And so to Hairpin Crochet…

It’s the final new technique I need to learn for the International Diploma in Crochet and it has taken some getting used to. Practising on the beach over the summer holidays was a good place to start!

I’d never tried hairpin crochet (or hairpin lace) before. Firstly I needed to get a loom (also referred to as a prong or fork). I managed to purchase one from a seller on good old eBay. Then it’s a matter of crocheting strips of crochet, using the loom, with the resulting loops being joined together to make all kinds of things…

Sounds easy (!)- well I think it is once you get the hang of holding the loom as you crochet around it. It really took a long time for me to feel comfortable holding the loom and being able to produce a straight central spine.

By wrapping the yarn around the ‘spokes’ of the loom as you go and crocheting stitches in the middle a central ‘crochet spine’ is produced. This can be varied depending on which crochet stitches are used. For my first samples I needed to crochet five strips of hairpin (any width but all the same length) and each strip should contain a different crochet spine in the centre…

Here they are- the green yarn running through the loops was threaded through the loops when they were still on the loom. I learned the hard way that by removing the strips without this, some of the loops got into quite a tangle! And using a contrasting colour for this is also recommended (again I learned the hard way!)

Here’s a close up of the different central spines…

So I waited for feedback on these samples before I went any further and amazingly they all got great marks which gave me a little confidence boost- up until that point I really wasn’t sure if I was doing it right!

The next samples needed to be four hairpin strips with the same stitch spine, connected using three different types of joining. So I started the strips…

…then joined them using a faggot join (on the right), a slip stitch join (in the middle) and a linking join (on the left). Now this Hairpin crochet was starting to make more sense!

I have one more hairpin sample to do which is to make a hairpin strip with an off centre spine and make it into a fringe. That’s one for this weekend…

I was lucky to visit the ‘Handmade Fair’ yesterday at Hampton Court Palace. I had a great day and will share some highlights with you next week. 🙂

As always, thanks so much for reading. Has anyone else tried hairpin crochet?