Hello Sr Claire These patterns are difficult to give a definitive answer as to the thickness of thread required because the grid is not regular and the density of pins for the cloth/half stitch areas is greater than in the ground areas because not all of the pins have a pair going out into the ground and in other places two pairs go from cloth to ground. The density of pins in the footside also varies.
Eeva-iLisa Kortelahti is Finnish; and she uses Finnish thread - Google 'Tampella linen' and it appears that Tampella was a brand manufactured in Tampere in Finland and associated with the Scottish linen manufacturer Finlayson. Not that that tells you anything about the linen thread. However, Tim Parker used to tell me that she used the Finnish Pellava/Pella linen which does sound very appropriate. (Tim Parker is a very knowledgable general lace supplier, now retired). On that basis I would suggest that you are looking at Pella 70/3 or an equivalent. 3S 21 w/cm. Linen thread is strong and durable but it does like moist conditions, it gets very brittle if it gets too dry and knowing that you are in a fairly dry part of the world it would be sensible to use cotton instead, especially if you feel happier working with cotton and plan to mount it onto cotton. An alter cloth edging needs to be firm and crisp which means a round thread - three or four plies - and I'd suggest a double spun crochet thread. Don't use the softly spun perle threads. Some of the options would be: DMC Cordonnet 30 - 2S/3Z 20 w/cm DMC Cordonnet 40 - 2S/3Z 22 w/cm Handy Hands Lizbeth 40 - 2S/3Z 20 w/cm Coats Mercer Crochet/Coats Anchor Artiste 30 - 2S/3Z 20 w/cm Hope that helps Brenda > The Kortelahti edging that I am going to do calls for Tampella linen no. 70. > It's not in Brenda's book that I can find, and it may not be available any > more for that matter. > > Can anyone suggest a replacement - and even better (sacrilege though it may > be) I'd prefer a comparably sized cotton thread because it will be attached > to a cotton altar cloth. If there are compelling reasons to work it in > linen, of course, I will. Brenda in Allhallows www.brendapaternoster.me.uk - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
