Sequin Fish

The Adventurous Aquarium is growing!

This fish sparkles with sequins, beads and thread, there should be enough glitter for the magpie in all of us!  

I chose to make a chevron edge on this version of the Sequin fish but the chevron can easily be replaced with adding extra passive pairs, sparkly ones would be good. 

I chose silver sequins and I worked them with 4 pairs of Gütermann silver glitter thread. When adding the sequins, the pairs from each side do not cross over each other in the middle.  Work them with one pair at a time.  The left pair sews through the centre, then returns to the left side, and the right to the right.  Place a pin in the centre of the sequin so the tensioning of the sequin thread does not disturb the equal distribution of the sequins. On a larger area of sequin ground, this is quite important. 

4 pairs of silver for adding the sequins (when cut off, they are reused for the tail sequins so wrap more thread on one bobbin than the other).  

4 pairs of Perle 8 in two contrasting colours for the chevrons. Simply increase the passives if you don't want to do the chevrons. 

6 short pairs to add in for the passives in the fins. 

4 pairs passives (placed on each side of the chevron threads)

4 pairs of workers. 

There are tutorials for the chevron edge, adding sequins and beads on my youTube channel. 

https://www.youtube.com/@LesleysLace/

Triangle Tree

Another pattern to play with.  I used honeycomb for the filling with two twists throughout the ground.  You could work this without the twists around the pin, and add sequins or larger beads.  I used a thicker thread and made the passives quite tight to make the edges stiffer.  Using a neutral ecru thread for the two pair edge to avoid interfering with the ombre effect of the three green shades of the passives.  

Option 1 is to start at the top with a plaited rope using two pairs, these can then be used as workers or passives as they enter the top of the tree, adding more pairs as described in the 'Beaded Bracelet' or the 'Charity Ribbon' patterns.

Option 2 is to start with the bottom, widest edge.  This means you will be adding all the pairs to start with, throwing out pairs as you work up to the top.  At the top, throw out all but the last two pairs and make the plait loop as the last thing.  The ends to be sewn and knotted into the top of the tree.  

The honeycomb pairs are added from the sides, these two diagrams show the pairs added, and the second shows how they 'bounce' off the sides and some get carried along with the passives for a pin or two.

The little red square can be added afterwards by sewing in some new pairs.

Roseground Bracelet

This is a version of the Beaded Bracelet in an earlier post which uses the same loop and button fastening and the same way of adding and throwing out the threads.  In place of the beads, I used a roseground stitch in two shades of pink.  

Roseground is a very versatile stitch with over a dozen versions.  In this piece, the colours change places depending on whether you choose half stitch or cloth stitch, and if you start with the threads in different places etc.  The roseground section could have just been made in one colour.   The 'rose' is the fancy circle in the middle, at the sides, there are half roses.  Due to the stitches I chose for this piece, the colours stood out in a bell shape at first sight, totally unexpected but quite a nice touch for this bracelet.  

 

The passive and roseground threads were two different sizes, this is not important, they could have easily swapped places and made just a slight difference to the piece.  The worker pairs are a standard Egyptian Cotton machine quilting thread of about 27-30 wraps per centimeter.  Using a finer thread for the workers makes the stripe of passive colours on the edges show up better.  

 I do like the idea that lace makers will have a play with my designs and use different threads to create another version.  Not everything has to be in white!

Video tutorial on my Youtube channel.  https://youtu.be/0qluduvbMJQ?si=073o4W2B7C5tAX-K

 

Leaf Tally Fish

 Leaf Tally Fish, a new addition to the Adventurous Aquarium. Print out at A4. Add pairs for the fins and for the inside edge passives of the tail.  I use mostly Egyptian cotton, machine quilting thread in a variety of colours.  They measure about 27 to 30 wraps per centimeter.   

The leaf tallies can be replaced with a standard crossing of plaits, or make a small half stitch or cloth stitch bud (circle) in the middle where the threads would normally cross.  This is a good way to make patterns where the amount of leaf tallies puts you off, the 'bud' works with pairs or plaits entering it.  You can see how this works in the little fish I made to use up some thread ends.  

Video on how to measure wraps per centimeter and my other video tutorials here...  https://www.youtube.com/@LesleysLace/

Pattern prints at A4

Thread end fish, using chevron stitch on the edges, and buds in the body.