Bavarian Lace in Needlepoint (hopefully)

Embarking on a new quest for knowledge, and I'm afraid gone a bit too far, as usual.

When I first decided to do the "ethnic" dolls in their national costumes, I noticed the beautiful lace insets on the aprons and sleeves of the German dirndl.

To back up a bit, I began replicating lace many years ago in needlepoint, but my facination was the Irish crocheted lace, as I had crocheted many pieces of it myself, so understood the construction. I especially enjoyed doing "filet lace," as you can see here in the top two pieces, in which a netting is worked with fillers in the "bump" stitches to create a pattern.

Bavarian lace is a bobbin lace, constructed down flat on a pillow, which produces a netting that is flled in with various patterns, but lies flat rather than having the "bobbles." I was amazed at the variation of the netting in the different regional laces, and that of different countries, and wanted to be careful not to make it look like the crocheted lace in my needlepoint things.

One of them has the same netting as filet lace, and others range from six to eight sided openings. So - my first chore has been to figure out how to replicate this fine netting on needlepoint canvas, which is an even weave scrim, and then to fill in a simple pattern - without making it look like crocheted lace.

I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who know a lot more about this lace thing than I do, as the construction of real lace has not been one of my studies over the years.

Anyway, what I finally devised as a netting has four pointers to show a fast and easy way to draw it onto canvas without having to count - or even to think, in this situation. That was a total struggle in the beginning, and I made some pretty awful mistakes with it. The canvas that looks like ladders is to show the quickest way to do this without having to count anything.

Next was the task of filling in a pattern of some sort to see if I could stitch it.











This is drawn with the light blue Sharpie drawing pen, as I intended to stitch it in white with a dark green "fabric" showing through. I like the second one best, as it shows "netting," which is the most difficult part of developing this thing. I have to keep reminding myself that's it's only to be a little band of lace on a small apron, but I enjoy the designing process and figuring it out. Oh well.


There are several mistakes here, as I was trying out different things - and the pointer shows where I decided I could make a scalloped edging by leaving out the two little stitches in that space.

Now I need to design an actual pattern to use, and although I never design on graph paper, I decided it would be easiest on this to have something on paper for doodling.




















I enlarged the drawing on canvas, (150%) printed out several paper copies, and that will be my practice page. Canvas is on the left, paper copy is on the right.

ADDENDUM: I used DMC cotton floss # 3865, which I like very much, as it isn't so bright white as the Blanc, and it lies nice and flat. The background is Vineyard Silk - "Holly" as I remember. (lost the tag) I tried perle cotton for the lace, but it was pretty awful looking for this due to the twist.

Napkin Rings in Needlepoint

While working on these little "hearts and flower" things with Bargello, I began thinking what a great idea it would be to make seasonal/festive table accessories in needlepoint (in addition to coasters). I've seen mini-stockings used as flatware holders - but no napkin rings.

Painted canvases are rather expensive for this sort of thing - justifiably so, as it takes a lot of time to design, draw, and paint them - but there are so many things we can do for ourselves that don't involve painting, and which are very easy to put on canvas for ourselves.

I started playing around with this idea a few days ago - and got out all of the ornaments, etc., I keep in a drawer that are stitched, but not finished. Just looking at them, I realized that many many of the individual elements on these pieces could be used very effectively as napkin rings. I took photos, and then cropped these elements to see how they might look.

The crazy quilt piece is just a cross section of a round ornament - it could be elongated easily and used. As for size, I discovered that a good size would be approximately 5 1/2" in circumference, which makes a ring of 1 1/2" diameter. I didn't do this by the mathematical device of Pi x Radius squared, as I was taught in plane geometry, but by cutting off a piece of a toilet paper tube to try it out for size with my daughter's fine damask napkins. As for height, I believe this would work as about 1 1/2" high to even 2".

The red flowers are the division between body and cuff of a mini-stocking (one of my "laces and trims" things), and the next one is the center part of a very simple ornament I made years and years ago with nothing more than Kreinik metallic braid and Rainbow Gallery Flair in simple slanted stitches. The tiny little patchwork squares are about one inch square (except for the green and white one) and could easily be manipulated to go across a band of 5 1/2" to make a napkin ring - fun!!

You could try this out for yourself - and might be surprised at how easy it is. I'm thinking festive occassions like bridal showers, birthdays, "just because" - whatever. Easter and the other obvious holidays too. What heirlooms they would make also!!

I intend to put the Bargello/heart piece on my Freebies, Etc. blog - but not tonight. I'm watching the movie on TCM about George Gershwin, whose music I love. I've been doing this all day, beginning with The Great Caruso - wonderful day for stitching!!

Another Form of Lace!

This was a serendipitous find for me - as I was cruising around in Sharon B's PINTANGLE yesterday, I clicked on a blog under her list of "R"'s, and was amazed to find yet another version of the 15th and 16th versions of filet lace.

I have, off and on in the last few months, made a rather thorough study of lace and it's origins, as I'm intensely interested in replicating the look of the Irish crocheted lace - particularly their adaptation of filet lace, which originated in Italy and evolved from the Reticella to punto-in-aria to filet.

The Reticella was originally cutwork in which threads were pulled from linen fabric to make a "grid," and then a pattern was worked mainly with buttohole stitch. Later reticella used a grid made of thread rather than a fabric ground. Both types resulted in the characteristic geometric design of squares and circles, etc. Reticella then evolved into Punto in Aria, which did not involve using the fabric, but was constructed "stitch in air" to make the netting.

Adriana Ortiz, of Argentina, learned the art of RANDA from her grandmother a number of years ago - this term refers exclusively to the needlework originating in the province of Tucuman, and is one of the oldest of the crafts, which were brought by the Spaniards to the new world in the late 16th to the early 17th century.

Do go visit this blog, Randa - Handmade Lace, and enjoy! Her work is exquisite. I had no idea this had been done - from so long ago. As Michaelangelo said, "I am still learning." Learning is a good thing!!

The lovely white pillow is for the ring bearer in a wedding - gorgeous thing, it is!

Something Beautiful!!

This is a short one, as I'm tired tonight due to what my grandmother used to call "that thinking work." My brain wires are short circuited - but I found this site in a round about way this morning, and wanted to share it - it's gorgeous, and will lengthen my morning coffee/blog cruising time considerably. Bear in mind this woman hasn't been doing CQ but a few years!! The site is by NickiLee - and she calls it

"Nicki Lee's RavioLee Dreams." Do go there and take a look! Among other eye-candy she creates, she hand dyes these laces. Exquisite work.