Wriggly Bauble

Inspired by the Idrija Lace School's first book, I used some of the techniques I learned in this Wriggly Bauble design.  The first technique was a curve, so I used that for nearly all of this design.  

The outline for this design is the same as previous baubles I have released as patterns, I just redesigned the centre area. 

Eight threads laid side by side should fit inside the lines.  If you choose a sparkle (thicker) pair, place them in the center, 3 passives, 2 sparkle, 3 passives.  The outer edge pairs all turn into workers at some point so keep these the same. 

The tail of this one is new, instead of sewing the ends to the start, I moved the join to the bottom point of the outer edge which is made last.  Pin the threads 3 inches away from the start pins and work around to the same point where you cut the bobbins off with 3 inches of thread left on the pillow.  Use whichever method you prefer to tie the two lots of thread together to make a tassell, add beads, ribbon, more threads, whatever you like. 

The little seed beads around the edges and the centre beads need to be smaller than the width of the bar they sit on.  I made a video on how to add them.  You do not need to add these beads, just make the bars in the usual way.   

To make the bar to fit a bead I altered the joining point.  Add twists to reach the other side of the bar, not just the centre. On reaching the opposite side of the bar, I placed a magic thread loop into the finished bar, added the bead onto the magic threads, pushed it onto the bar, fed a loop of the worker into the loop of the magic thread and drew it through the end of the bar, above the bead.  Feed the waiting worker bobbin through the other worker bobbin loop and tension as shown in the video.

The bars are usually made by putting enough twists on the worker to reach half way across the bar, place a pin, tension, add the same number of twists and return to the trail.  When reaching the other side of the trail,  add the same number of twists, remove the pin, sew into the previous bar, add same number of twists and continue the trail without replacing the pin.    

https://youtu.be/dDgbyA3Wllc?si=LDJrNN3AqAEsHLHO

The insides of the curves are not pinned, they use a simple turning stitch which swaps the worker with the last passive.  The working pair which is left behind is given a single twist.  Be careful not to pull the curve out of shape by tensioning too fiercely at the pin or bars at the outer edge.  I made a video on how to make these curves.

https://youtu.be/70PDKoBazF0?si=rfj1fcMMXMhcHV1p