Dame Fashion whimsical though she is - has always approved the wearing of lace. Lace, especially the laboriously worked hand-made ones has adorned the clothes of thousands of the higher echelons of society for centuries! The lace - making industry survived and flourished thanks to the patronage of these people.

The phrase Crochet lace brings to mind beautiful roses and leaves worked in Irish crochet nestled in a web of picots and chains. Irish Crochet Lace is the queen of all types of lace.

Irish Crochet lace is worked in three distinctive styles.
1. Heavily padded
2. Slightly padded and
3. No padding at all.

The heavily padded style is the most durable. The stitches used are mostly chains and double crochet. The best thing about Irish Crochet Lace is that you can give free rein to your imagination as most of the patterns are motifs – not necessarily symmetrical. You can arrange them as sprigs or work a net ground around individual motifs.

Another thing is the same pattern worked by two different people looks different – this is because working tension varies from person to person. Sometimes a flower or a petal you are working on turns out saucer-shaped or frilled instead of lying flat. It is then left to your discretion to reduce or increase the number of dc (double crochet) in the pattern - depending on your individual working tension.

Today, quite a few almost lost techniques are resurfacing thanks to the internet – and thanks to some really generous people who are willing to share – not just their knowledge but also their treasured collection of out – of – print books.

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/completelist.htm - is a site that is a treasure house of some very wonderful books on Irish Crochet lace. If you are a creative Whiz kid and a free spirit the “DMC Irish Crochet Lace” is full of patterns you’d kill for. Download all the wonderful patterns and use them to nurture the creative artistic genius in you.

Tags: crochet, crochet lace, crocheting, irish crochet lace, lace, yarn