Hello Alice No I haven't tried working out the thread size from a finished item!
Cloth stitch should have 4 threads between pinholes measured vertically but only 2 threads between them if measured horizontally. Look at any thread diagram to confirm this.
In torchon it means that in cloth stitch the worker threads are much closer together than the passive threads, but the variable working angles of Maltese, and especially Cluny may well reduce the difference.
I've been told that all Maltese lace made for sale (on Malta) is required to incorporate the Maltese/St John cross, but anything made for the lacemaker's own use/family does not have to include the cross even if everything else is 'Maltese' in design.
Maltese lace is a sort of Cluny/torchon mix. Sometimes the regular grid of torchon is most prominent with fancy grounds but mostly it's the plaits and petals that are the most important design feature. Maltese has fat petals (often lots of them) with cloth stitch crossings. Cluny petals are slimmer and crossings are usually done with paired threads. From my own collection of bits and pieces I can say that Cluny may have a 9-pin edge but the nearest to that that you find in Maltese is single plait at the edge with evidence of a pin where it changes direction, but not a proper picot.
Brenda
Has anyone tried to figure a thread size from a finished item? I tried it on my collar with this result. Figuring that the tightest clothwork area would be a bit similar to the spacing of a thread wrap, I counted several different areas, vertically and horizontally. In this case, I consistently got 10 or 11 rows or columns per centimeter. That would translate to 20-22 threads per c. In "Threads for Lace", that size could be Gutermann 40/3, Piper Twisted Gloss 90/9 or 40/3, Piper silk Gimp 40/3 or 45/3, Mulberry Silks 70/3. This gives me a place to start. The other puzzle is whether this collar is really Maltese. It was labeled Maltese from the lace dealer I got it from. However, I'm beginning to wonder if it really is Cluny. It seems to have features of both laces, but that's not unusual since the two laces are in the same family. It's also missing some of the distinctive features of Maltese. I thought at first that it might have an Art Nouveau influence on the design. That might explain the design differences. Before someone else asks, no...I cannot send a scan of it. I haven't learned how to do that yet. If I get a friend to scan it, I'll let you know.
Brenda in Allhallows, Kent http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/index.html - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
