I recently discovered hairpin lace. It apparently had its heyday in the Victorian era, but it’s essentially simple crochet done on a simple frame loom (originally hairpins, hence the name).

It originally caught my eye because my brain is working on the problem of creating string heddles for a teeny tiny weaving loom I’m conceptualizing. I saw a video on Pinterest that made me think this could be part of the solution. (Will I make the heddles? Or the loom? Time will tell!)

The initial challenge of hairpin lace is that it does require having the loom. They aren’t especially expensive but it’s definitely a unitasker and the ones you can get quickly from Amazon have mediocre reviews. The ones from Clover Japan are likely better but not available in a hurry.

It didn’t take me long to realize I could pretty easily make a loom with some scrap wood and some metal rods from the hardware store. That’s where I started. (I also made a video about making a loom from cardboard and household items!)

At this point I’m still very much in the “figuring out what I can do with this” stage, but there are some tantalizing hints around… a few YouTube videos that go beyond the basics, a couple of contemporary Japanese craft books (have y’all seen pomadour24’s shop?!), and a number of public domain booklets from the early 1900s. I’ve also got some ideas of my own to try—more on those soon!