2 inches wide, made from perle 8 cotton. Teneriffe, also called Sol lace, is a form of needlelace that is worked over a web (the spokes of the wheel) mounted on a form (in this case, a squeaky slab of styrofoam). Design from Alexandra Stillwell’s ,”The Technique of Teneriffe Lace.”
One of the things I really like about Thing-a-day is that the framework gives me the incentive to try new techniques without getting bogged down in trying to produce a masterpiece. Since the projects have to be quick, they lend themselves to experimentation. This is my first attempt at Romanian Point lace, which is worked by crocheting a braid (the heavy outlines of the heart, couching the braid to a pattern on a piece of cloth (I drew the pattern on copy paper and basted it to an ordinary handkerchief), then working the needlelace fillings with a blunt tapestry needle. The thread is perle cotton 8. The pattern is adapted from a bookmark in Angela Thompson’s book, Romanian Point Lace (now sadly out of print, but you can get Sylvia Moriartu’s Romanian lace patterns and booklets from www.nordicneedle.com).
Romanian Point lace is very quick to work and surprisingly durable. It’s also very portable, because you just need thread, needles, a crochet hook, and the project itself, which can be rolled up to fit in a small bag. Crocheting the braid is tedious, but it’s easy, mindless work that you can do while standing in line, sitting in a lecture, or commuting.
So, I came up with this “great” idea to make stuffed heart pillows for the upcoming holiday, the twist being that they would have decidedly un-Valentine sayings cross-stitched onto them.
As I tried to figure out how to do this, I realized there’s a whole subculture of these kind of “subversive cross-stitch”-ers already out there: http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com/index.html. Not only that- there’s a web-comic who is doing basically the same thing I was thinking of, only better http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com/valentines2008.htm
Motherfucker.
But I went ahead with it anyway. To ensure my failure, I opted not to get the appropriate cross-stitch fabric (I used an old handkerchief), and I did basically no pre-planning for the layout of my sparse ”design” (I was too impatient). Also, I drank as I stitched erratically. Here’s what I came up with:
and
My previous ‘things’ have been photographs and fake food, so I felt like something more traditional. I tatted this with size 80 thread. As you can see, it’s roughly 1 1/4 inches square. The pattern is from Mary Konior’s book, “VisualTatting.” It’s quite a simple one, done with a single shuttle and rings of 5-2-2-5.
Fixed my browser problems
I figured out how to fix the script problems and weird behaviour that was happening with both my browsers, IE and Firefox. I logged out and logged back in. Everything works! Sometimes it’s so easy to miss the obvious…. So if you’re having problems with WordPress, it’s worth a try.
Last night I finished the second-to-last chart of Mystery Stole 3. After languishing since last summer, I have recently regained the motivation to work on it. Now I have just one chart left, which should go pretty quick. Then I will have a nice lacy shawl for the spring…and I can get started on my next one!
gifts for sara
My philosophy with gift-wrapping is that if you don’t feel guilty about unwrapping it, I never should have even given you a gift.
cotton fabric (by Anna Griffin purchased from reprodepot.com) with lace embellishments.
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