100 Days of Lace

As a young teen I used to buy crochet pamphlets at our local TG&Y store. Many of them contained patterns for lace items such as table cloths, doilies, place mats, coasters and bedspreads. I spent more time looking at the pictures and imaging the time it would take to create any one of these lacy delights. My dream was a bedspread. I did not have the skills or the endurance to complete these complicated projects; therefore, I never made anything. The pleasure of looking and dreaming was sufficient. This was the beginning of my fascination with crochet lace.

Visiting a vacation rental in Fredericksburg, Texas helped me fulfill my bedspread dream.

What Is The 100 Day Project?

If you are not familiar with The 100 Day Project, it is an online challenge for artists, makers, creatives of any kind, to set aside time each day to work on a specified project for 100 days. Some people, like me, do multiple small things in one discipline, others work towards the completion of one piece of art, writing, or whatever their project entails; still others simply focus on doing anything creative for a few minutes everyday for one hundred days. The goal isn’t as much the production as it is the process. Learning to live and think creatively and do something every single day. After a period of highly focused work during the challenge, I generally take a “rest” which ends up being unfocused playing for the rest of the year. My goal for this year is to take what I have learned and the structure of the experience, and maintain it for the rest of the year.

What To Do?

Decision making is always difficult for me; this year was no exception. It got so all-consuming that I nearly decided to not do it at all; then I thought about all that I learned each time I put in the work. It is so totally worth the effort.

In the past I have tried spinning a mini hank of yarn on a spindle, weaving small squares on hand-held looms, but only some form of crochet exploration kept my creativity and interest enough to complete the project. Freeform is my wheelhouse; I am completely comfortable crocheting without a pattern or end product in mind. Often, once a piece is complete, a purpose (generally artistic or decorative) becomes apparent, or it is just a crochet doodle that makes me completely happy. A strong desire to push my skills and perseverance led me to decide on crocheting lace motifs from pattern books. For me, following patterns is a chore; my mind wanders, and I begin to just go rogue and freeform something. It is fun but I don’t grow. Stagnation is the opposite of creativity.

The Beginning Of A Dream

There is so much about crochet lace that I love.

I love the historical significance which led to the popularity of this form of needlework.

I love that for so many, crochet lace in the home was a part of their childhood. Mothers or grandmothers, who wanted to create an affordably beautiful home, made doilies, lace edgings, or antimacassars (the doily for the back of furniture to protect them from men’s hair oils), bedspreads or table coverings. A trip to vintage or antique stores can become a tribute to the hours of work put into making these amazing textiles. My grandmother was one of those women. Fortunately I have a few pieces of her crochet in my collection.

Doilies have become much maligned and reviled in both the modern crochet and general populations. Much of it, I believe, is because it is a form of needlework done by women at a time when women had few choices beyond being a housewife and mother. They are viewed as objects of repression. I have quite a different opinion on the subject. But that is for another day.

My Goal For 2025

As I thought about what I wanted to do for the next 100 days, I asked myself,

“What are the essential elements of crochet lace?”

Most crocheters are familiar with stitch patterns such as V Stitch, Mesh Stitch, Pineapple Stitch, and lace versions of Shells and Fans.

I poured over my stitch dictionaries and looked at patterns from the 1800s forward looking for commonalities. I want to gather the elements and categorize them so that I can create lace and then confidently teach lace crochet.

Every day, for at least the first fifty days, I will crochet some kind of lace. Some of the work will be freeform style lace, but I am going to discipline myself to use patterns most of the time. Then, for the remainder of the project, I will use the Irish crochet method of joining the pieces by crocheting a mesh background. I have never done this and, I believe, it is the beginning of the body of work I have longed to take on and complete.

Here is this week’s work.

I will post my work on Instagram, as well as here and on my Substack page.
Until next time, happy crocheting!

A Hook & Thread

This is where it all began for me as well as countless crocheters like me. Inspiration in a magazine - back in the day when that was the main avenue to receive the latest crochet designs - sparked a desire to use these simple tools to create something where before there was only a dream.

I didn’t have structured crochet training. I learned the basics from my Girl Scout leader, but then I was on my own to figure things out. A ball of Aunt Lydias Crochet Cotton and a steel crochet hook could keep me busy for hours. I just played with stitches, ending up with stacks of what we now call swatches that I am sure I left scattered all over the house only to be thrown away. I can still remember my dad, seeing that I was hard at work he asked, “What are you making?” My standard reply was, “Nothing.” This response didn’t make sense to my Greatest Generation parents for whom everything must have a purpose to have value. In their world, there was no time to make things that didn’t serve a purpose, even if that purpose was decorative. Having internalized their puzzled responses, I soon turned to patterns so that I could actually make something of “value.” This, as a general rule did not work out well for me. More on that in another post.

Playing is still my favorite thing to do with thread and a hook, I am just a bit more intentional with my work. Each piece - or scrumble as they are known in the freeform crochet world - has inherent beauty and value to me. They are carefully stored and from time to time I take them out and admire them. Each one brings pleasure and the reward of creating something unique.

Assorted crochet pieces from The 100 Day Project

These days I use inspiration from nature, microscopic photography, Zentangle drawings, and the work of classic crochet lace from the past to create small pieces of crochet. These were simply studies done as a part of The 100 Day Project from several years ago. Each day for 100 days I crocheted something using thread. Sometimes they were lace, other times, they were textured shapes. All served a purpose for me on this journey in crochet art.

I will be doing The 100 Day Project again this year. Next week I will have my project and supplies ready to photograph and then begin. I hope you come back to see what I will be doing for the next one hundred days.