----Original message---- >From : catherinebar...@btinternet.com Date : To : jsyz...@comcast.net, lace@arachne.com Subject : Re: [lace] thread for Hollie Point
Hi Julie Well as you've already discovered, choice of thread for any type/style of lace is very personal and what suits one person is no necessarily the choice of another. Brenda Paternoster is the accepted expert on threads and if you don't already have a copy of her invaluable little book 'Threads for Lace', I would recommend that you get hold of a copy as soon as you can. Threads are continually going out of production and as I worked the sample in my book with a No 120 Copley Marshall thread that was no longer available by the time my book was published, I suggested either a Brok cotton 160 or Egyptian cotton 120 which would give a similar result. Bearing in mind that my book was first published in 1993, I have recently been informed by several UK lace suppliers that Brok cotton is no longer being manufactured, so Egyptian cotton No 120 is the recommended thread for this particular sample. Hollie point was usually only found in baby clothing i.e bonnets or 'vests' which presumably is why it was worked in such fine thread, as a thicker gauge of thread would have produced a larger sample, too big to incorporate into the crown or back of a baby bonnet or shoulders of a 'vest'. Dates were also frequently incorporated into these works and you will notice that my pattern No 3 also includes the date 1991! I worked this piece of Hollie Point 25 years ago and even then I needed magnification to work it. For this very reason, I agree with Devon that whilst most forms of needlelace are portable, Hollie Point is not one that I would like to carry in my handbag as one needs absolute concentration to work this very fine exacting type of lace, enabling the worker to continually count the number of stitches required to make the pattern work correctly and probably magnification of some kind. I would compare it more towards the working of Filet crochet lace where the patter! n is formed by voiding (holes), rather than cross stitch, where the pattern is formed by changes in colour of threads. Cotton is also the most practical thread to use, rather than silk, because we all know that baby clothes need frequent washing (sometimes boiling), as they are naturally messy little souls and of course Gutermann 100/3 silk thread or any other silk thread, would not be a wise choice for Hollie Point. The Freesia No 15 needles of course are no longer available either but I use a Sharps No 10 or No 12 for the fine net background in my Point de Gaze, which incidentally is worked using the same twisted buttonhole stitch as the Hollie Point and I use both Brok and Egyptian cotton for this purpose. Hollie Point is not quite as simple as it might first appear, which is why pattern No 1 is just a diamond within a diamond, within a diamond and worked in a No 20 crochet cotton, making it easy for the worker to see what she is doing by using a thicker thread and also to hopefully understand the necessity to count the stitches required to produce the holes/voids in the correct position. I know that most workers new to Hollie Point think that its easy because one just makes a hole to either the left or right of the hole in the previous row, but if one doesn't count the number of stitches between these holes/voids, it is easy to have made a mistake by not working sufficient STITCHES, resulting in too few LOOPS in the following row! Not all patterns are diamonds, some are flowers in pots etc and one doesn't simply work a hole to either the left or right of the one above, but needs to know how to work these more complicated patterns and one can't do that if one doesn't unders! tand that it is necessary to make TWO STICHES into a void to form a LOOP for the following row. Having worked this sample all those years ago, I have never had the desire to work another! Happy stitching Catherine Barley www.catherinebarley.com - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
