Hi All Thanks a lot for the wonderful advice from all of you. Tamara, your explanation was way better than my book ;-), but perhaps I just needed another way of explanation. I am finally donee with the hankershief (sp?), and I think it looks pretty good for my first try. I found a nice piece of linen leftover from making a shirt and used nuns stitches to fasten it, don't know if that is the name in english, but it does look nice. I did have one problem. I got my bobbins at a fleamarket (very cheaply ;-)) and they were already with the thread on them. I am basically lazy, so I simply knotted the thread together to get the pairs going, so I had a knotty mess at the start. I did do an extra repeat of the pattern, do the fastening of the lace at the extra repeat, unravel the knotty ends and sew them into the lace. It does look a bit clunky at the place where the lace joins up. I am going to post pics of the lace as soon as my new comp is up and running. Tania near Copenhagen, Denmark
On Nov 8, 2006, at 18:53, Tania Gruning wrote: > I feel pretty good since I have turned my first 3 corners on a hanky > (gods know what I am going to use it for?) and it looks good. Congratulations! As for how to use the piece... Why not a hanky, as intended? A wedding or some such is bound to occur among friends or family, sooner or later, and you'll be ahead with a lovely gift. > I have done a rather simple but lovely torchon design from Doris > Southards book Lessons in Bobbinlace making called Crown and triangle. > I did add a passive pair for a sewing edge. Not really sure if the > thread chosen is too skinny for the design, If you had to add a passive, it probably is. OTOH... You could see the need and you coped with it; for a newbie, it's a *major* accomplishment; took me a loooong time to dare make such changes (thread too thin, add a pair). Again, congratulations. > I do however have a problem in how to get the edges of the hanky > border together in a nice looking way, I do have a tiny crotchet hook, > which I gether from the messages I have been browsing, are necessary? Yes. There are other ways of joining, but, to begin with, a fine crochet hook is going to be your best friend. When you come close to the end of your hankie edging, re-pin the the first bit -- head-to-head -- paying *particular* attention to the first pins (the ones on which you had hung the pairs). When you reach those, using the crochet hook make "sewings" : Pull the pin out. Put the hook through the pin-loop and catch one thread of the incoming pair at the end part of the lace. Pull that thread (through the pin-loop) till it forms a largish loop. Put the second bobbin of the same pair through the pulled loop. Pull both bobbins down, till the "pulled loop" settles around the "pin-loop". Repeat, until all the incoming pairs are "sewed" into the corresponding originating pin-loops. Once the end is "sewed" into the beginning, there are several ways of getting rid of the pairs (Note: strangely, my copy of "Lessons" *says*, in the Index, that there's a corner to the pattern, but it cites the page occupied by the edging. And no corner pricking in sight). Since this is a fairly open pattern (ie, there are no cloth-stitch reas behind which to hide knots), and one which doesn't use too many pairs, the best way (IMO, and everyone is welcome to disagree ) would be to: make a half-reef knot (right-over-left-and-under) with every pair, to hold them in place. Cut the pairs off, leaving ca 10" of thread. Remove the lace from the pillow. *Patiently* (a lot of my swearing went into this process, originally ) thread every thread through a blunt-ish (crewel, tapestry, etc) needle and work the "tail" into the lace, following the original paths: one thread of each pair forward (ie into the start of the lace) and one thread backwards (ie into the ending part of the lace). Do that for *at least* 5 stitches. Once all the threads are worked in that way and secure, cut them off as short (ie close to the lace) as possible. Manicure scissors, with slightly curved blades are excellent for the purpose. > So far it is loads of fun, although my fingers are sore from the pins. It *is* loads of fun; a most obsessive passtime I've ever come across :) To minimize on sore fingers... Get yourself a tool called "pricker" -- it can be a needle set in a pin vise (arts and crafts stores and sections of places like WalMart) or it can be something made specifically for lacemaking and available from vendors. Before you start making your lace, pre-prick evey hole in the pattern with your pricker. Not only will your holes be more accurately placed than those made "on the run", but your finger-tips will stop suffering from pin-fatigue; the pins will slide into the pre-made holes, and will need only a very slight push to place them more firmly in. -- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------- Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
