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
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:
Lots of love
Shanti
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