Lace spider |
A spider is an open shape often used in Torchon lace. It looks best when surrounded by a filled-in pattern. It tends to get lost in open ground. There are usually 8 or 12 legs to a spider. See the zig-zag and checkerboard patterns for examples of spiders. |
The pricking pattern for an eight legged spider is on the left. Usually I mark the legs on the pattern, see right. The middle hole for an eight legged spider is not on the normal Torchon grid. | The holes round the edge aren't used in the spider. They are part of the surrounding pattern. They guide the threads into and out of the spider. In fact, you can see that the top, bottom and outer points don't even have threads going into the spider. |
Working a spider Bigger spiders Spider ground Half spiders | This page described the ordinary spider. There are more complicated designs called peas or open spiders, which are descibed here. |
Working a spider
This is an eight legged spider. Two pairs of bobbins come in from each side. Each of these must be twisted a number of times to make four of the legs of the spider. This diagram shows three twists. Take the second pair of bobbins from the left, and work them in cloth stitch across the two pairs from the right. Then take the bottom pair of bobbins on the left and work them across the same two pairs. Do not work them across the other pair that originally came from the left! Each row only has two stitches in it. Now put in the pin. Don't worry if you have a mess of threads at this point. You will need to tighten them. Start with the outermost two pairs. Take a pair in each hand, and gently tug them away from each other. Now do the same for the innermost pair. If necessary, tug each bobbin gently. |
Now for the other half of the spider. Take the pair you last worked with (they originally were the left hand pair, and are now the second pair in from the right). Work them back across the two pairs now on the left. Then take the righthand pair, and work them across two pairs on the left (again, don't work them across the pair that you've just used). Finally, twist all pairs as much as you did at the start to make the remaining four legs.
Tighten the threads again, in the same way. You may need to tighten the threads again once the threads have been worked into the surrounding pattern, as the spider has a lot of stitches and only one pin. It is important to make sure that no loops or looseness is left.
The common mistakes with spiders is either to forget the twists before and after the spider, to make the legs, or working too many bobbins. The bobbins on the left on the pin (originally) only work across the bobbins on the right (originally).
Bigger spiders
You can have spider with twelve legs,with three pairs coming in from each side. Each pair on one side is worked across all the bobbins on the other side, one way for the first half of the spider, then back again after the pin. As you can see from the photo, the middle piece round the pin tends to make an oval shape. The diagram on the left may explain why. There are a lot of threads in a small space, and they have to go somewhere! You can even have a spider with 16 legs (see right). | |
Spider ground
It is possible to have spider grounds, but they can produce unexpected results. If you have spiders next to each other, as on the left, the legs don't radiate out as they do in an ordinary spider. You can put lines of Torchon ground between the spiders, as on the right, to make the legs stretch out wider. Click here for an exploration of this. |
Half spiders
I think I invented the half spider, but of course other people may have done the same! I have used it in the cobweb pattern and one of the Torchon flower patterns. The idea is similar to a spider, except that one side only has one 'leg'. This could come from a footside or a straight headside, or only other vertical part of the pattern. The single pair of threads on this side are worked across all the legs on the other side, pin, and back again. The advantage of this pattern is that you can fill in a triangle next to a straight edge. When designing Torchon lace, most of the designs are based round diamonds, so you tend to get space triangles next to the straight footside. This normally gets filled with ground, but if you get bored with that, a half spider can be useful. |
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