Ah Jennifer! Now we come to your true question! I have tatted with wire, which is quite analogous to the button hole stitch, so (in spite of not having tried needle lace in wire) my first guess is that you can successfully do so.
Wire teaches you that tensioning is about removing all the slack and not about pulling hard. Wire will stretch, but you don't want it to. Any kinks are weak spots where the wire can break. I had to learn (in tatting) to treat the working thread as if I were using a laying tool. The objective is to always have a smooth loop of wire that isn't stressed or kinked. You will need to train yourself to use the wire the way it wants to be used. In tatting, which transfers the knot from one thread to another, I have to make sure that the tension is off the correct thread at the correct time. You may have to baby the stitches in more than one stage. I can see that the upright thread of a button hole stitch would need to have the slack removed first and then complete the stitch. If you are accustomed to making a stitch and then pulling up the slack, it is just not the optimum technique for wire. With wire the general rule is to make the stitches where you want them (i.e. remove the slack as you go along) because wire just doesn't take pulling the slack out past any point where the wire changes direction. Twisted button hole stitch makes this principle even more important. Another point that just swam to the fore is that wire is much more hands on (literally). In bobbin lace, I have my fingers on the wire to support it and smooth it, all the time. And the amount of wire from the bobbin to the work is as short as possible. (The opposite of thread, which shouldn't be handled any more than absolutely necessary.) While wire is thread-like, making stitches with it is more like placing where you want the stitch and bending the wire (once!) to form the thread path. That last phrase is the heart of the matter, with wire, you have to form the thread path, not just let physics determine the shape of the stitch. Needlework developed methods optimum for threads and in recognition of the behavior of threads. I am thinking through the steps 1. Working left to right 2. The wire comes down in front of the work 3. Take the needle around or through the foundation stitch 4. Make sure the slack is removed from the vertical bar of the stitch in front of the work 5. Bend the wire to form the change of direction ( was down, now it is up) 6. Put the needle through the space between the previous work and the downward thread 7. Remove the slack Lather, rinse, repeat. Good Luck and let us know how it comes out for you. Once you get the hang of it, you'll pick up speed. It won't always be so minutely focused. Patty Thanks for all the replies! I'm not sure if the 100micron wire my dh has is enamelled or not - I'll ask him tonight. Also check where he purchased it, but as it's for electronic engineering I would guess it came from an elecrtonics supplier type place. What I am really asking in a round about way is "can you make wire needlelace". I had a quick try with the copper wire that dh had lying around, but the wire kept snapping when I tried to pull the buttonhole stitches in firmly enough. Don't know if that happened because my skills are lacking (most likely) or that the wire I used was not suitable. Jen (now not so reticent) in Melbourne, Australia (where its warm with grey skies that are trying to rain) - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
