On Feb 23, 2009, at 16:04, Mark, aka Tatman wrote:
I am pretty sure the lacer used cotton thread.
What makes you think that? Look at the starting point -- the half diamond in half stitch -- the thread gets thicker and thinner in places. It's especially visible in the second pair from the top, moving to the rose ground part: one thread of it is thin, one thick. That's typical of linen thread; cotton is much more uniform.
I am guessing at size 40-50? It is just over 3 whole stitches per inch on the footside.
According to various charts I have -- some with photos of samples -- a similar density is achieved by linen 35/2 in lace which has 4 footside stitches per inch. So, if this one has only 3, then the tread is coarser than that. Unfortunately, none of the charts I have even mentions a 3-stitches-per-inch footside :)
I'm not sure my math skills are up to getting it right from Brenda's book, but I'll try.
According to her book, the optimum (and the thread in your piece is certainly well chosen) is 12wraps between footside stitches for Torchon (I agree with Alice, that the piece is more Torchon than Cluny). So, with 3 stitches per inch, it's 36 wraps per inch, or 36 wraps per 25mm. Or 14.4 wraps per 10mm/1cm, which is how she counts her wraps. In the 14 and 15wpcm columns, she has only one well known brand of linen and that's Bockens 25/3. The linen used in your piece is a 2-ply, not 3, I think. So, at the moment, there seems to be no 2-ply linen available that is that coarse :)
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
