Hairpin Lace and Bonus Photos

crochet, homemade, Reflections

It seems so long ago that I wrote about buying a loom to make hairpin lace. It was certainly before all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and it wasn’t until after Christmas that I figured out how to use the loom.

For my first project I chose this infinity scarf. The link to the pattern has a detailed video which includes both making the hairpin lace and constructing the scarf. I used a different type of yarn so my results are different from the one created in the video.  I took a few photos during the process to give you an idea of how this works.

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To create hairpin lace the yarn is looped around the pegs of the loom and each loop is secured in place by a crochet stitch. On this loom both the top and bottom cross bars are removable and there are holes at various distances so the hairpin lace can be made different widths.

At first I found it quite awkward using both the loom and the crochet hook but after a while I was able to get into a rhythm and it went quite quickly from there.

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To remove the lace from the loom I only had to remove the bottom cross bar then slide the lace off of the pegs. While this piece has about 30 loops on each side, the scarf I made had four strips like this each with 240 loops on each side.

After I had all four strips made, I joined them together by slipping five loops of one strip though five loops of a second strip then slipping the next five loops of the first strip though those five loops. This process was repeated though the entire length of the strips and created the braided or rope-like appearance. I didn’t get any photos of that process but it can be viewed in the above video. The edges were finished by slipping five loops of the strip over the next five loops of the same strip and repeating the process along the entire edge.

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This is the finished scarf. I like the braided effect and can see this process being used to make an afghan, poncho or ear warmer. In fact I have decided to make an ear warmer using this design.

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This design is one of many ways that hairpin lace can be used, and from the beautiful, intricate items I am seeing made with it, I would guess this is probably one the easier method of using it.

Now for a couple of bonus photos.

My sister KC, the one that has been teaching me how to sew, made me this really cute hat for my birthday.

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She also made matching bandanas for the dogs. LOL. Her fabric choices were perfect.

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If you look closely you can see the white fabric has red barns, windmills, chickens and  sunflowers – it’s like this fabric was made for me. The yellow print is filled with honey bees. She knows me well!

What do you think of pets dressed to match their people?

35 thoughts on “Hairpin Lace and Bonus Photos”

  2. That’s a really pretty scary! I love the colors and how it looks braided. The hat and matching dog bandanas were a great present! I love sunflowers. 🙂 I hope you had a wonderful birthday!

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    1. Thanks Michelle. I like using variegated yarns when making scarfs. It makes each one unique. The hat is light weight and will be perfect for summer – I usually just wear a ball cap style hat when when mowing grass or fields so am looking forward to changing that out for this hat. I did have a very nice birthday. Thank you!

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  3. You can make lace?. That is so cool. I just bought an old doll dress with some lace on it and it is so dainty and pretty. Love the hat and the matching dog bandannas. I think it is so cute when animals match with their owners. It puts smiles on people’s faces and gets strangers to interact and talk to one another too, which is always good. What about pets that look exactly like their owners. I think they have a book somewhere on that. That one always makes me laugh. It’s all good.

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    1. If you search “hairpin lace” you can see many different designs made with this. So gorgeous! She did a great job on the hat and bandanas. I’m not sure if the boys will wear the bandanas but if they won’t I might. LOL! It is so funny when people look like their pets. 🙂

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    1. Hi Rory. thanks for thinking of me. I am going to pass since I currently have several drafts that need finishing and I feel it best to stayed focused on them. Wishing you all the best in the 2020’s. 🙂

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  8. The finished scarf turned out awesome. I love how you always challenge yourself to learn new things. Hope you had a happy birthday!

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  9. I am going to have to watch that video, I have never seen work such as that on your scarf, it looks awesome.
    as to your dogs and you who cares. If you are happy and they are that is the important thing, and I dont mind a dog in a bandanna myself. I love the materials. Such wonderful and sincerely personal special gifts.

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    1. I thought the video was really well done and very helpful. Personally if I decided to dress the boys like me I don’t care what others think. Since our time is mostly spend on the farm we wouldn’t see many people anyway. I just wonder if matching outfits is something people would buy. I tend to think they would but I’m not really a good judge of trendy things.

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  11. You made a wonderful job on the loom for your first creation Ruth. You’ll get a chance to use it as the “real Winter” prepares to make an entrance this weekend. How cute with the hat in your favorite prints – I could easily see the red barns, windmills, chickens and sunflowers and the honey bees in the other print. That was very thoughtful of your sister and you match the pooches who will look exceptional in their bandanas! 🙂

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    1. Thanks Linda. This weekend will be good for crocheting as long as the power stays on. I’m not sure I could pull it off in the low light of an oil lamp. I haven’t dressed up the boys yet because of all the mud and muck we are tromping through. I was so surprised to see that fabric that captured so many elements of our farm.
      Stay safe this weekend.

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      1. You are right about that Ruth – you stay safe as well as you may encounter some ice … so far for us, it seems we will just encounter all the torrential rain. It has been pouring for hours here – probably the same for you. I understand they have 200 linemen from neighboring states and they and our DTE and Consumers linemen have already parked their rigs in strategic locations where they expect the worst of the ice damage to hit … l am glad they are proactive anyway.
        I went and checked my gutters yesterday on the advice of Paul Gross from Click on Detroit and was amazed to find lots of leaves had gathered at the openings of the downspouts in the back – cleared that away and went and cleared the storm drain nearby to hopefully thwart any issues … people had blown their leaves and debris into the street and it had collected on top so I was glad I went. You stay safe too Ruth – I know you have measures in place to keep warm – you would not have to open your door except to let the boys out … you’ll have to take a picture of them to show us their bandanas when the rain, mud and mucky weather are gone.

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      2. We have more standing water at the farm this morning than we have seen in the past. It’s coming down faster than it can run off. My husband cleaned out our gutter yesterday as well. We have done what we can to be ready but I’ll be glad when it is over.

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      3. The weathermen were saying it was too cold for the water to seep in and likely would run off – that’s too bad and I hope your garlic does not have problems as a result.

        I hope you did not lose power or suffer with the ice – on WWJ they have had a U of M hockey game on since 5:30 and I think it is finally ending and it is 9:00 p.m. I wanted to hear how everyone is faring with this bad ice. I know there are 200 linemen brought in from three other states to help with downed wires and power outages. Good thing you got the gutters cleaned again. My handyman did them the day before Thanksgiving, but we have a lot of big old trees behind my house and those leaves were not all down yet. I do not care for this new norm for Winters. Stay safe Ruth.

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      4. We had a brown out for several hours last night so had to turn of furnace, fridge and freezer until it came back up to full power. It didn’t get too cold in the house so it was just an inconvenience.

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      5. They said today that they thought it was going to be much worse and the temps just a few warmer than expected helped out a lot. We have freezing rain again tonight unfortunately – but the 40+ degree temps on Tuesday should clear the ice. Glad you did not have too much happening there and you shut down everything before the jolt when it came back to normal. When I got the new furnace and A/C in 2012 I got a whole-house surge suppressor as I worried about brownouts and power outages after I had an issue with my A/C.

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      7. The ice is melted in my driveway, though it was not this morning when I went out – we had a little snow last night as well as freezing rain and was still pretty slippery. It is warm most of the week, then freezing rain/snow on Friday afternoon. How many days until Spring Ruth? (Not that a calendar date means anything anymore in this wacky weather.)

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