Hello Julie, I just finished a large piece about 12" x 36" that hangs outdoors in my garden, on the fence. I made it out of jute, which is of course very rough stuff, not smooth. In handling "not-smooth thread" I found I had to tension much more frequently, and sometimes in a long row of cloth stitch I had to handle the threads themselves, rather than just pulling the worker out to the side while tugging downward on the passives.
It was the first time I have ever attempted something large too, and took some trial and error. I first made a bookmark (it was a Torchon pattern) in the usual way and size, then in my case, drew the pattern onto some 1" x 1" grid pattern paper that they sell in sewing departments of stores. My "pillow" was pegboard and my pins were golf tees. This of course will not be the case for you, as you are using proven scarf patterns from an excellent book. And you are using a fiber much more amenable to making it than I had. Oh, the other thing I did differently with the jute than in the thread bookmark was I reduced the number of twists, something you also were concerned about. 2 twists instead of 3 on my spider legs, a 2-pin roseground instead of a 4-pin, one twist only at the pins. Anyplace I could reduce the number of twists (because twists cause friction), I did. I will be interested in the input that other people send as well, Good luck, Sally Jenkins, Creswell, Oregon - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
