, because Flos was a teacher - being educational, not just for fun.

But I know I did not mind when I was younger - I actually loved it, because it's not as winded as it sometimes gets in older books, and you almost get a feeling of really being there, as in a documentary. All the while Flos never visited the places he wrote about! Also, there is the historical background as well - a bit of it - you learn which Pacific islands belonged to which colonial country, and the growing tension between Japan on one side and Britain and USA on the other is hinted at. Flos proved to be a bit of a prophet there, suggesting that Japan would surprise Britain and the USA in the Pacific ocean... It's the sort of thing you only realise as an adult, and only if you know when the book was originally published.

(And it goes to show what C. S. Lewis wrote, that, really, the only children's books worth reading are those you enjoy as an adult as well. These are definitely such books.)


Ashley is also hosting a giveaway of modest swimwear. Isn't it wonderful that there's a company selling that? I always feel self-conscious in my swimwear. :P My sister partly solved that by wearing a choli. But a swimdress? What a nice idea!

Latvian klezmer (sort of)

Father pointed me in the way of this video. A former metal band and a klezmer band, blending two songs into one? And somehow, it works.

Blog award, and search terms

MrsC did me a great favour and nominated me for a blog award. I mean, that means someone reads my blog, and enjoys it, and that means what I'm doing here, sitting in front of a computer, does have some meaning for someone, not just me. That's very nice for a blogger to know.

As blogger awards usually do, this one also comes with the obligation to nominate other people. Five people who have under 200 followers. I'm not sure I'll come up with five, but let's see...

Jan-ul, whom I happen to know, a little bit, in real life, and who makes all sorts of beautiful things and shares tidbits from her life on her blog - it's an ecclectic mix, but all of it is interesting in some way. She definitely deserves more followers than the few she's got now.

She Wears Shwe shwe - I have no idea how many followers she's got, but she's certainly getting next to no comments (and I'm definitely partly to blame myself, because often I don't know what to say, I'm just staring in awe). So head her way, please. You'll get to see lots of beautiful South African fabric. That's always a good thing, right?

Searching for a Balance - ditto about followers. Lisa's blog is thoughtful and fun and nice to look at, and shares all those pretty little things in one's life, the beauty of kitchen dishes and cats sitting on windowsills... I can relate.

Peanut Butter Macramé - only 48 followers? I did not expect her to make it on this list. Lady Katza makes such fabulous outfits that that number is really beyond me! And yes, outfits. She makes pretty clothes and styles them fabulously.

Sew And So - One of the first I thought of, but originally I thought the borderline was 100 followers, and was a bit sad (and happy at the same time) to see Becky had 108 or some such number listed. But, hey, it's 200, so she makes it - I love her blog. I don't read it quite regularly, but I love it. It's one of the first sewing blogs I ever read. She writes in such detail about her sewing, and does a lot of refashioning which I like.

So that's five people in the end! And I suppose I could find more. Maybe I'll start my own blog award to honour them. :-)

In other "news", I looked into my Blogger statistics, after some time, and looked at the search terms - a regular blogger entertainment. It's a bit funny, but mostly weird, and also humbling, because I'm in no way an expert on the things people search for.

Why do three of the search terms that come up regularly have something to do with Edwardian clothing, when I made it quite clear here that it's not an area I'm knowledgeable, or particularly interested in? That's what makes searching blogs for information so... unreliable. But also fun, because you often get to see the things you search for through other ordinary people's eyes.

My favourite search term is "estonian silver jewelry brooch traditional dress tallinn". It's a bit of an obligation. One day, I promise myself, I will have a post on my blog that will fulfill that search. (Currently, it leads to the Latvian folk costumes in Ventspils. A lot of a leeway there.)

The Literary Heroine Blog Party 2012

Kellie is holding another Literary Heroine Blog Party!

The questions in this year’s questionnaire are similar to last year’s, so I’m leaving some of them out, because I’ve already answered them.

Introduce yourself! Divulge your life's vision, likes, dislikes, aspirations, or something completely random!

Completely random likes: I like the smell of phloxes (my favourite flowers EVER), clover, gum/resin (the stuff that comes out of trees when you cut them – never would cut trees just for it, though!), our cats‘ hair (it’s such a lovely, dry, warm smell).

Five of your favorite historical novels?
Still the same as last time, I think: Filosofská historie, Pan Tadeusz, The Secret of the Kingdom, Quo Vadis, Silver Rose/Green Brigade. I was considering others that could go on that list, but in the end I decided these pretty much summed up everything I like in historical novels.
Out of those five books who is your favorite main character and why?I don’t remember the name of the hero of Green Brigade anymore :-(, but I liked him a lot. He was young, and still searching for his place in the world, but already had ideas for what was right and what was wrong and what he wanted to do. Just looking for ways to do what was right. Also, he was the chivalrous sort of hero. I liked that. Simple.
Out of those five books who is your favorite secondary character and why?
Hard to decide between so many characters! Especially as with some of the books it’s difficult to decide who is a main character and who is secondary.
I love many of the “figures“ in Pan Tadeusz, and Robak (whom I listed as my favourite character last time) is probably a secondary character; but I think my favourite secondary character from all those books is actually Frybort from Filosofská historie, because he’s fun as a secondary character. He does not take life very seriously; yet he takes some things in life seriously (and has fun doing them). It’s a refreshing sort of character to read about.

If you were to plan out your dream vacation, where would you travel to - and what would you plan to do there?
One of my dream vacations from last year happened! And I did nearly everything I wanted to do there...
I think for the purposes of this year’s questionnaire, I’ll pick Wales. and I would do lots of hiking, and visit the old mines, and old railways, and old buildings, and whatever else old is there to see. :-)

What is your favorite time period and culture to read about?My fascination of last year is diminished now. See, I do not look for time periods and cultures in books, I rather look for good stories written well.
But out of those five historical books I listed, two take place in the first century and among the first Christians; another book I considered listing also takes place around there. So I guess that could be it; probably because there are good stories to tell about that time and setting.

If you were to attend a party where each guest was to portray a heroine of literature, who would you select to represent?I’d still enjoy being one of the heroines of Božena Němcová’s fairy-tales; but I’ve been thinking about Susan Pevensie a lot lately, so perhaps I’d be her. An England Susan Pevensie who’s coming to terms with her life and what her time in Narnia actually meant for her and that yes, it did happen. Something like that.

Besides essentials, what would you take on a visiting voyage to a foreign land?My old panda teddy (made by my aunt; I got him when I was four or some such age). He goes with me nearly everywhere, now it’s a habit. The photo below is from my first time abroad ever, in Austria in 1999.

In your opinion, the ultimate hero in literature is…
I kind of backed away from this question last time. I have to agree with one of the other participants, though: for me, it’s definitely Jesus. I did not realise it last time, but he was my first hero ever, and all the others have some aspects of him in them, I think.
Some of the others: Winnetou, Edmund Pevensie / King Edmund the Just, Jarka Metelka, John Walker, Zayne Carrick.
Do not worry if you do not know them. I think I’m going to do a series of posts on my favourite heroes. One day. For now, why I like them:
Winnetou (from Karl May’s books) for being noble and a proponent of peaceful solutions, and not speaking more than necessary, and being the amazing sort of hero who likes apple strudel and tells the lady who made it.
Edmund for becoming better than he used to be, and being a good brother and a good king and a good person overall. And knowing railway lines and connections.
Jarka Metelka (who comes from a Czech comics and books series) for being generally awesome yet very humble, never stealing the spotlights. He can be funny, too, which is a nice quality in a character.
“Captain” John Walker (from Arthur Ransome’s books) for always doing his best, and admitting failures. For doing things for others, not for himself.
Zayne Carrick (who comes from the only Star Wars comics series I’d love to own one day, and here’s why:) for being one of the best heroes ever. In such an unexpected setting, no less. He’s clumsy and makes mistakes, i.e. he’s human; but he’s always doing what he thinks right, always thinks of others, however lowly or adversary they may be, and does things for others, even giving up his own safety (potentially life) for others. And he never kills anybody. John Jackson Miller, I like your hero of Star Wars more than the original ones. Much more.

Sum up your fashion style in five words.Eclectic. Reckless. Classic and elegant wannabe. (OK, that’s six words. Please, disregard “and”.)

Share the most significant event(s) that have marked your life in the past year.
The Baltics. Especially the few days at Karitsa, which I will hopefully finally write about soon. It was such a special time.
(I’m looking a bit beaten in some of the photos; I had a running nose as a reaction to heats. The fact that it disappeared eventually and never came back that summer is one of those great things that happened in Karitsa. A small great thing.)

Share the Bible passage(s) that have been most inspiring to you recently.
“Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.” – 1 John, 3,3
One of the biggest revelations to me recently. Not exactly the verse itself; the discovery that the words I put into one of my characters’ mouth years and years ago are actually based on an actual biblical verse. It felt right when I wrote it; now I know why.
And it’s something that’s inspiring to me right now.

"Josh, who do you think is a pure man? Spiritually."
"Spiritually? Nobody of mankind."
Vladyka grew a little sadder. Josh's hand took his shoulders and lead him out.
"Look at the sky," said Josh. Vladyka looked up. There was an amazing expanse of wonderful pure and fresh blue colour spread above them - such a great wonder on the first of October.
"This is pure. See? It's a great miracle. Now it's incredible having no clouds in the sky; they will certainly come soon. But you will remember this beautiful one. And it will stay beautiful… If you try being pure you will be pure for others. They will appreciate you as someone who wants to be pure, does something for it and there is something of it in him, and then that awareness of the purity remains. Understood?"
"Perhaps. And what does being pure mean?"
"Well, this is difficult. But it contains unselfishness, kindness, self-denial, humility and such things. You know, like not keeping good things only for yourself and avoiding bad things. Nobody knows exactly. God knows. Don‘t you mind me speaking in such way?"
"No, actually."
"Well, Jesus was like that… Perhaps this could help you."

Refashioning, Alabama style

It's the style of Alabama Studio and Natalie Chanin, but I am only obliged for it to Anna of Pleasant View Schoolhouse.

My design placement is much more random than theirs. It's because I'm trying to cover stains on the T-shirt. There will be much more of the appliques; right now, it's on a slightly weird spot - because the stains were on a slightly weird spot.

I'm using motifs from a border pattern I found years ago on Nedlecrafter.com, and some I am inventing myself as I go. I hope the end result will look fine...

The Baltics 2011: Tallinn, part 4 - The flower festival 1

There is finally, truly winter outdoors - not just temperatures under zero, which they have been for quite a long time now, but also SNOW! Sparkling in the afternoon sun; and I'm sitting inside, in the warmth... of 18 degrees Celsius. *ahem*
So, let's go back to summer and flowers!

Because there was a flower festival in Tallinn. There were themeatic flower arrangements (or whatever you'd call it) - now that I look through my photos, it seems most of the themes were "Rahvusmustrid" ("National patterns") or "Rannaküla aed" ("Coastal village garden") - I guess the themes were set? Most of them were created by Estonians, but there were some by people from other countries as well.



It was situated outside the old city walls, at the North-West side, I think.



This arrangement was called "Fisherman's Dream".















Cornflower is Estonia's national flower.







This "national pattern" was inspired by crop circles.





While this "national pattern" display was inspired by prehistoric artifacts.



Here's one traditional folk pattern.





And one, I presume, traditional garden.


In the meantime, the temperature in the house has risen to 20 degrees, which is more pleasant to live in. More flowers next time. :-)