Ruskin lace is a form of cutwork developed in the Lake District of Great Britain around 1889. Originally a cottage industry, it employed large numbers of local women in the raising of flax, spinning the fiber into thread, weaving cloth from these threads, and finally embellishing a finished article with this embroidery.

While John Ruskin was on a trip to Italy and Greece, he sent drawings of a type of embroidery he saw there back to England. He felt that the ladies of the Lake District could work the embroidery on the hand-loomed linen they were producing. Working from drawings only, and never having seen the actual work, a local woman, Marion Twelves, fashioned her own interpretation of the lace. Marion held classes throughout the district and items were produced for sale until the late 1930s. The production of hand-woven linen ceased at this time.

The designs are always geometric and the basic design unit is the square. These squares are divided by vertical, horizontal and diagonal bars. The bars are either wrapped, needlewoven, or buttonholed, and additional design elements are added to them in the form of buttonholed triangles, lozenges, or petals.

The squares are always edged with padded overcasting and bordered with four-sided stitching. A space is created for the four-sided stitch by withdrawing two threads from the fabric four threads apart. The corners of this outer square are tidied up and strengthened by buttonhole stitches, usually in a scalloped shape. More than one row of four-sided stitches may be worked. If the fabric has a hem, the edge of the hem is embellished with bullion knots, which wrap the hem from front to back about 1/8 inch from the finished edge, and 3/8 inch apart.

Modern Ruskin lace work is done often on Glenshee linen (a 29 count fabric) or other fine linens. Design elements are worked using wet spun linen thread of the same weight and color as the fabric's threads.

If you're interested in learning about or trying Ruskin lace, you may look in your back issues of "The Needleworker" magazine (Autumn 1994 and Autumn 1995 issues) and Emie Bishop's Charity Sampler which features this lace as well. The results are beautifully-delicate, and the only tools you'll need are your linen, pearl cotton, a pair of small sharp scissors and a needle.

Sources used: EGA Glossery, 1995, p. 45-46, and "A Lesson in Ruskin Lace," The Needleworker Magazine, Autumn 1995, p. 6.

© 2007 Theresa Venette. Articles on this site may be reproduced in needlework group newsletters or other handouts with permission of author and proper attribution. Send questions, comments and suggestions to: xspeddler@yahoo.com