Broomstick Lace (M)

Sometimes craft projects are more than just making something. Whether it's a special gift, a challenging project, or a comforting stitch to release some stress, emotions pour into each item.

During this project, it was the memory of my mother struggling to learn broomstick lace, a crochet stitch. I saw the pattern as a teenager and begged my mom to make it for me. She had been knitting and decided to give it a try, but this stitch was different. It was a crochet stitch.  Her good friend ended up the afghan for me. I received it for my 16th birthday and still treasure it today.

After doing a few shawls this fall, I decided it was finally time to give this haunting stitch a try. YouTube to the rescue; I found a video tutorial that made sense. I followed the video closely with one exception; the knitting needle.

The stitch is called broomstick lace because people used a broomstick handle instead of the size 50 knitting needle used in the video. That needle is approximately one inch in diameter so I searched around the house and found an old shower curtain rod. The smooth rod worked better than a wood broomstick handle that might catch the yarn. It also allowed me to start with 100 chains to make a long scarf vs. the shorter rows and "sideways" stitches as I saw in the video.

The project is worked in groups of five. In the picture, you can see five larger loops of yarn which were slid from the "broomstick" and they are joined at the top with five single crochets. Honestly, the first row was a little tricky but, I was loving it by the last few rows and can't wait to spend more time improve my technique.

What I learned is, although you work in groups of five, stuff happens. If you come across a group where you might have missed a single crochet, no worries. Make that a group of four loops and proceed to do the five single crochets, like normal. It will work out in the next row. I remember my mother's frustration when trying to pull out stitches to attain the magic "5" and then struggling to get the stitches back on the broomstick. Often, she would end up pulling it all out and start over.

For minor things, adjust as you go. I highly doubt anyone will go back through the work and count the groups to make sure they all have five large loops. Don't get me wrong, I like to do projects well, but I don't want to drive myself crazy with perfection...when it isn't necessary. Hope that makes sense.

I think the biggest detail when doing broomstick lace is making sure each grouping is directly above the stitch in the previous row. As you work the stitches, you will notice the pattern. Just follow that and keep your tension consistent. Follow the video tutorial and you, too, can do broomstick lace.

Adding fringe, one loop at
a time. Add loops front to back.

Finally, since this was a shawl/scarf, I decided to add a fringe to the two shorter ends. The fringe also helped to cover the yarn changes/knots on the end.

The scarf is eleven rows, mainly because it was made with leftover yarn and that's all I had. If I had to guess, I think I used the equivalent of about three small skeins of a "3" weight yarn. It certainly wasn't as thick and "filled in" as the white Red Heart yarn used in my original afghan. I like the softer texture of the yarn that matches the softer look of the stitches, in my opinion.

Each row took me just over an hour to complete, but keep in mind I was doing this for the first time. I think the last two rows were just under an hour per row.

I am very anxious to do this stitch again. I think it would make nice scarves for gifts, especially with a cashmere or silky-type yarn. I'm also tempted to use a silky yarn with a smaller knitting needle/broomstick and slightly smaller crochet hook, just to experiment.