with bobbin lace, one of the two main kinds of lace. In needle lace the design is drawn on a piece of parchment or thick paper, cloth-backed. An outlining thread stitched onto this serves as a supporting framework, and the lace is worked with a needle and a single thread in a succession of buttonhole stitches in varying degrees of tightness and in straight lines that support further stitches. The needle never penetrates the backing. When the work is finished, a knife is passed between the two layers of backing to cut the stitching thread and the lace is lifted off the pattern