Shadowsong Makes Lace

[shadowsong-lace]

Been a while since I posted here, hasn’t it, haha. Still stalled on the fan I tried to start...like...six months ago? So I started another bookmark! I used to hate French fans/pivot fans but they’re So Pretty and once you get the hang of them they’re not so bad.

The pattern is set up so the center spiders can be a bunch of different options. I like the haloed spiders and cathedral window spiders the best, so I’m going to alternate them, I think. The first two are a little uneven, but I’ll probably get better as we go.

Pattern is Spiders in my garden by Jenny Brandis on Etsy.

[shadowsong-lace]

It has been a while, hasn’t it...

I haven’t been doing much lacework lately (various other things/life got in the way; plus I was all set up for a fan but it required Many bobbins and that’s generally the most procrastinating part for me, lol).

Anyway, I did finish winding all the bobbins for the fan, yay! ...and I’ve now spent Way Too Long trying to figure out how to actually start it XD It’s basically starting from the corner (at the base/narrow end); I’ve only ever done starting from a center point (like in a bookmark) or a flat edge (like in a bracelet), and...I don’t know, I keep ending up with the bobbins not ending up where they’re supposed to? Like I’ll either have too many on the side where the fan edging is, or too many on the flat edge; I’m supposed to add two bobbins at a time? (also the numbers on the ‘start here’ graph add up to four more than the pattern says I should need???)

So, yeah, that’s been a fun morning XD I guess does anyone know what I should google for tutorials on this kind of thing? Obviously, when I google how to start a fan, I get how to do fans as in the edge of a work, not as in the entire piece of lace that gets mounted on sticks, lol.

I feel like once I get this started, it won’t be too hard--it’s mostly just regular Tochon ground, with cloth stitch fans on the edge and some rose ground/cloth stitch blocks as part of the pattern, which is why I picked it to start, out of the various fan patterns I bought a few months ago. It’s just. Not Working to start it and work all the bobbins in, lol...

[shadowsong-lace]

Hmmm...so a question. If a pattern gives a couple suggested threads and through judicious googling I found the wpc comparison so I could figure out exactly what thread I should get (and/or outright has a wpc size listed)...how exact do I need to be?

Like, the bookmark patterns I’ve been making typically come with two scales, one for 28 - 40 wpc and the other for 25 - 35 wpc (most of the thread I have is 30 wpc, which fits in either, but I usually use the bigger pattern).

But the fan patterns I have usually only have a suggested thread list, or a single wpc number rather than a range.

For example, if I have a pattern that suggests Fresia 80/2 linen thread, which is approximately 29 wpc, I assume that 30 wpc is close enough. But what about something that’s 36 wpc? I’m guessing 30 wpc will be too thick for that...

((i’m going to have to order more thread regardless, since i need a Lot for a fan, this is just a question of how hard it’s going to be to find what i need, since the site i usually order from i don’t think has anything much finer than what i’ve been working with...))

[shadowsong-lace]

things i learned today

(technically i already knew this but it. got Driven Home)

i got some fan patterns, and i figured ‘i’ll need another pillow, that way i can switch to something simpler/less frustrating, like a bookmark, if i need a break. also, if i get a bigger pillow, i won’t have to deal with unpinning and moving things when i run out of room.’

so, i ordered a 24-inch cookie pillow.

it came today.

....long story short, i. uh. overestimated the amount of pillow i would need.

Yeah I am Not Good at determining Physical Size from Dimensions. XD

But at least I will Almost Certainly not run out of room for anything I have planned right now!

Pins, on the other hand..........

[shadowsong-lace]

Finished!

A couple different pictures--I don’t really have a background that shows off the really nice green color it is in person...

So I talked in some of the earlier posts about how the fans on the side didn’t work the way they did in the sample--the sample had much more even tension, and I ended up being much tighter on the top of each fan, and then spreading out. But I kinda like the swoopy effect?

I made a couple mistakes at the bottom when I was finishing it off, but it’s not as visible as I thought it would be, which is nice! (It was. Frustrating, though, because I missed a pin at the top of the trail and didn’t realize until I was almost at the end and I had to undo and redo a lot...but it was worth it in the end, I think!)

The compound spiders, especially the five-spider compound, looks really cool, I think. And I like the effect of the double ground (with a whole/double stitch instead of a half stitch). I also like the effect of the two different types of compounds, with one much thicker and the other finer/looking more open.

Despite the minor frustration at the end (which was my fault, not the pattern’s XD), I think this one turned out really well!

Pattern is the Mitchell Falls bookmark, by Jenny Brandis on Etsy.

[shadowsong-lace]

Ever on we go…

I have now done three of the five-spider compounds and i think all three have different tension XD But it is a pretty cool effect either way.

I think I figured out why the fans on the side look different from in the sample pattern, but I think it’ll be a super cool effect once it’s done so I’m not going to bother to try and fix the tension there for the last bit.

Someone commented on the last post how fast I’m going through this–I have definitely gotten faster at this since I started! But I also don’t post updates every time I work on this. For this bookmark, I’ve generally done sort of one horizontal section in a sitting–i.e., the fan on each side, there’s a narrow trail and one rose ground at each corner, and then the central spider and surrounding ground/trail. It usually takes me about…two to two and a half hours for each chunk? So that’s like ten to twelve hours thus far. (Six months ago, it would probably have been at least fifteen hours into this. Not counting, like, bobbin-winding, pricking, etc., which always takes a million years lol)

After I finish this project, I’ll probably do another bookmark while I find a good fan pattern and figure out what thread I need for it, etc. I think it’ll be fun to do a bigger project! And then after that…well, I’ll see how I feel about it, but maybe try some different styles of lace? Everything I’ve done so far has been torchon-based.

[sparklingspangles]

The difference between machine and handmade lace is that in machine the repeats are always the same with the same tension. Having tiny differences you can barely spot is the sign of handmade :)

You are fast based on how much you manage to sit down and do it! I think I manage once a week at best.

A fan will be fun, and you can get patterns for different sizes to suit how big of a project you want. 

Do you have a particular style you want to try next?

[shadowsong-lace]

True, true XD

Yeah, I’ve been searching around to look for patterns, and figure out how to get the fan sticks that go with them…

I’m not sure about styles? I just want to try different things. Probably sticking with mesh/grounded laces like Bucks rather than a guipure/braided lace like Beds? If I’m remembering the differences right… (every so often I go digging for different styles to see what’s out there.) I know different styles have different difficulty points, so I might be going about picking the next style the wrong way, lol.

[sparklingspangles]

Bucks! the best lace :) I don’t remember finding the transistion that hard, just the catch pin takes a while to get, and the occasional auto-closing of pins.

If you are into grounds though I always thought Binche looked pretty. It just seems tougher to get into as I am told I need to learn Flanders first. And I have never seen it worked in colour, which makes me sad.

[shadowsong-lace]

Bucks is super pretty, so I’ll probably go there next! I’ve been googling fan patterns for the past few days to see what I can get and a lot of them are in Bucks point rather than Torchon (I figure I want to do something Much More Basic in Bucks point before I start doing the fancy stuff, haha). But I’ve also found some really pretty Torchon ones! So I can start there and see where things go.

Oooh, I agree–Binche lace is gorgeous! And Flanders is also pretty, and I think I can see how they build on each other? But I think I’ll start with Bucks point and go from there. There are so many different styles out there…

[shadowsong-lace]

Not the greatest photo I’ve ever taken of my work but...

(Despite using the exact same lamp as the last few photos it somehow ended up slightly different this time??? The pricking color is more this blue than the paler/washed-out type seen previously...)

I think I have...like...three to four hours left on this one? There’s the big compound spider, and one more fan on each side, and then one of the simpler compound spiders and the bottom edge. So, yay! Should finish up sometime over the next week, probably, depending on how often I actually sit down to work on it.

[shadowsong-lace]

Ever on we go…

I have now done three of the five-spider compounds and i think all three have different tension XD But it is a pretty cool effect either way.

I think I figured out why the fans on the side look different from in the sample pattern, but I think it’ll be a super cool effect once it’s done so I’m not going to bother to try and fix the tension there for the last bit.

Someone commented on the last post how fast I’m going through this–I have definitely gotten faster at this since I started! But I also don’t post updates every time I work on this. For this bookmark, I’ve generally done sort of one horizontal section in a sitting–i.e., the fan on each side, there’s a narrow trail and one rose ground at each corner, and then the central spider and surrounding ground/trail. It usually takes me about…two to two and a half hours for each chunk? So that’s like ten to twelve hours thus far. (Six months ago, it would probably have been at least fifteen hours into this. Not counting, like, bobbin-winding, pricking, etc., which always takes a million years lol)

After I finish this project, I’ll probably do another bookmark while I find a good fan pattern and figure out what thread I need for it, etc. I think it’ll be fun to do a bigger project! And then after that…well, I’ll see how I feel about it, but maybe try some different styles of lace? Everything I’ve done so far has been torchon-based.

[sparklingspangles]

The difference between machine and handmade lace is that in machine the repeats are always the same with the same tension. Having tiny differences you can barely spot is the sign of handmade :)

You are fast based on how much you manage to sit down and do it! I think I manage once a week at best.

A fan will be fun, and you can get patterns for different sizes to suit how big of a project you want. 

Do you have a particular style you want to try next?

[shadowsong-lace]

True, true XD

Yeah, I’ve been searching around to look for patterns, and figure out how to get the fan sticks that go with them...

I’m not sure about styles? I just want to try different things. Probably sticking with mesh/grounded laces like Bucks rather than a guipure/braided lace like Beds? If I’m remembering the differences right... (every so often I go digging for different styles to see what’s out there.) I know different styles have different difficulty points, so I might be going about picking the next style the wrong way, lol.

[shadowsong-lace]

Ever on we go...

I have now done three of the five-spider compounds and i think all three have different tension XD But it is a pretty cool effect either way.

I think I figured out why the fans on the side look different from in the sample pattern, but I think it’ll be a super cool effect once it’s done so I’m not going to bother to try and fix the tension there for the last bit.

Someone commented on the last post how fast I’m going through this--I have definitely gotten faster at this since I started! But I also don’t post updates every time I work on this. For this bookmark, I’ve generally done sort of one horizontal section in a sitting--i.e., the fan on each side, there’s a narrow trail and one rose ground at each corner, and then the central spider and surrounding ground/trail. It usually takes me about...two to two and a half hours for each chunk? So that’s like ten to twelve hours thus far. (Six months ago, it would probably have been at least fifteen hours into this. Not counting, like, bobbin-winding, pricking, etc., which always takes a million years lol)

After I finish this project, I’ll probably do another bookmark while I find a good fan pattern and figure out what thread I need for it, etc. I think it’ll be fun to do a bigger project! And then after that...well, I’ll see how I feel about it, but maybe try some different styles of lace? Everything I’ve done so far has been torchon-based.

[shadowsong-lace]

And here we go…

The tension might be a little bit off in the compound spider at the top? But otherwise I think this one’s going pretty good so far! And I like the way it looks in this green.

[silly-jellyghoty]

I swear that i heard that “and here we go” in the voice of the guy from the hydraulic press channel on youtube 😆

But anyway, i love it! You are slowly but surely getting into more and more complicated schemes and i’m here for it. How big will this one be compared to you previously finished ones?

[shadowsong-lace]

Thank you!

It’s about the same width as most of the bookmarks I’ve made, but it’s…probably two-three inches longer? (Maybe five/six inches longer than the most recent bookmark, but that one was shorter than usual). ((ETA: I should add that I am Very Bad at gauging this kind of thing XD But it’s definitely longer than anything I’ve done before, except possibly the bracelet I made a while back, which I should’ve made…like…one iteration of the pattern shorter because it’s too big for me. Oh, well.))

I’m definitely having fun trying new and complicated things! Not that I’m doing anything other than bookmarks at this point (because partially unpinning to move the pattern up Concerns me, lol) but someday I’ll get there!

[sparklingspangles]

You always have new and interesting spiders in the patterns you pick!

I feel you on the moving up thing, I have never done it before, but will need to on my current project. Even though it is on a block pillow so I just have to push it up (no unpinning) it is still terrifying. I have a roller insert for my other block that I am hoping is easier in general for long lengths, but I have never got around to trying it.

You could try a corner though: edging/coaster/fan if you just have a cookie and start to run out of books for your bookmarks :)

[shadowsong-lace]

Spiders are fun! I think this is the most interesting one I’ve done so far, but I know there are ways to make...like...gaps/breaks in the spider, like a broken block? Haven’t tried that yet.

I just have my one cookie pillow, though investing in blocks or a roller is on my list of things I will do at some point. I might try a corner next! I’ve got a bunch of patterns from this same designer that I’m working through and I’m defaulting to the bookmarks, but she usually includes variants for edgings, etc. I might try that with the next project.

Or maybe try a different style of lace, I have some books I keep meaning to dig through...

(Although if I can find a pattern for a fan that would be super cool...then I would have a Super Fancy fan for when Renn Faires are open again...hmmmmm...)

[shadowsong-lace]

Progress!

I think the tension is still off in the third compound spider--but somehow in a different way than the first one, haha (it’s a little loose/the legs are wider than they should be and the other one was a little tight...). The second one is much simpler, at least. I also think my cloth stitch fans are much tighter than in the sample, but I think it’ll still look pretty cool. Just different.

[shadowsong-lace]

And here we go…

The tension might be a little bit off in the compound spider at the top? But otherwise I think this one’s going pretty good so far! And I like the way it looks in this green.

[silly-jellyghoty]

I swear that i heard that “and here we go” in the voice of the guy from the hydraulic press channel on youtube 😆

But anyway, i love it! You are slowly but surely getting into more and more complicated schemes and i’m here for it. How big will this one be compared to you previously finished ones?

[shadowsong-lace]

Thank you!

It’s about the same width as most of the bookmarks I’ve made, but it’s...probably two-three inches longer? (Maybe five/six inches longer than the most recent bookmark, but that one was shorter than usual). ((ETA: I should add that I am Very Bad at gauging this kind of thing XD But it’s definitely longer than anything I’ve done before, except possibly the bracelet I made a while back, which I should’ve made...like...one iteration of the pattern shorter because it’s too big for me. Oh, well.))

I’m definitely having fun trying new and complicated things! Not that I’m doing anything other than bookmarks at this point (because partially unpinning to move the pattern up Concerns me, lol) but someday I’ll get there!

[shadowsong-lace]

And here we go...

The tension might be a little bit off in the compound spider at the top? But otherwise I think this one’s going pretty good so far! And I like the way it looks in this green.

[shadowsong-lace]

And unpinned!

(Including two pictures--it was hard to find a background that really showed what the colors were doing, these were the two best, I think; even with the reflected light in the second one.)

The regular rose ground, as always, looks super cool with two different colors going through it. I think the two-pin rose ground looks a little better in the sample pictures, with only one color--doesn’t quite get the same effect here--but it’s still nice!

I really love the way the fans and the top/bottom edges turned out! Although I think possibly I’m adding new pairs on the inside wrong--those little blue/white loops are pretty obvious, with the two colors so different XD (the lighter color is in fact a Very Pale Blue, but it doesn’t really show; possibly I should’ve gone with something just a little bit more saturated. Ah, well).

But overall, this is a very pretty pattern, it was nice and smooth going through it, and I really like the way it turned out!!

Once again, this is the Tasha bookmark by Jenny Brandis on Etsy; worked in Lizbeth size 80 thread.

[shadowsong-lace]

Finished!

I really like how this one came out! Especially the almost chain effect in the big chunk of cloth/whole stitch at the bottom. And the braided tassel.

I’m curious to see how it’ll look when unpinned--especially the two-pin rose ground (the diamonds at the top, center, and bottom). I think those don’t have quite the same effect as when it’s all one color, but we’ll see with the pins out of the way.

This one went by pretty quickly--though part of that is that it’s probably at least two-three inches shorter than most of the others I’ve done, but it was also not super complicated once I got going, which always helps!

Pattern is the Tasha bookmark by Jenny Brandis on Etsy, worked in Lizbeth size 80 thread.

[shadowsong-lace]

Coming along nicely!

The French fans are a slightly different style than the ones I did before (these ones are flattened out and the others were--if you look at this bookmark, the fans on the edge are full/unflattened French fans) but they still look pretty cool.

And I really, really like the way the colors mixing works through the rose ground. Which I always do, but with high-contrast colors like these it’s even better. And it makes each of the fans look just a little bit different (because the border is half-stitch, each fan ends up having a different worker pair). Especially since the two-pin rose ground split up a bunch of pairs so I have a few pairs floating around that are one black and one blue--you can kind of see it in the fans.

I maybe should’ve switched the two passive pairs on the edge (I have one black and one blue; the blue ended up on the outside) for a more consistent edge, since the edge at the top is all black, but I also think it looks pretty cool this way? I don’t have a strong enough opinion to redo it anyway. But something to think about if I redo this pattern.

[shadowsong-lace]

This one’s looking pretty neat so far! The lighter thread is actually very pale blue, which isn’t showing through, probably because of the color of the pricking. I really love doing two different colors of thread through rose ground (which there’s a lot of in this pattern), just because I like the way it looks. It’s definitely interesting, going through the two-pin rose ground (the motif at the top, above the blocks), but I think that’ll be clearer what it looks like when everything’s unpinned, so we’ll see.

One thing I’m noticing, with two threads in such very different colors, is the way adding pairs on the inside looks? Which to be fair I may be doing wrong XD But I’m not sure how else to do it and get the threads to anchor? And I don’t think it looks bad, just...not necessarily how it’s supposed to look.

French fans in this pattern! Which I remember from the last time I did them being Very Annoying the first couple times, but then they went pretty smooth. I also had to do a straight-edge start, which went much easier than the last time I did it?

Anyway, I like this one so far, we’ll see how it goes!