Heart Wing Butterfly.

Keeping in with the recent heart theme, here's a little butterfly to play with. 

 

I used this pattern to experiment with making a tape lace, but not by using the traditional bolster pillow.  I used my favourite block pillow, which I work at an angle, and a circular block so I can turn the work easily.  I used my spangled Midlands bobbins instead of the continentals I have been using on the bolster pillow while learning Idrija lace.  A 15 x 8cm hemmed cloth is used to cover the pins as the thread moves over them.  I wanted to see if the tape laces could be made and sewn as easily with equipment which is more familiar to me.    

The butterfly measures 8 cm and used 7 pairs.

I started with the antennae, two twists around the first pin to fit a magic thread to help join the antennae to the edge of the wing later on. Single thread picots helped hold the plait in place around the curve. 

The body was worked next, with magic threads on the left, and hanging pairs on the right. Place pins close together for a denser filling.  Start with five pairs, making the center passive in half stitch.  Add a sixth passive and use half stitch on the two center passives.  You can alter the passives to cloth or half stitch in the narrow sections, leave any colour or glitter threads in cloth stitch. 

The corners were worked by leaving behind two pairs at the inside.  Work to the edge and back, leaving the worker and using the last passive worked out to the edge and back. Pick up the waiting worker and work to the pin and back, taking in the final two waiting pairs.  Because I used a glitter thread on the very outside, I used a temporary pin inside it on the point, the glitter thread has a slight stretch to it and can try and pull away from a pin used on the outside curve or point. 

The second side was worked the same way, with the pairs added by using the magic threads already in place.

Play about with different stitches and methods, throw in a few sequins, have fun!  Do let me see what you make by posting on the Lesley's Lace facebook page or group. 

A .pdf is available in the Files section of the Lesley's Lace facebook page. 

Swirly Turtle

 Swirly Turtle

I designed this little turtle to practice the Idrija corners and bar techniques.   I cannot call it 'Idrija' because the lace is a protected name, so I can only say I used those techniques as best I can. 

Five to six pairs.  Idrija 30 thread, or any good cotton at 30 wraps per centimeter.  The gold thread is about 16 wraps per centimeter, a crochet thread about number 20 perhaps.    Lay the threads inside the trail, if they fit nicely, then they are the right size.  If they go outside the lines, either reduce the size of the thread. You need a minimum of 4 passive pairs so lay 8 threads inside the lines.  

Start at the arrow shown near the tail.  This leads you to work the inside swirl before making the outer edges and avoids working over too many pins. 

I wanted to create a piece using lots of bars.  The tensioning issues created left me with asymetrical sewings, despite using the same number of twists, obviously I haven't quite got the hang of them yet!

The outside edge was made using two worker pairs, I had hoped that this would give a smooth, more turtle like appearance but it does tend to push the passives towards the inside of the trail.  I would prefer to use a thick passive thread and place the pin inside the worker and the thick thread.   There are lots of different edges, just use which one you like.   

The whole turtle is just one trail.  The center passive pair, the thick gold glitter, has two passives one side, and one passive the other, this meant I had to move a passive across to make the corners to avoid using the thick gold in the fixing stitches.

There are two sizes, the larger one allows for using a thicker thread, or you can just use more passives to fit the trail.  

There are no pinholes marked in this pattern, you can choose if you want the outer trail to be worked with pinholes closely worked, or spread out.  With the thick thread, the wider pinholes do work quyite nicely.