Atwater-Bronson Lace Pick-up

Along with finishing weaving the rag rug last night, I also finished the hems (by machine) on the Atwater-Bronson lace towel I was working on.  This towel is a sampler of designs I drew on graph paper, when I was playing around with the possibilities for this lace pick-up technique.  There are twelve squares, each with a different design.  Each square consists of 10 x 10 lace blocks.  Each lace block consists of eight warp threads and eight weft picks.

I divided the designs into groups depending on how many blocks each required.  I just kept drawing until I had enough designs for what I wanted to do.  Since my squares were 10 x 10 blocks, I needed to use an even number design, or the design wouldn't be centered.  If I used the designs that are 7 or 9 blocks wide, I would thread an uneven number of lace blocks.  The x part of the design turns out as plain weave when woven.

This is one half of the towel.  The designs from my graph are:
Top row: 8-G, 6-E, 8-F
Bottom row: 6-I, 8-E, 6-B

This is the other end of the towel.  The patterns are:   Top row:  6-A, 8-H, 6-B (minus 4 x's).  Bottom row:  8-L (minus 4 x's), 6-C, 8-I

This is a very easy weave structure, and the treadling sequence is very easy to memorize.  My grandson Davey (age 8) was over last weekend, and he was able to weave some of it, and understood the pickup on this simple pattern, which is only 4 blocks wide by 3 blocks high:

As I mentioned in a previous post, this pickup idea came from an article by Bob Owen in the March/April 1992 issue of Handwoven, pg. 56-57.

If I was going to change anything the next time, I would have more lace, and less plain weave divisions.  But then, the possibilities are just about endless.  Unfortunately, I will probably not have enough time to ever weave all my ideas.

I'm going out to get that rag rug off the loom now.