Thread End Santa

All year long I make bobbin lace, why? 

So I have lots of curly thread ends to play about with at Christmas of course 😄

This fun decoration is simple to make, although it pushed the edges of my craft tolerance with the glue, such messy stuff and it always prefers to stick on my fingers rather than the craft.

Thread End Santa

Place a blob of craft glue (the white stuff that turns clear) on a piece of plastic (it will be peeled off this plastic later).   

Tease the threads out to remove any short ones which will fall off , press into the glue blob, building up a generous pile. 

The threads spread out in all directions from the glue blob, make one direction longer than the others. 

When the glue is thoroughly dry, peel the beard off the plastic. 

Make a little tassle with some of the short straight threads for the top of the hat. 

Cut out two red felt hat shapes, add a bit of scrap felt to stick out of the hat at the bottom,(this is to sew the beard to) and a little brim, sew them together, adding in the tassle at the top, and add seed beads along the brim. 

Sew the beard onto the bit of scrap under the hat, from the back. The top section of the beard above the glue is folded down to create the moustache, covering up the glue dimple. 

Sew the pink bead for the nose between the beard and the hat, don't worry if it sits a bit over the beard.

Add a thread if you want to hang this Thread End Santa up, or just stick it to a card.  I chose to leave the beard ridiculously long, but you can trim to your own taste. 

Old Lace Pillow Rescue.

A grubby plastic bag, thick with dust, was pulled out from under the market stall.  

"Been hoping you would come in today" the lady says, with a look that means she has no intention of taking the thing in the bag home with her if I don't.

This sad little lace pillow had been dropped off with her, nothing was asked for it, just the hope that someone could make use of it rather than throwing it away when emptying a house.

I stuck my finger into the pillow, a slight crinkle, very little resistance.  Experience told me that this wasn't a pillow that just needed a new cover. 

As I pulled the pillow out of the bag, the stall holder's hand shot out and took the hat pins out of the top. 

"You can take it for free, if I keep these".

Well, the decision looked like it had been made for me. The poor little pillow, like a neglected puppy, was going to be taken home where it would be fattened up and cared for. 

Credit where credit is due, the pillow had been used for making lace, not everyone has the tools, materials and inclination to mess about with these things like I do.  The main purpose of a lace pillow, is to enable lace to be made, and that's all it needs to do, doesn't need to win beauty competitions or be a best in class.  I have been known to chat to the rescued pillows as I start work on them, what their lacemaker made, the life they had, how near to being thrown in the rubbish the pillow came.

The wooden bar with the bit of pipe insulation and elastic bandage used to hold the pricking was nothing to do with the pillow, I wondered if it was an artist's Mahl stick, or a very short curtain rail.  

This one had good 'bones'.  The wood inside was well fixed and cut, the maker's pencil measurements still showing under the straw.  One day it would be nice to remake one with straw or sawdust, but the humidity where I live is too much for that, so I used ethafoam and polystyrene.  

A piece of the everlasting pool noodle (it never seems to get an shorter!) was used for the base of the roller, which I covered in layers of a vintage Whitney boiled wood blanket.

To my surprise, being strictly a navy blue lace pillow kinda gal,  I chose a patterned fabric for the top cover of both the roller and the pillow. 

After this madness, why not go for the whole hog I thought, then added an unneccesary edging braid to finish off. 

Now I had started wandering down the overdoing it road, I felt it needed something else, so I went for the overkill and made a lacemaker's heart pincushion to match.  

Will I enjoy using this? Probably not as I don't use roller pillows, but I do enjoy reviving these sad, abandoned pillows.  

The new roller bar sits into the little square cut out where I found a pinhole.  I assume this was to anchor the roller so I put some holes in the bar for a thickish divider pin to stop the roller turning.

I didn't put much of a slope on this pillow, because I use Midlands, and have my pillow at an angle but the rounded edges should be good to let continental bobbins hang off. 

The top fabric is the heavyweight cotton 'Strawberry Thief' with navy background from 'Laura's Beau'.

Costs:- 

Ethafoam £13, Fabric £8.50, Braid £3, Pool noodle, stick, glue, leather, staples and ribbon £2, Time 4 hours. 

What is that pole for

The discovery bit

This is what's left

The Lace Pillow maker's Breadknife!

.Complete with Lace Maker's strawberry heart pincushion. 

 

A Storm and Æ

The rain is being driven hard against my window, storm Bert is half way through and the lights are flickering.  I got up early because the shed roof is rattling in the wind and that doesn't aid sleep much.  

I saw a post asking if there was a lace pattern for the character Æ and I jumped at the chance to indulge in my long time love of creating lettering and fonts.  

I pressed the magic button that makes the house warm and settled with my pencil to have a doodle, this is my first draft.   Milanese would be my first choilce of lace to make it in, maybe it would look nice just in two colours and a half stitch filling?   

For anyone with the initials A.E. , this would make a great monogram. 

Slinca Bauble

This is a new technique to me.  I only knew of 'dancing spiders' or circles made with trails before.   Slincas use turning stitches to create the hole in the center, the tensioning is important so the circle doesn't pull to one side.  These two baubles were made different ways. The first is Sybille's working which uses up to 10 pairs at a time.  The complete outside edges are worked first,  followed by the two trails which are added to the edge and sewn in at the opposite side, then the slincas are added.  The piece is worked from the back.  Beads are added in the center band of slincas.  The red and white threads used for the slincas show how the two red plaits and the two white plaits follow different paths. 

Worked by Sybille Zapf

I started my working of the bauble at the top loop using 4 pairs, two for the 'pin under four' edge, and two for the passives.  The most inside passive and the worker use a turning stitch instead of a pin.  Tension is important to make sure the band stays even because there is only one row of pins being used.  To make a turning stitch, use cross, twist, cross, twist, cross, leave the outer pair and use the inner of the two pairs to work through the waiting passive as normal with a cloth stitch and work the pin. 

Turning stitch

There are no pins used in the center, the center is worked using turning stitches.   A turning stitch is shown on patterns with a small circle where you would expect a pin to be.  This technique is used a lot in Milanese Lace, well worth having a look at some videos to see it being made. 

My thread was a bit on the thin side for this, so I added picots to each plaited 'leg'.   I worked my version by starting the edge on both sides and working down to the tail, adding each band in turn.  This way I added the threads for the bands and trails into one side as I worked the edge, and tied them off at the other edge before working the next trail or slinca band.   If I had been working with all one colour, I could have taken the pairs into the edge passives and thrown them out as I worked down the edges but there were a lot to throw out at once, four consecutive edge pins had to have two pairs thrown out, so tying off was a better option.  The side which faced upwards had to be the 'wrong' side of the finished lace because of the knots.

The thick coloured sparkle thread was added as a single gimp thread.  Twist the worker twice after working though the passive pair before the gimp thread.  Lift the LEFT worker (this is the same whichever direction you are going) and pass the gimp under the left and over the right bobbin, replace the left bobbin to the left and twist the workers twice before the next passives are worked in cloth stitch.  

This way of adding a thick thread is traditionally used with only white thread, sometimes with a thick thread, sometimes with a bundle of ground threads, sometimes a thick thread may 'carry' some ground threads along with it to get them to a further point.   The single worker which goes over the top of the contrasting gimp in this piece gives a stripy look to the edge and trails. 

Worked by Lesley FW

Following the diagram for the slinca, the two plaits added at the center top split into pairs to make a double halo. The two outer plaits split into pairs and weave in and out to create the contrast in the center.  Between the two halos, my worker has two twists because the thread was rather thin, this exaggerated the space between the halos. A thicker thread, like Sybille's, may only need one, or no twists, it is worth experimenting to find out what your thread needs and which look you want to go for.  There will be other ways of making slincas, in a way, it is a bit like a fancy compound spider. 

Slincas are unusual in that they can be added after a piece has already been finished.  If it is still on the pillow, you can add to the outer edge to make a piece bigger, or fill in a space with just an odd slinca.  They can be made alone, but they would need stiffening because the points of the plaits may try and warp. 

Christmas Bauble 1

A Bedfordshire Cluny style (with a bit of Muaiga) Christmas tree bauble.  

This can be worked from the loop downwards in one piece, or work the outside and work each band in turn.  The loop can be plaited, or a narrow (2-3 pairs passives) length of cloth stitch.  The single threads are worked through all the bands, continuing through the next band down. 

35 pairs approx. Size 11.5cm. Thread = DMC 80 at 27/30 wpc. Thick glitter thread 10 wpc for the two colour chevron edge and two pairs colour of choice in the trails. 

I chose to include a chevron edging using two thicker threads which create an interlocking 'V' shape.  These can be made by alternating the threads on every row, or on alternate rows.  I prefer the alternate rows as this gives a longer, more defined change of colour.  

To keep the chevrons even, I draw an arrow at the top of the pattern so I remember the direction of work which has the change over of the top coloured pair.  There needs to be at least one pair of normal passives on either side, more if there is room.  

One of the coloured pairs lies inside the other, blue green green blue.   These are not worked as conventional pairs. After working the normal passives to one side of the coloured thread, lift the center coloured pair, green green, and pass the worker underneath in one go. Place the coloured pair back in the same center position, blue green green blue, continue with the normal passives.

On the next row, work the normal passives, lift only the center coloured pair, green green, and place them, one at each outer side of the blue pair.  This makes the blue blue pair the center pair.  Lift the blue blue center pair, pass the worker underneath them and place them back down in between the green green pair.  Continue with the normal passives.  The chevron is now green blue blue green. The worker pair passes twice between the two pairs of colours per change of colour.  

This can be made by swapping the coloured pairs every row, the chevrons will be shorter but maybe a bit tighter. 

The tallies, when worked in the bands, are four pairs which zigzag between the bars. The center is made with a simple half stitch with two twists around the pins.

The thick glitter threads I used can be changed for thinner threads, just add more pairs. Glitter or thick threads need to be carefully tensioned so keep an eye on those. 

On the curved trails, I used a pair of thick glitter threads with a normal passive pair on each side.    On the wavy trail, I used two different colour thick threads.  At each pass of the worker, they were swapped over, right over left. This gave them a stripy look. 

See my video on chevron edging on my youtube channel here 

https://youtu.be/UhnNNR43b48?si=lDEVRQX4LO7NNRes

See my video on tallies here

https://youtu.be/Thc-6D7Y1ZE?si=4CRvxryIHZOloatf

also more info on my  ‘Lesley’s Lace’ blog.  

This is A4.  If you can't get your printer to print this at the right size, the .pdf is available from my 'Lesley's Lace'  facebook page in the 'Files' tab. 

One Way to Wind and Hitch Bobbins

Winding, winding, winding, a never ending chore.  I have a few cases of bobbins which I always use for the first making of my own designs.  This way I don't have to worry about running out, or not winding enough pairs to start with.  Any bobbins with enough thread to rewind get put at the last row of the case so I can use them to add single bobbins, or wind on just those tiny amounts that can appear in non geometric designs.

I stick to the same bobbins too, having a consistant weight in the hands when thinking about what happens next is good, an odd weighted bobbin flicking off the pillow can distract and interfere with a thought process which is busy planning several trails, many moves ahead. 

Start with a secure wind onto the bobbin. 

The first bobbin is wound with as much thread as it will carry.  The trick is not to load the bobbin with too much thread which makes the thread wider than the head.  This can cause the thread to skip over the head and get tangled.  The second bobbin I wind only the top half of the neck, usually with a meter or less of thread.  This is usually enough for my designs, leaving me with only one bobbin with waste thread on.  The full bobbin simply refills the empty one as needed. 

Some bobbins are made with wood which doesn't seem to want to be polished glass smooth, worth remembering these, they come in handy for metallic, sparkly, thick or rayon threads which simply don't want to stay wound on the neck. Worth having a couple of pairs of rougher bobbins just for these special threads.

The winder I use is one which appeared from the magic shed at the end of the garden some years ago, a breadboard, a bit of kitchen work surface and a rolling pin had been turned into a wonderful, thoughtful present and has served me well.  The handle winds in reverse, so that  stops anyone else asking to use it!

The hitch I use developed simply by being the most trustworthy of all the different hitches I tried.   If the very first bit wound onto the bobbin is not secure, the whole wrap can rotate and this can make any hitch come undone.  Sometimes I find a solitary bobbin keeps unravelling despite the correct hitch, and the only way to correct it is to wind back to the beginning and get that first wind secure.

Do not be concerned when I say I drop the bobbin on the floor, I am not smashing the beads on ceramic tiles, or throwing the thread into muddy footprints!  There is a special little quilt just for the job, I wind so many bobbins, that this gives me the fastest way to measure.  Here's my rough guide. 

Drop from the waist - sitting = 60cm

Drop from the bust - sitting = 90 cm

Drop from the waist - standing = 1 meter

Drop from the bust  - standing = 1.25 meter. 

The weight of the bobbin hanging down from the table also helps to avoid tangles and twists in the thread.

Different bobbins, thread weights, twists, thread content, and plys can call for different hitches.  Always worth checking, when starting a new style of lace, what method is suggested at the front of the book, or how the teacher suggests.  They will know more than me about this!

My video on winding my everyday working bobbins is on you tube here

Wind and Hitch Lace Bobbins Video