Romanian Point Lace- How to start a project

How to, RPL / Stef / 02/02/2024 / cord types, crochet, diy, gift, handmade, pattern, point lace, Romania, Romanian Point Lace, RPL

Romanian Point Lace doilies are small projects to do whenever you want to work on something small enough to fit in your bag.

To start a project you need:

— a pattern. Yes, you can create one. Or you can buy it from here of course.

— some thread ( original is 100% cotton in cream color ) but you can use any color you like

— a crochet needle to fit your thread (I use RPL 1 mm crochet hook) .

Below is a quarter of a pattern created by me to exemplify different types of cord and fillings in Romanian Point Lace.

If you use other pattern, you need to transfer the project to a piece of cloth ( using carbon paper). The transfer cloth needs to be with 3-4 cm bigger all around than the actual pattern. If you have a ready printed one on cloth , skip this point.

The result will be like this :

Final dimension on this pattern : a square of 18/18 cm .

To do a big Romanian Point Lace project is necessary to transfer entire project to cloth. To do the transfer you need to pin the pattern over carbon paper and after, both of them over the cloth, and start to pass over tracing the pattern with a pen.

My mother borrowed pins from all lady neighbors and we have to count them and made a list in order to return correct number to each one. Funny now but for me, to count so many pins was not. I still hate to transfer big patterns.

Romanian Point Lace- How to start a project Read More »

Romanian Point Lace- two types of double cord

CORD TYPE, Crochet / Stef / 02/02/2024 / cord types, crochet, diy, free pattern, gift, pattern, Romania, Romanian Point Lace

About 6 mm wide ,this type of cord can be used to do the petals of flowers as is full but not to wide.

This cord is double, reported to the narrow one

Double cord 2:

First-Ch3 loose,

Round one: 1sc in ch2 from hook, 1 sc in ch3 from hook,

TL (turn left)

Round two: skip first ch,1sc in next chain ,both loops, 1sc in 2 edge threads,

TL (turn left)

Repeat round two to desired length.

The difference between cord one and cord two is the way you make the middle simple crochet (for cord 1-only front loop, for cord 2- both loops ). First one will make a rounder, full cord on the middle and the second one a cord more plate, but with same width (blue stripe in image is about 11mm wide).

Bellow is visible the difference between the cords. However both are easy and fun to make! Enjoy !

Romanian Point Lace- two types of double cord Read More »

Romanian Point Lace- how to measure the length of cord

Crochet, How to, RPL / Stef / 28/06/2023 / crochet, diy, handmade, how to, point lace, Romania, Romanian Point Lace, RPL

On small projects, I like to measure the length of the cord I need to use, because I feel like moving faster to the end.

When I do short lengths of cord, I stitch them down on to the project and, at the end of the day, I can see something done!

I remember that my mom use to have a bag with meters and meters of cord, rolled on match boxes (don’t know why ) all with some matchsticks left in. The evenings, at TV, with mom crocheting cord , always had a sound of rattling snakes from the matches in the box.

Then, when a big ball of cord was used for a project, me and my brother bet the number of the matches in the box and wait for mom to finish the ball of cord. 40 years ago, no computer, I-pads, x-force and still it was easy to play with almost nothing.

Let`s measure the cord:

All that you have to do is to run a stitch around a motif, and after, to take out the thread careful, in one piece, letting approximative 1-2 cm reserve and using it as a measure.

For the edge in our example, I run a stitch only half way (36 cm)and then I did one piece of wide cord, double the length of measured thread (72 cm).

For the flowers, four of them in my example, I measured one (approximative 60 cm )and after, I did four piece of narrow cord of same length.

Of course, if you prefer, is OK to measure how much cord you need in total(2.40 of narrow cord and 72 cm of wide cord plus reserve of 1 or 2 cm each) , do the entire length, and then cut and close neat each piece.

For big projects with same type of cord all over, just do some kilometers of cord :)) and happy croche-stitching after.

Only be careful to use same batch of thread if possible, because, believe me, even the small differences will be visible and drive you crazy.

Or may be is just me !!? Later I will tell you how to solve this colour difference issue.

Romanian Point Lace- how to measure the length of cord Read More »

Romanian Point Lace-simple RPL narrow cord DIY

CORD TYPE, Crochet / Stef / 28/06/2023 / cord types, crochet, diy, free pattern, gift, handmade, pattern, point lace, Romania, Romanian Point Lace, RPL

This is how to do Romanian Point Lace narrow cord. Free instructions to use only with crochet tread and crochet hook.

Learn to create this type of cord, named narrow cord Is so, so simple to make and can be used for most of the Romanian Point Lace patterns where the narrow cord is required.

Final result, with recommended thread, is approximative 0.4-0.5 cm wide, very good to use for small projects or flowers and leaves, inside of RPL models.

For the edges of projects is better to use a wider cord (see here) to increase the contrast and beauty of your work, see example below.

This is how to do Romanian Point Lace narrow cord– Free instructions Abbreviations:

sc- simple chain,

TL- turn left.

Basic pattern is :

Chain 2 loosely,

1 sc in ch 1,

TL ,

1 sc in second chain ,

* TL,

1 sc in second chain ,both loops* .

*1 sc in both loops formed lateral, TL *

repeat from * to * to achieve desired length

After basting the narrow cord, before doing the embroidery, your project will look like below:

You can crochet in front of TV or in a waiting room as many meters you want and use them after in different projects.

Romanian Point Lace-simple RPL narrow cord DIY Read More »