I've had a number of conversations with people both in person or on line about what to expect when you buy a lace pattern.
There has been a recent trend with designers providing explicit instructions with their patterns and some even provide YouTube videos to help with key parts of the pattern.
This is great, but it has a number of issues.
Testing
If the instructions are not tested properly, then the inexperienced lacemaker will become disheartened and at best, not make the pattern, at worst, be put off lacemaking
Understanding Prickings / Reliance on Instructions
Learning to read a pattern should be a key part of every lacemaker's evolution.
It gives confidence, speeds up your lacemaking and opens up many patterns where no instructions are offered. However, being reliant on instructions stops you from embedding the techniques in your mind.
If you make a mistake reading the instructions it is harder to read the lace back to see where the mistake was because you don't have the understanding of what you have done.
Think of it as the difference between trying to read a newspaper in another language and having to use either a dictionary or google translate compared to being fluent in that language.
One of the key things that, as a teacher, I have experienced, is that it gives false confidence. I have had people come to me who have made an intermediate piece that came with instructions and now want to try a similar piece that has none and it is a real shock that they have no understanding on how to make the lace.
I will break down the techniques in the pattern they want to make and together we will choose 3 or 4 pieces that will them them the knowledge and confidence to attempt the piece they want to make. I will never tell a student that they can't make a piece, I will always show them how to gain the skills to make it.
Providing instructions is not a global thing
If you limit yourself to only making lace where you have instructions then you are restricting what patterns you can access.
Most continental designers do not provide instructions, in fact, many don't even provide a photograph of the finished item.
If you look at my book blog, only a quarter of the books that have patterns, that I have logged, have any form of instruction with them and most of those are beginner instruction books.
Where designers created during the 80s through to the turn of the century, most did not provide instructions and a number of these designers are now dead. If you rely on instructions you are closing down your access to these amazing patterns.
So why are these patterns without instructions 'so expensive'?
That is an easy answer.
You are relating cost to the number of pages that you get.
Whereas, for most designers, the price reflects the time and knowledge it took to create the design.
So, what should I get when I buy a pattern?
Simple answer - the pattern. Anything else is a bonus.
Comments (1)
Lynne Murray
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Well said