Kelpies - Mythological Shape Changing Horses.

I thought it appropriate to release my Kelpies design in the Chinese Year of the Horse.  

I am planning to make this one again, it has been some years since I made the original and I didn't make any notes!   If you are patient, there may be an updated pattern with pinholes and techniques described more fully but I wanted to get this out now, at the start of the Year of the Horse.

This Kelpie horse head trilogy pattern was inspired by the beautiful sculptures in Scotland.  Kelpies are shape changing aquatic creature who possessed the strength of ten horses.  They were chosen to honour the heavy horses which pulled canal boats, carts and even coalships. The mythology of these creatures is a little more naughty than nice but they are worth a look.  

 https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Kelpie/

There are four fillings, and you can swap them around as you wish, or simply make one to stand alone.  Each of the heads take different numbers of bobbins, and use different techniques.  Some can be made by  sewing in the fillings after the outline edges are made.  I always prefer to make a piece all at once.  

There are few pinholes marked, I have left it up to the lace maker to choose how close you wish your threads to be.  The number of passives for each trail is found simply by laying your chosen thread in pairs between the two lines.  To line up the sewings of the heads to the center, I would suggest drawing a zigzag around the edge of the center and the base of the heads to fit your choice of spacing. 

The suggested thread is approx 28 to 30 wraps per centimeter, DMC Broder Machine for example. 

The size, taken from the widest measurement which is an eartip to a mane tip is 19cm.

The center motif can be made alone, and the heads sewn in, or sewn on afterwards.  I made all 4 pieces first, finishing with the center motif still pinned to the pillow, then repinned the edge trail of the horses so I could make the sewings.  

There will be a .pdf on my Lesley's Lace facebook page under the 'Files' tab.  Do let me see your Kelpies by posting on my facebook page, I do love to see how lacemakers adapt and often improve a pattern.