This is a bit long for a Christmas tree decoration. Perhaps you could use it to decorate a card. Click here for more Christmas decorations.
Pattern:
Bobbins: 16 pairs (14 white, 1 green, 1 black)
Style: Torchon
Stitches:
half stitch
cloth stitch
cloth stitch and twist
insert a bead (black cross)
reef or square knot
gimp (black)
twist pair
Details:
star ground (yellow)
Torchon ground (grey)
cloth shape (green, black and red)
horizontal and vertical edges
footside with no passives (grey)
Description:
Follow the links above for explanation of how to work the different parts of the lace. The start is one of the edge pairs working in cloth stitch across all other pairs, then back again. This strengthens the start and frames the picture.
This was an attempt to make a better snowman than pattern 119. Generally speaking, I use colour in my websites by using the natural direction of a pair of threads. Here I have 'cheated'! To make the tree green, I wind another pair of bobbins with green thread, and hang this from the first pin in the tree. So the tree has more passives than it normally would. The green pair are workers, and colour the tree in the normal way. At the end of the tree, the green pair is tied off in the normal way (use a reef or square knot). At the top of the snowman's hat, hang a pair of black threads in the same way. At the bottom of the hat, I did not tie off the black threads at this point. Instead, I pretended that each single black thread of this pair was a gimp, and ran it round the outside of the snowman, to help it stand out. These black 'gimps' were finished as gimps normally are. This change of colour means that the tree and snowman certainly stand out. But I found it a bit fussy, adding and removing pairs in this way.
The eyes and the mouth of the snowman are small black beads, which are inserted using a crochet hook.
© Jo Edkins 2016 - return to lace index