I borrowed the twined gimps from (I think) Russian peasant laces, where they often run down the center of cloth stitch tapes, being passed over and under twisted worker pairs rather than being enclosed in the workers. Since the space between the ring pair and the cloth stitch in Binche is also formed by twisted worker pairs (and twisted passive pairs) it was easy to envision that space filled with a pair of twined gimps. By doing it after the lace was finished I was able to treat each outline as a single loop without worrying about changes in the direction of work. For side branches (where there were decorative rows of holes defining the wing details, for example) I took one of the gimps and wove it up and back through the line of holes, making sure as I returned to the main outline that I always went down to the left of the outgoing gimp and came up to its right.
The thick outline is worked at the same time as the rest of the lace, but uses its own pairs. It is based on a normal footside, but when I work in wire I use half-stitch for the exchange between the outer passive pair and the worker, so one of the passives (which is a thick wire) always remains in the outer pair. I also use another thick wire as a gimp to replace the usual passives in the footside, which not only is better looking than a narrow band of cloth stitch would be but also adds to the firmness of the edge. Finally, when I wanted to use colored pairs in the frame but not the central lace, I stopped carrying pairs into the footside from the central motif. Now I work a turning stitch with the frame workers into which I either mount new pairs to add to the central motif or twist the pair from the motif that needs to reverse direction. This way all the pairs in the frame are independent of the central lace. Hope this helps! Sue from Raleigh Sue Babbs wrote: >The coloured outline really does make the peacock standout better. I was >wondering how you put in the twined gimps? Did you pass them through the >Binche pairs as you would if you had worked them with the lace or are they >wrapped around the pairs (which would seem to me to be the easier option)? > >Was the thick outline added afterwards also? And do you finish off the ends >of the thick outline in the bail of the piece? > >Sorry to ask so many questions, but I am always looking at pieces to see how >they were made. Susan Lambiris Raleigh, NC [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
