TCTC versus CTCT

[MiniMary]

Hi! I'm new to the forum and had a big question right off the bat. In Doris Southard's book "Lessons in Bobbin Lacemaking", she calls a whole throw as TCTC. Other books and patterns call it CTCT. Is there some sort of distinction of style? I have found that I prefer TCTC because I don't look at my threads and think that I accidently twisted a pair when I should not have and vice versa. I've heard something about "open" and "closed" but it's not clear. Any thoughts on this?

[PattyD]

Generally speaking, when the bobbins are held in the hands, as with european roller pillows, the twist comes first. This is because when bobbins are hanging down, it is easier to know where you are if you assume the bobbins are untwisted. When working on a flat pillow, the cross comes first. Doris Southard's book is great to learn from, but on this one point, I chose CTCT. It is more consistent with many more books in english and as a beginner that would reduce your confusion.

Open is TCTC, Closed is CTCT. Open refers to the bobbins hanging untwisted. When crossing last the pairs hang untwisted on either side of a pin. So Closee refers to bobbins left twisted after the last stitch.

[Sonja]

I learned CTCT, but later I changed to TCTC. Now I mix it, no problem.

[MiniMary]

So, if I understand this correctly, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. But if I can follow this up with the question: What about half stitches? Would that be TC or CT? On the simple laces that I am still learning, I can't tell yet if it makes a difference. Thanks for y'all's responses!

[PattyD]

When the order is CTCT, then the half stitch is CT. When the order is TCTC, then the half stitch is TC. As usual, I break with this in chantilly where I do the ground TTTC, but all the rest of the work is CTC or CTCT.

Like Sonja mentioned, as you gain skill, you make your own choices. But for a beginner, if you pick CTCT or TCTC, make all your stitches match. So either CT, CTC, and CTCT OR TC, TCT, TCTC those are half stitch, cloth stitch and whole stitch (or sometimes called cloth stitch and twist). Lace has more names for anything than any other textile I have come across.