Thanks everyone for your help so far. To reply to Jacquie's questions: I would prefer to sew on the pillow - hmmm and that is going to reduce on portability as well.... I find that most old lace separates at the sewing so I have made it a policy to sew on the pillow when I can.....or work as one piece. As regards the pillow, I confess that I don't really like to work on the Maltese pillow much, and when I do, I have adapted the design to make one with blocks to save me having to lift the work every six inches or so. For this veil, I think I will use the Spanish style roller pillow with a support for the bobbins underneath it. My friend has one and I will probably ask if I can try it out. Then if I find it comfortable I will buy or make one for myself because this is a project that will take very long. Alternatively, I can use a flat nine-block pillow so that as the circle "creeps" towards the edge, I can simply shift it inwards again but moving the blocks.
I haven't decided on the thread yet but am still trying samples. I would like to use a pure silk that is not too fine. I think I would like something thicker than the Guterman S303 and am waiting for some Piper's samples. I have already tried 45 and 50 and found them too thick so am using them to cover a lampshade instead. Karen in Malta -----Original Message----- From: owner-l...@arachne.com [mailto:owner-l...@arachne.com] On Behalf Of laceandb...@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 11:05 PM To: lace@arachne.com Subject: Re: [lace] Help Needed 1.5m diameter diameter presumably? So this will be "almost straight" on the outer bands. It could be quite difficult to get a polar grid with so little curve Using an approximate pi (which is actually 3.1416), you can multiply the diameter by 3 for a guesstimate of the lengths requires, so you are looking at a little over 4.5 metres of lace for the outer ring (when you are nearer the final calculations you use the actual pi, ie 1.5 x 3.146 which = 4.719m, so you can see that x3 gives you a near enough for your original calculations). Also, although this is the mathematical length, your lace will almost certainly shrink a little when you take the pins out, so as far as the pricking length is concerned, you will be making more than 4.719m Depending on how wide your lace is, the next ring or two won't be a lot shorter. For example, once you have done 10cm width of lace, you take this off BOTH sides of the circle, leaving 1.3m diameter, x 3 is 3.9metres of lace, and so on. How are you planning on joining the next ring to the first? Sewn on the pillow or needle and thread afterwards (as in lots of old Maltese lace)? My sister Malvary is making a curtain in strips (and the pressure of everyone asking how she's getting on with it has helped her being near to finishing) which she has joined on the pillow to get a good tension at the joins, but she found even with only one strip to join on, it reduced the portability considerably. Or are you mounting the first ring on tulle, and then adding the next ring a little way in and so on, rather than joining lace to lace. You will be allowing yourself a little margin for error if you do it that way. And it could be used at any point, with more lace added later. another option would be that you could do some rings with shaped headside edge laces and just sew to the tulle along the straight edge, rather than all the inner ones needing to be insertion type lace. Another thought is that as you are working curves, what sort of pillow do you work on? The traditional tall Maltese bolster? Work out how the shape of the lace will fit on the shape of your pillow. In Spain, the lacemakers often use a thinnish foam pad (like a yoga mat?) under their pricking and if the lace ends up in an awkward place on their bolster pillow, they peel the pad off and push it back down in a better place. For a large/long piece, they use two or more pieces of foam in a similar way to how I would use a block pillow, with the bonus that they can place them wherever they want on their pillow. Perhaps if you draw out the circle (or a wedge from it at least), you could start drawing in the rings matching the widths of the various rings of lace you are planning on working. You will then be able to see the amount of curve needed for any particular band, and be able to draft the grid that you need. You'll only need about 20 or 30cm for each ring, which you can then copy a few times to give enough pricking to last the length to be worked. So many things to think about, but that's the pleasure of lacemaking. Jacquie in Lincolnshire - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com
