Hairpin lace crochet shawl

Made this v shape shawl using a hairpin loom, crochet hook and remnants from other projects. 

These randomly picked colors turned out with its own expression .. bright and beautiful. 

So here’s the picture for you...❤️

Hairpin lace shawl

Hello friends 

I have made quite a few projects although I had not blogged them. 

Here is a hairpin lace shawl I made integrating the loom woven lace with broomstick lace and incorporating the granny too. 

Here are some pictures and I hope you enjoy them. 

This is the finished shawl made with lion brand mixed grey and black yarn. 

This is a close up of the broomstick lace border. It has three cascading layers. I have worked the broomstick around the two edges of the v. I have designed this pattern and will release it shortly. 

You would need the broomstick lace dowel and a hairpin lace loom. 

This was my first chicken scratch when the design first was conceptualized ... 

Here’s the loom in progress...

Here’s the first motif ... with my favorite hand made polymer clay handle for my hook. 

A peacock hairpin lace shawl

Have been longing to crochet with the stained glass unforgettable yarn from Red heart on my hairpin loom. The yarn is silky and pretty to work with. Here are my process pictures. 

One motif at a time the rhythm is soothing ...

After I assembled all the pieces together I carried it with me to weave in the loose ends and add the tassels during my wait time in the car waiting for my friend. 

 Daylight helps in weaving in the ends .. 

Here's the finished shawl. It is triangular in shape. Certainly light weight and breezy design. The link to the pattern is in the "bridal shawl" post. 

The peacock is the national bird of  and I really love the peacock color. 

So light and breezy indeed just as the feathers ..

Hope you liked this piece. 

Facelift for a recliner

Here is a hairpin lace accent that made for someone who had wanted a splash of color for their recliner. A beautiful handwoven woolen shawl hugs the arm rest, while  my handwoven pumpkin colored piece drapes the neck of the recliner. 

I made this piece using my hairpin lace loom and a crochet hook. Simply loved the rhythm of the loom in my hands. 

Hope you like how a little string of yarn can make a recliner look totally new!!

Hairpin lace is a vintage stitch by the way!! 

What a simple clothes hanger can do: Hairpin Lace

Over the years I have used various kinds of hairpin looms, and till date my best liked is the U shaped prong also called the hairpin staple.  This one you see here was self made by me!!  with a clothes hanger. I found some  disadvantages as well as advantages.
Firstly let me explain why I made this.
I wanted something light weight and which did not involve too much of changing of rods and clasps, and which I could just grasp easily. And whilst flipping the loom to and fro weight does matter to me.
So how did I make this?
I simply  took a clothes hanger that we get usually get from the dry cleaner's and snipped one end off, with equal fork length. Hairpin lace is also called fork lace. So in a way a fork has thus been created.

The advantage is the weight and ease of flipping the loom. I particularly like the way it fits snug into the palm of my left hand, with the v portion   pivoting to flip to and fro. The disadvantages are that it is very delicate and has to be held gently. Overall for a quick project it comes in handy. Below are some of the hairpin lace projects that one can do.

Made with Pumpkin from Red Heart.

Made with Bernat Baby Coordinates, lime green.

Made with Bernat Baby Coordinates.

This one was made with Autumn Red from Caron Simply Soft.

This one was made by Caron Simply Soft off white.

This one was made with Caron simply soft off white. Hairpin lace Shawls look awesome  to use with  saris too. You can find the pattern for the broomstick hairpin lace ensemble by clicking HERE. 

Until next time

Lots of love

Shanti

Hairpin or Maltese lace loom shawl Pattern

Hello lovely people,

How have you been?  Thanks for visiting.  I was pondering over  the origin of the hairpin lace and it brought a smile indeed when my  thought travelled all the way back to  the ladies in India who use the hairpin. I have used it too, a couple of times, to put up my hair for festive occasions and I did own pretty ones with embelishments at the tip of the hairpin, and have seen pretty ones that jingle too, with tiny silver bells,  but do not have one to show you now.  Some women have it made in gold and some in silver. However I happened to read  a lovely article written about it by a lovely person with a picture of a hairpin therein that you may want to see and read here. Indian Hairpin

HERE'S MY FINISHED HAIRPIN LACE SHAWL
For a pattern of hairpin broomstick lace shawl click HERE

The origin of this hairpin lace is not known to me, but I have read that it was used in ancient times by women in Europe who had used the hairpin as  a  frame to make a lace by winding the yarn around it,  that therefore the technique came to be known by its name as the "hairpin" lace. The yarn thus wrapped  around the pin is  crocheted into pretty lace. It is also called the Maltese or the Portugese lace. Another name given to this is the "fork" lace. (Yes it does resemble the tuning fork of the piano, that I am aware of as a pianist myself....Oh how I love to play on the piano...isn't it amazing how I have music and the tuning fork embeddeed into my crochet art as well!!). The hairpin as you would have seen in the picture is shaped as a U akin a prong.
This takes my mind to the awesome drive up the Western Ghats in Southern India where the mountains have several "hairpin" bends and one such beautiful mountain  has as much as 40 hairpin bends!! I remember the soft cool white clouds brushing me with every hairpin bend climb....A hairpin is therefore two parallel lines held together in a U shape. Well the sudden turn in every corner in these bends does cause nausea for me..as much as sea sickness everytime I sail!!

MY SHAWL LOOKS LIKE  PRETTY SHELLS STRAIGHT FROM THE OCEAN BED...IT IS  STRAIGHT FROM MY DRAWING BOARD AND LOOM...!!

I am amazed at the origin of names of crochet  techniques, for example the Broomstick lace or the Jiffy lace or the Peacock Eye lace that I crochet often, was named the Broomstick lace because women  in those days after their days work with their  broom sat down in their porch, end of the day, and wrapped pieces of yarn around the  broom handle in their hands, and crochet the loops thus formed into lace. This came to be known as the broomstick lace which is used with a large knitting needle to serve as the handle of the broomstick.  There are more posts on this Broomstick lace in my blog one such is here.

THE HAIRPIN LACE I MADE  SHAWL GOES WELL WITH THIS RUGGED TEXAN HAT AND BOOTS...WILL GO WELL WITH ANYTHING I GUESS!

Back to the hairpin, it certainly is ancient and Victorian. I love to uncover the ancient and integrate that with the modern, and this piece here is therefore an interplay of ancient crochet technique with a spice of the modern. The result is a vibrant play of colors and is akin wrapping oneself with a rainbow..... It is light lacy and large and with luminance wrapped within every strand... Hairpin lace is said to have come into America from Europe. Although the origin is unknown, mention of this technique has been made around the late 1800s that refers to this technique as old fashioned, at that time and so certainly it should have been somewhere around maybe the 13th or 14th century. I have worked with this Hairpin prong as a child, that is shaped like a U. The one that I started working on was made by Pony. Pony is a versatile craft and art store who manufactures the best art supplies. You can see them on facebook here. The one I made this shawl with is with the loom manufactured by Boye you can see the picture here, that comprise of two parallel metal rods held with  plastic clamps,with adjustable widths. 

...GIVES AN  OPEN AND LACY EFFECT AND IS DELICATE AS WELL AS ROOMY..



THIS IS A CLOSE UP FOR YOU..

THIS IS A VIEW OF MY LOOM WEAVING IN PROCESS:


                           

Working on the loom is so comforting with the rythm that it creates in flipping the loom back and forth. It is akin to me playing the piano in octaves. In the octave position my left hand fingers with which I hold the loom has to stretch to grasp the loom almost as if I was stretching my fingers to hit an octave. The rythym is akin the rocking of a  fabric hanging cradle.    In my experience this has by far been the most relaxing because of the rythym that it creates. I shall write another post more on the making of this lace, and in the meantime  please do leave a comment for me here,  I would love to hear from you.
Lots of love
Shanti