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July: Irish Crochet Lace notes (Fig 15 - 25 Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No.1)

Crochet Ciúin

Good morning, I'm currently working my way through the Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No1 (1912) which I downloaded from The Antique Pattern Library and I wanted to share the motifs I made in July...


Jump straight to:

Fig 15 (page 5)

Fig 17 (page 6)

Fig 18 (page 6)

Fig 19 (page 6)

Fig 22 (page 7)

Fig 23 (page 7)

Fig 24 (page 7)

Fig 25 (page 7)


As this book was written 112 years ago, I've found that some of the instructions can be a little tricky to understand and the best way I've found to understand Irish Crochet Lace patterns is to approach them with an openness to adapting and with a trial and error approach when making. There isn't much information online about a lot of these motifs so I thought it might be helpful to share some of my insights / notes I make during the making of these.. Hopefully it will be helpful to someone who wants to make any of these motifs in the future, or even just future me when I want to remake them! It was an absolute joy making these and I'm so excited about August's motifs already.


General note: When making the Irish Crochet Lace motifs in this book in particular, personally I find it best to read through instructions fully first - I write them out line by line so I can try to understand them and then I start to make the motif taking one small direction at a time and the pattern start to make sense as I make them. I also work & write with UK Terminology.


JULY: IRISH CROCHET LACE MOTIFS (page 5 - 7)

Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No1 (from The Antique Pattern Library)


Fig 15 (page 5)

This was the first motif I made and it was such a joy to make. I knew I made the centre ring too big and maybe didn't pull the padding cord (PC) tight enough but I was and still am so proud of this little motif! Always remember this quote from the book (p5):


"In Irish Crochet it is always possible to "doctor" the work a little, where necessary, to get a certain arrangement of stitches to fit any particular place. In such fine work a few stitches more or less are of no consequence provided that the general effect is as it should be."

Please see below these two pics for my notes on this motif that you might find helpful. I followed the instructions in the book but made a few changes here and there which I have listed below.


Sample of Figure 15 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1
Figure 15 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912),
Figure 15 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912), from Antique Pattern Library

Fig 15 notes.

  • make medium size ring in centre - I would pull the padding cord a bit tighter at the beginning of this pattern

  • 2nd & 3rd rounds; into back side of each stitch of previous row work 1DC with 2DC in every 4th stitch.

  • When creating the PC edging, I included picots so I did 3DC + 1 picot in every loop until the tip and then in the instructions when it says "put 7DC into the loop at the tip" I put 4DC + 1picot + 3 DC and then down the 2nd side do 1 picot + 3 DC

  • I used 4 chain picots for the PC edging ****The rest of the instructions for this motif I got from a youtube channel called "Irishcrochetlace by Alyona Salimova" as they didn't include these instructions in the book*****

  • For the PC Tail; Do a slip stitch over cord between the two petals. Then do 35 DC over cord. Then I hooked the needle through the space in the bottom of the triangle and brought through the PC threads. Then lay the PC beside the tail just made (not pulling too tightly) turn work over, chain 1 at bottom of tail with working thread and then working over 4 cords of the PCs do 1DC into back loop of each stitch on tail - all the way to the top of the tail. Cut off extra padding cord.

  • For central PICOTS: Go to the front of the flower, slip stitch into base to join other side of tail. Chain 2/3 and slip stitch into back stitch of where you stopped 3rd row. Make 6 chain picot. Do DC in back of next stitch. Do DC into back of next stitch and then a 6 chain picot. Continue around 3 rows and finish off by securing and sewing in thread.



Fig 16 - Rings (page 6)

As noted earlier, this book is very old and they used matches to wrap their thread around to make rings...of course nowadays we have a lot more things readily available to use - many people now wrap their thread or cord around pens, markers, straws etc. However, where possible I have tried to use matches just for fun, to try to get as close to the original as possible. See below for notes.


Sample of Figure 16 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1
Sample of Figure 16 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1

In the book it advises wrapping the PC (padding cord) around 7 times, then cut cord and join in working thread winding it around 5/6 times, slipping off and covering the whole ring with DC closely. At the end joining 1st to last stitch with slip stitch - hiding the thread in the back of work weaving it in and out of back of work to make it secure. They say to make a medium ring - wind the PC around 12 or 15 times around 3/4 matches.


3 Small sticks taped together with masking tape used to help make Irish Crochet rings

Here is a little contraption I made where I taped 3 matches together with masking tape at different lengths. I used old matches with the heads taken off so they are basically just three tiny pieces of wood..


Nowadays I've seen people also just wrap their WT (working thread) around a straw / pen / hook, gently slip off the loops, put hook through them, and do a slip stitch around the hoops, and then do DC around ring in the same working thread. Rings have a bigger hole in the middle and buttonies have a very small hole in the middle. Buttonies are achieved by repetitive rounds of DC around the ring until you reach the desired thickness.


TIP: I find it very important to take the time to do these as neatly as I can, otherwise my eye is always drawn to them in the finished piece, another person might not see it but I find I always see when I've rushed a ring! Also if wrapping with padding cord ensure to use the same colour cord as working thread- I've made this mistake a couple of times! Rings require a bit of patience but they can be a good thing to do in front of a cosy film!


Fig 17 (page 6)


I modified figure 17 pattern slightly from the book, just so I could get the flower as even looking as possible. For my figure below I used size 70 working thread, size 10 padding cord, hook 0.60mm. In the book they suggest wrapping WT around 2 matches 8 times, I used a pen this time which is why my centre hole is bigger. See notes below:


Figure 17 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912)
Figure 17 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912), from Antique Pattern Library
Sample of Figure 17 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1


Sample of Figure 17 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1
  • where it says do (4dc + picot) 5 times- instead I did (6dc & picot) 5 times. I also kind of worked by eye adjusting the amount of stitches as I went around as you want the 6 picots to be evenly spaced around the ring. Always work around PC.

  • Then where it says work 2DC, 15TC, 2DC on cord, instead I did 2DC, 13TC, 2DC on cord.

  • Pull the padding cord to shape the petals so they are as even as possible.



Fig 18 (page 6)


The very start of this motif was challenging as you are working on a ring and then making 4 clones knots on the ring - I found it a little tricky keeping both the ring and clones knots neat but after a couple of tries I got it to a place where it was relatively neat! See below for more notes.


Figure 18 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912)
Figure 18 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912), from Antique Pattern Library
Sample of Figure 18 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1



  • The book suggests using one match, however I used two.

  • For the picots on the 5th row I did a 5 chain picot.

  • It really is best to spend extra time on your clones knots ensuring they are as neat as possible as these are the centre point of your piece and really stand out. Even though it may feel a little tedious at the start! Also your centre ring needs to be small if you are using the amount of dc suggested in book in between the clones knots. Otherwise if you increase your stitches you may need to do a bit of math for the next few rows!


Fig 19 (page 6)

  • The book suggests making a small ring so for this I wrapped my thread around a hook and a needle together, as at this time I was finding the singular match hard to use...

  • I did a 4 chain picot

Sample of Figure 19 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1
Figure 19 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912)
Figure 19 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912), from Antique Pattern Library

Fig 22 (page 7)

I followed the instructions exactly as in the book, making a small ring as in Fig 19.

Sample of Figure 22 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1
Figure 22 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912)
Figure 22 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912), from Antique Pattern Library

Fig 23 (page 7)

I found the instructions given in the book a little difficult to follow for this one.. So I had to study the picture below by eye and figure out the best way I could make something similar to that with a nod to the instructions wherever I could. I've included the way I made it below, if you have a more accurate way of making it I would love to hear from you so that I can improve my technique on this motif..

Figure 23 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912)
Figure 23 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912), from Antique Pattern Library
Sample of Figure 23 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1



  1. Wind double PC (of same colour as WT) around 2 matches 7 times.

  2. Cover ring with DC in PC

  3. Make 9 rings in total this way

  4. Join in WT in one ring and do 2DC in ring + Chain 1

  5. Hold next ring close to ch and cover with DC using WT

  6. Do 2DC on the Ch1

  7. Do 2DC in first (middle) ring

  8. Join 3rd and each succeeding ring in the same way

  9. The book says to join each ring to the last one made with a slipstitch after 5DC - however I did a round of DC around all rings after joining all rings to middle ring and I joined them this way

  • Again it's important to make these initial rings very neatly



Fig 24 (page 7)

I followed the instructions exactly as in the book.

Figure 24 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912)
Figure 24 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912), from Antique Pattern Library
Sample of Figure 24 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1



Fig 25 (page 7)

If I was to do make this motif again I would make the centre ring smaller and ensure the edges of my petals were neat and every stitch was worked into. In general I followed the instructions as in the book.

Figure 25 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912)
Figure 25 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1 (1912) , from Antique Pattern Library
Sample of Figure 25 from Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No 1



I hope you found this helpful and I will be back here at the beginning of September to discuss my August Irish Crochet Lace makes... there are some fun motifs coming up featuring plenty of rings and picots!


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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