Crochet: Broomstick Lace Pattern

Darling Daughter is the perfect model!

As a joke or in all seriousness, Hubby Dearest gave me a book, I Taught Myself to Crochet, for my birthday in November. I love the little tools that came with the book and am not fully sure how most of them work. However, the best part of the whole bit was finding a beautiful, wispy, Oh-gosh-that-is-so-pretty-it-must-be-super-complicated stitch...the Broomstick Lace.


Reading the book, Sosie beat herself up for an entire night learning the stitch. I tried for a week to decipher the instructions. BLAH! Who needs that when there's YouTube. I watched two videos, and ten minutes later I was knocking it out. I was so excited with my practice swatch that Hubby Dearest ran to Wallyworld in search of a broomstick that I could take with me anywhere. His genius...the handle of a toilet plunger (new, never used for its intended purpose...gack!).




Supplies: Crochet Hook, Broomstick, Yarn, Three Hands
or two and your knees and armpits.

Here are the directions according to my crazy way of doing things:


1. Chain in multiples of five, four or three...I chained 25 for this lovely Baby Alpaca (not baby seal, Chad) scarf.

2. On your last chain, pull the loop around your broomstick, plunger handle or very, very, very large knitting needle.


3. Then go into all 25 chains, yarn over and pull the loop through, using the plunger handle to hold your loops. If you fancy a blanket instead of a scarf, you may need the broomstick to hold them all. The wrap I am also working on has 255 instead of 25 and it's only a couple of feet wide. Also, you may see that you need three hands to make all this happen. It's not very lady like (sorry Mama) but I hold the plunger handle with my knees (TWSS, Sosie) while pulling the loops through.


Grab 5 loops

4. From my knees to my arm pit...I place the plunger handle under my armpit to hold it in place for the next step. Okay, you should have 25 loops on your plunger. Slide your crochet needle into the first five loops on the handle and gently pull them off all together. Yarn over the end of your crochet needle and pull through all five loops to single crochet. Repeat this five more times. You should have a little arch on top of your twisted pretty pretty.


Work in multiples of 5, 4 or 3...

5. Repeat step 4 for the rest of the line.

6. For the next row you repeat step 3, pulling yarn through the arch row (you can go through only the front or only the back or both the front and back...your preference).