There are many lacemaking tools that you can use, and we all have our favourite gadgets and gizmos but, strictly speaking, they are not all necessary. In fact you can get by with just a few, but they must be of good quality and fit for purpose or you will end up with problems. The principle tools of any lacemaker are Bobbins, Pins and Pillow, but they are a topic all on their own. The lacemaking tools I am talking about here are the ones that make the whole process easier once you have set up your pillow.

First of all you need a good pair of scissors. They should be sharp and have a good point so that you can get close to the work, but not be in any danger of cutting your lace by accident. That would be a disaster! The tiny, sharp pointed embroidery scissors with large finger holes are excellent, but better still are the thread snips that work like a pair of tweezers. They should be kept just for use with thread, it is a hanging offense in my house to use them for anything other than fine lace threads.

Well made lace comes from a well made and accurate pricking, as lace patterns are called. To prepare an accurate pricking, you need a Pricker. Most people use a pin vice, which is something of a misnomer as we generally put needles into them not pins. The needle you use should be slightly finer than the pins you are planning to use. There are two main styles, Mushroom and Pencil. The Mushroom style has a knob shaped handle which you can grip and is particularly good for arthritic hands or if you are using thick pricking card. The pencil style ha a longer, thinner handle and is held just like a pencil and does enable you to place your holes very accurately. Along with the pricker, you need a lump of beeswax to help the needle slide in and out easily. I have mine in a lovely little wooden pot.

Pins often need to be pushed down or lifted out and you want to keep your hands away from the thread and lace as much as possible to keep it clean so that is where a pin pusher comes in. Most have a metal end mounted in a turned wooden handle. The metal has a concave end which fits nicely over the top of a pin to push it down flush with the pillow. If you get a combined pusher/lifter, the metal end has a fine lip which slides under the pin head and you can flip it up to remove it from the pillow without touching your lace. If preferred you can have a separate lifter which has an end shaped a little like a fork which lifts the pin out but these are not very satisfactory for lifting pins which have been pushed into the pillow as they can damage the delicate threads.

The last essential tool you need is a Lazy Susan. This is a bent needle mounted into a wooden handle with the eye left exposed. By passing a thread through this eye you can use the tool to 'sew in' or join your threads when you finish your lace. It enables you to pull the threads through the starting stitch without damaging it. Some people use a crochet hook, but for a beginner, a Lazy Susan is often easier, especially if you have several threads going into one hole.

There are many other lacemaking tools that we love to have in our workboxes but with just these few you can make beautiful lace easily. Lacemaking tools are relatively inexpensive but will make all the difference to the quality of your lace and will certainly make it more enjoyable to do as they help you through the trickier parts like crossing and joining, especially at the finish. It would be heartbreaking to spoil your lovely piece of lace by a clumsy finish when a simple lacemaking tool could make it easy.