Cottage Garden- Torchon mat

Last autumn, once my lacemaking time wasn’t taken up with videos for #40lacestitches, I wanted to do a pattern that wouldn’t stretch me too much, but which had enough interest to keep me engaged. I’d had the Cottage Garden mat pattern for a few years and already had the bobbins wound for it, so I decided to go with it. It’s designed by Jan Gardiner for Lacewing Designs and is still available to buy online.

The pattern comprises squares of different stitches arranged like a traditional English cottage garden, where different elements like flowers, vegetables and fruits might co-exist.

There are gimp threads throughout and the main stitches are different variations of Roseground, honeycomb rings, spiders, triangle ground and fans. You can easily make the pattern your own by e.g. swapping out the different types of Roseground or the fans or using colour.

The pattern comes with some basic instructions including separate thread trails for the gimp threads, which I found to be the most challenging part. I’d say this pattern is suitable for an intermediate Torchon lacemaker- the stitches themselves aren’t difficult but the gimps and turning the corners add some complexity. I didn’t find the instructions for the corner squares particularly useful and also had to re-start the piece twice as beyond the first square, the instructions just say to ‘add the remaining pairs’ but with no indication of where. I’m pretty sure I still didn’t get it right the second time either, but all’s well that end’s well.

There are some errors in the finished piece but I’m at peace with that. For me, lacemaking is as much about the process as the product, and I enjoyed making this and learnt something new along the way.