Now, one other thing, does anyone know if there is a published pattern of a
corner for the Waterlily pattern. I'd like to try it as a handkerchief
edging, but can't seem to track down an existing corner design. (I'm not
interested in the torchon hex version).
I've never seen one. As Karen'd said, there's a pattern for Bucks Waterlily in Stott's Visual Introduction to BP Lace, but it's straight, no corner. Truth to tell, I've not seen all that many "cornered" PG patterns (Buks Point or other), especially reproductions of traditional ones, once they got past 35 pairs or so.
I think, part of the reason is that the PG angles are not "natural" for forming corners, the way 45 degree angle is. You have to figure on adding a pair for every 5-7 pairs used on the straight, and, even so, the results are apt to be awkward and/or require a lot of juggling. The widest PG lace with a corner I've ever seen is the Seascape, in Stott and Cook's "100 Traditional BL Patterns". It uses 54 pairs on the straight, plus 18 for the corner. Even if one were to rework the innermost part of it and remove the flower (which is neither here nor there in relationship to the rest of the pattern but requires extra 9 pairs by itself), it's still a lot of trouble for what amounts to about two rows of ground (and, of course, you never remove the same pairs you'd added <g>).
Also...
I may be entirely wrong, but I have a feeling that, until the last 10-15 yrs, there weren't really all that many lacemakers who had both the skills to handle really complex patterns *and* the necessary disregard for tradition :) The amateur lacemakers of 30-40 yrs ago (and amateur lacemakers are who the pattern books are being written for), even if they had the skills, would have been more interested in reviving lacemaking as it had been, not as it might be. And there's precious little tradition of corners in PG :) There are more corners included in newer publications but, in the older ones, the corners seem to be aimed at "middle advanced" -- 20-36 "regular" pairs...
Personally, I'm going "off" corners, especially in the finer laces :) For one thing, half of the time they look "half baked", forced; Karen Trend Nissen is exceptionally nimble at designing "logical" corners (Tonder) and Pamela Nottingham is also very good (Bucks; mostly simple ones though), but they're rare. For another thing, all that hanging in and taking out of corner extras (and learning to jump through new hoops 4 times -- usually widely spaced) is but the beginning of the nightmare; you then have to have machine precision in mounting the lace "just so" to fit the fabric. Gathered corners are much more "forgiving", even if they mean making extra few inches of the pattern (at least you know the pattern well, since it doesn't change <g>). And, for all they don't show off the pattern as well as "flat" lace, they seem to have more life to them; they "dance".
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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