From: Tania Gruning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Almost done with a handkerchief in torchon, will post something on > it soon. Think I am improving, although I wish I could afford to > take a class to get some tricks on how to do spiders, mine tend to > go pear shaped, raindrop shaped or lopsided ;-p
Hi, Tania, welcome to the wonderful, addictive (and occasionally frustrating) world of bobbin lace! WHen I make a spider, I twist up all the pairs for the "front legs", work all the left-half pairs through the right-half pairs, and put in a support pin dead-center in the spider's diamond area. You can gently tension the pairs so they are nice and orderly above the pin. Then work the second half of the "body", twist up all the rear legs, and work the ground stitches that each "leg" ends at. No more than those pinholes at the edge of the spider, just to give each leg something to hold onto. The cloth stitch (CTC) threads of the body tend to bunch up around the pin a little, so then take out the support pin and gently pull each leg pair to get the body to lay flat Ithe ground stitch and pin at the edge of the diamond keeps the pair from getting too uppity). The "rear legs" that are closest to the top of the diamond area are the ones that are at the center of the body. These are the threads that need most of the tensioning. Then you can continue on your way. The pear and raindrop shape is usually because the first half of the body is too far from the top of the diamond. By putting a pin at the center, you can tension your pairs around it, which pushes the body stitches upward against the twists of the legs. If this doesn't do the trick, then maybe you're putting too many twists on each leg before reaching the body. You just need a couple of twists to keep the threads together. The support pin also helps to keep the body centered side-to-side until the rear legs can be anchored back into the work. Don't take the center pin out before the legs are anchored (or the spider can get distorted), but also don't leave it in after one row of stitches around the spider. If you leave the pin in, you will end up with a hole in the middle of your spider. Hope these suggestions help. If not, give another holler and someone else will have other suggestions for you, I'm sure. This is a *most* helpful group, with great diversity and there are always many different solutions offered for anybody's question--not always compatible with each other, but you get to try them all and find which one or combination works for you. Robin P. Los Angeles, California, USA (formerly Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
