We likewise started off with strips of cloth, cloth & twist and half
stitch worked in thickish sewing cotton - mine ended up relegated to the
bottom of a work basket for years. In the course of teaching, I changed
things so that the first piece of "lace" my lot made was worth keeping
on show.
Firstly, I worked out that most of my problems with half stitch were
caused by leaving it till last to learn - it was so different (in only
having "one" worker, not being able to leave it mid-row and knowing
where I was, tensioning differently) that I avoided it for years.
However, teaching the stitch first didn't throw up the same problems -
it was a logical move from 2 moves (cross, twist) to three (cross,
twist, cross) and then to four (cross, twist, cross, twist).
We worked the strip long enough to require at least one "move up", and
to run out of thread on the worker, but kept the edge passives as cloth
stitch, so that at the end of the piece we had a gathering thread along
at least one edge (the odd stray twist could change this!) so that the
finished strip could be gathered up into a rosette.
Worked in colourful threads - often either metallics or Perle 8 was used
- the rosette looked very effective when placed in a coaster - and could
be used and "ahh'd" over when taken home.
There are advantages to working long strips of each stitch - these embed
the movements into the hands and so help speed, but these days we are
learning a hobby, not a profession, so speed isn't quite so important.
When demonstrating I prefer to have a piece that looks like lace (ie has
holes in it!!!!) on the beginner pillow and so avoid plain tape laces
(which is, in effect, what the snake is) so that the visitor can see
that they are actually working a piece of lace, not a strip of woven
cloth. As (almost) all stitches can be broken down to just two moves
repeated as necessary, it doesn't matter if you are directing the
working of a cloth stitch, Torchon Ground stitch, Point Ground stitch,
or whatever - I've even had a (male) newspaper photographer work an
entire square of roseground in the past!
A little imagination and suiting the project to the learner can go a
long way, and things like how to replace a thread and move a piece up
can be taught in the process, making it less arduous a task when they
inevitably come to it later on.
In message <[email protected]>, Sue
<[email protected]> writes
I remember my first lace lesson and took home my whole stitch, half stitch
bandage strip with pride but DH remarked "is that what you are learning? Did
that take you all evening, I thought you were going to learn lacemaking" he
nearly had my first pillow over his head but I thought I might damage it (
the pillow, not his head) He now admits he might have been wrong.
Sue M Harvey
Norfolk UK
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Jane Partridge
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