Good morning, it's nearing the end of August and soon to be my very favourite time of year, Autumn. The passing of another month brings more lessons that I've learned in Irish Crochet. I'm currently teaching myself Irish Crochet, and working my way through the 112 year old book Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No1 which I downloaded from The Antique Pattern Library. I found myself working much faster this month, the lessons I learned from the first motifs became the foundation blocks for the next. I've listed all the motifs I've completed below along with photographs of the finished pieces, the main tips I found helpful / lessons learned for each motif.
Jump straight to:
Fig 26 (page 7)
Fig 27 (page 8)
Fig 28 (page 8)
Fig 29 (page 8)
Fig 30 (page 8)
Fig 31 (page 9)
Fig 32 (page 9)
Fig 33 (page 9)
Fig 34 (page 9)
Fig 35 (page 10)
Fig 36 (page 10)
Fig 37 (page 10)
Fig 38 (page 10)
Fig 39 (page 11)
Fig 40 (page 11)
Fig 41 (page 11)
Fig 42 (page 11)
Fig 43 (page 11)
General note: I work & write with UK Terminology.
AUGUST: IRISH CROCHET LACE MOTIFS (page 7 - 12)
Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No1 (from The Antique Pattern Library)
Fig 26 (page 7)
Helpful for: learning how elements of bigger motifs are assembled
I was very excited to begin this motif as it was the first design in the book that had a few different elements. I made this motif twice as I didn't pull the padding cord tightly enough in my first attempt and I felt the motif lacked good shape. The instructions are clear in the book for this, however I would be mindful of ensuring you're always working on the right side.

Fig 26 notes.

Ensure to keep good tension in padding cord so that there is a nice shape to each different element of the motif
This motif is a good exercise in how a motif can be assembled - by working from a centre ring and padding cord. But also how you can add further rings to the main ring to build your design out from there. To put it simply: The pattern begins by making a ring, then you add padding cord and make the first spiral out (very left "leg"), then work back to the ring on that spiral. Then you make a few stitches over the PC on the centre ring to move your work over to the right a bit and then start to work on the PC again to make another spiral out & then again work back to the ring. Finally you make a few more DC stitches on the ring and then make the final "leg" of the pattern (to the right of the centre ring). For the last step you make a separate ring (top left) and join it to the side of the centre ring.
Fig 27 The Shamrock (page 8)
Helpful for: learning how to begin to shape a motif
Oh how I love this pattern, it's such a beautiful design and feels very satisfying to see a well known shape by the completion of this pattern! I don't have any notes on this pattern as I think the instructions are quite clear in the book - but please let me know if you have any questions!


Fig 28 (page 8)
Helpful for: Beginning to understand the construction of more complex motifs. Practicing joining rings together on a motif.

I decided to write this pattern out into steps (from the instructions in the book) and then draw the motif out & number the sections in the order that they would be constructed- this helped give me some clarity on which part of the motif I was working on. See below for padding cord notes.


Fig 28 notes.
"R to C" means return to centre - meaning work back the way you came to the centre ring
DTC = Double Treble Crochet (UK Term) Thread over hook twice, hook through work, thread over & bring back = 4 loops on hook. Thread over and draw through two loops, thread over and draw through next two loops, thread over and draw through final two loops.
Padding Cord - For the horizontal bar (above the main picot ring and the 9 small bars) the pattern doesn't mention padding cord here but next time I would add padding cord to this part and the triangles above if possible.
Fig 29 (page 8)
Helpful for: practicing picots and learning to construct motifs with different elements
Trust the process, and the instructions! That was my main takeaway from this motif... I made the centre ring slightly too big but this is more a style decision that you can make..See below for some more notes.


Fig 29 notes.
The rings at the top of this motif are made the same as in figure 28.
The centre of this motif is the same as the beginning of the figure 27 shamrock motif - making a centre ring, then shamrock like shape around it.
Construction; After this you make two rounds of picots, the five rings at the top, the three piece leaf to the left, the stem at the bottom and then you separately make and join the 3 rings to the right. So you are working : central, top and then anti clockwise.
Fig 30 (page 9)
Helpful for: practicing picots & rings and joining rings
This pattern isn't for a maker in a rush! I'd suggest maybe sitting in front of a nice film, making all your rings first and then beginning on your picots. It took me 1.5 hours to do three rounds of picots - see below for some further notes...


Fig 30 notes.
Tip: Put a row of DC (SC in US terms) in between your rows of picots, working into the back loop of the the stitch the picot was worked into
For the first round of picots I did 4 chain picots, the 2nd round I did 5 chain picots, the 3rd round 6 chain picots.
Fig 31 (page 9)
Helpful for: understanding construction of a motif
I numbered the workflow of the construction of this motif below - so it's easier to know which part of the pattern you are working on..
Tip: Put a row of DC (SC in US terms) in between your rows of picots, working into the back loop of the the stitch the picot was worked into. My first round of picots were 5 chain picots, 2nd round of picots were 6 chain, 3rd round of picots were 7 chain.



Fig 32, 33 & 34 (page 9)
I grouped all of these together as they are variations of each other / previous motifs - they are excellent for practicing your picots! My centre in figure 33 is back to front I think, so I need to work this one up again in the future. That particular section of the motif is a little confusing when figuring out the right side and wrong side so I suggest reading the instructions carefully and taking your time :)

Fig 35 (page 10)
Helpful for: creating a design with seperate ring elements / learning to attach rings into a motif / practicing working on padding cord


Fig 35 notes.
The way I made it: 1. Made 10 separate rings, surrounded the 10th ring with 2 rounds of picots [1 round of picots, 1 round of DC, 1 round of picots] then made a 35DC stem with picots (on a padding cord). Lastly I sewed the remainder 9 rings into position and made the 35DC scroll separately and sewed it into the top of the motif.
Fig 36 (page 10)
Helpful for: learning to create netting effect in a motif
I adored creating this motif, it's a wonderful way to learn how to do a netting style effect in your motifs. I'm definitely going to make it again soon. One important tip - don't apply make up with your hands or eat chocolate with your hands on days when you'll be doing Irish Crochet (insert crying face!). I stained half of my motif because of this (hence the black and white photo), even though I thoroughly washed my hands somehow marks still made their way onto my white thread....


Fig 37 (page 10/11)
Helpful for: practicing picots, rings and padding cord stem
This is worked up like figure 30, except you stop at 7 rings and work your way around the centre to make a stem. I didn't pull the padding cord tension tightly enough on the stem in this motif - you can see the difference between my motif stem (left) and the books motif stem (right)


Fig 38 (page 10/11)
Helpful for: practicing working on padding cord
My version of this motif is quite small as I'm currently working on size 70 working thread and a 0.85mm hook. If you look at the rows to the right of the centre / picots... I think this should have been done on padding cord however the book doesn't mention it....Next time I will try this section on PC. I would also make the centre ring a buttonie style instead of a ring, and do a shorter, tighter stem with picots. In fact - I would remake this motif again! I think by this stage I was growing tired of the amount of picots... Irish Crochet really does require a level of presence and patience :)


Fig 39 & Fig 43 (page 11/12)
Helpful for: practicing scrolls
I loved making these scrolls, from what I can see so far - I love making motifs that have intricate netting designs... I just think they look so pretty and delicate, plus they work up quickly! I found the instructions clear in the book for these but let me know if you have any questions :) The only tip I would add is to be mindful when making the two TC's in two stitches in fig.43, I sometimes forgot the 2nd TC as I was so focused on counting the stitches to miss...




Fig 40 (page 11)
Helpful for: working up a delicate motif quickly / making flower designs
I followed the instructions exactly as in the book. Just keep an eye on the tension of each petal to try and make them even around the flower.


Fig 41 (page 11)
Helpful for: learning to work a 3D / layered shape, creating a netting effect in a motif, creating a 3D flower/rose
I feel like I write this a lot, but this was my favourite motif to make! I just think it's so beautiful, and is relatively quick to work up.
There were no process photos in the book, so it took me some time to figure out how the base netting layer should look. However I kept attempting the instructions and eventually got there :) See my process photos below - they will hopefully help you when working on the first part of this motif. My main advice would be to trust the instructions in the book, even when they seem like they don't make sense - they eventually come together! Also I wrote the instructions for step 1 row by row so it makes it a little easier to read (see below)....



Fig 42 Rose Leaf Motif (page 11/12)
Helpful for: creating leaf elements
Last but not least, for August I made figure 42 which is the rose leaf motif that is pictured on the front cover of the Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No1.
Upon reading the instructions and attempting to follow them *many times* - I really couldn't understand what they were asking me to do.... BUT... I'm so grateful for YouTube! There is a great video on a channel called "The Best of Irish Crochet" - I would suggest watching this if you are going to make this motif. I'm going to compare the instructions given in that video to the instructions in the book to see if it could be worded any differently in the book. I will keep this blog updated if I write these out :)


And that's a wrap for August! I absolutely loved making these motifs, however I did nearly quit in the middle because I was feeling a little perplexed with the amount of picots! But I kept going and I'm so glad I did. September is going to be a really exciting month, I have three large motifs planned to make, along side learning background stitches, boarders and beading.
Thank you for reading and I really hope some of this information is helpful if you decide to make any of these motifs! Just let me know if you have any questions. :)
Read my July roundup here
If you are interested in reading about how I started Irish Crochet Lace I have written a small blog post about it here and also if you would like to discover the basic Irish Crochet stitches I used in these motifs you can find these here too!
Go raibh míle maith agaibh,
Crochet Ciuin
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