TWENTY-FIFTH AND TWENTY-SIXTH LACE St.i.tCHES (figs. 744 and 745).--These two figures show how the relative position of the groups of bars may be varied.

Both consist of the same st.i.tches as those described in fig. 741. The thread that connects the groups should be tightly stretched, so that the rows may form straight horizontal lines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 746. TWENTY-SEVENTH LACE St.i.tCH.]

TWENTY-SEVENTH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 746).--Begin by making two rows of net st.i.tches, fig. 720, then two of close ones, fig. 738, and one row like those of fig. 741.

If you want to lengthen the bars, twist the thread once or twice more round the needle. You can also make one row of bars surmounted by wheels, as shown in fig. 765, then one more row of bars and continue with close st.i.tches.

TWENTY-EIGHTH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 747).--Between every group of three bars, set close together, leave a s.p.a.ce of a corresponding width; then bring the thread back over the bars, as in figs. 737, 738 and 739, without going through the loops. In the second row, you make three bars in the empty s.p.a.ce, two over the three bars of the first row and again three in the next empty s.p.a.ce. The third row is like the first.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 747. TWENTY-EIGHTH LACE St.i.tCH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 748. TWENTY-NINTH LACE St.i.tCH.]

TWENTY-NINTH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 748).--This st.i.tch, known as Greek net st.i.tch, can be used instead of b.u.t.tonhole bars for filling in large surfaces.

Make bars from left to right, a little distance apart as in fig. 741, leaving the loops between rather slack, so that when they have been twice overcast by the returning thread, they may still be slightly rounded. In the next row, you make the bar in the middle of the loop and lift it up sufficiently with the needle, for the threads to form a hexagon like a net mesh.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 749. THIRTIETH LACE St.i.tCH.]

THIRTIETH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 749). After a row of pairs of b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tches set closely together, with long loops between, as long as the s.p.a.ce between the pairs, throw the thread across in a line with the extremities of the loops, fasten it to the edge of the braid and make pairs of b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tches, as in the first row above it.

The loops must be perfectly regular, to facilitate which, guide lines may be traced across the pattern, and pins stuck in as shown in the figure, round which to carry the thread.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 750. THIRTY-FIRST LACE St.i.tCH.]

THIRTY-FIRST LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 750).--At first sight this st.i.tch looks very much like the preceding one, but it differs entirely from it in the way in which the threads are knotted. You pa.s.s the needle under the loop and the laid thread, then stick in the pin at the right distance for making the long loop, bring the thread round behind the pin, make a loop round the point of the needle, as shows in the engraving, and pull up the knot.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 751. THIRTY-SECOND LACE St.i.tCH.]

THIRTY-SECOND LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 751).--To introduce a greater variety into lace st.i.tches, netting can also be imitated with the needle. You begin with a loop in the corner of a square and work in diagonal lines.

The loops are secured by means of the same st.i.tch shown in fig. 750, and the regularity of the loops ensured, as it is there, by making them round a pin, stuck in at the proper distance. The squares or meshes must be made with the greatest accuracy; that being the case, most of the st.i.tches described in the preceding chapter can be worked upon them, and the smallest s.p.a.ces can be filled with delicate embroidery.

THIRTY-THIRD LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 752).--This st.i.tch is frequently met with in the oldest Irish lace, especially in the kind where the braids are joined together by fillings not bars. At first sight, it looks merely like a close net st.i.tch, the ground and filling all alike, so uniform is it in appearance, but on a closer observation it will be found to be quite a different st.i.tch from any of those we have been describing.

The first st.i.tch is made like a plain net st.i.tch, the second consists of a knot that ties up the loop of the first st.i.tch. Fillings of this kind must be worked as compactly as possible, so that hardly any s.p.a.ces are visible between the individual rows.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 752. THIRTY-THIRD LACE St.i.tCH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 753. THIRTY-FOURTH LACE St.i.tCH.]

THIRTY-FOURTH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 753).--To fill in a surface with this st.i.tch, known as the wheel or spider st.i.tch, begin by laying double diagonal threads to and fro, at regular distances apart, so that they lie side by side and are not twisted. When the whole surface is covered with these double threads, throw a second similar series across them, the opposite way. The return thread, in making this second layer, must be conducted under the double threads of the first layer and over the single thread just laid, and wound two or three times round them, thereby forming little wheels or spiders, like those already described in the preceding chapter in figs. 653 and 654.

THIRTY-FIFTH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 754).--Begin by making a very regular netted foundation, but without knots, where the two layers of threads intersect each other.

Then, make a third layer of diagonal threads across the two first layers, so that all meet at the same points of intersection, thus forming six rays divergent from one centre. With the fourth and last thread, which forms the seventh and eighth ray, you make the wheel over seven threads, then slip the needle under it and carry it on to the point for the next wheel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 754. THIRTY-FIFTH LACE St.i.tCH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 755. THIRTY-SIXTH LACE St.i.tCH.]

THIRTY-SIXTH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 755).--After covering all the surface to be embroidered, with threads stretched in horizontal lines, you cover them with loops going from one to the other and joining themselves in the subsequent row to the preceding loops.

The needle will thus have to pa.s.s underneath two threads. Then cover this needle-made canvas with cones worked in close darning st.i.tches, as in figs. 648, 716 and 717.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 756. THIRTY-SEVENTH LACE St.i.tCH.]

THIRTY-SEVENTH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 756).--Here, by means of the first threads that you lay, you make an imitation of the Penelope canvas used for tapestry work, covering the surface with double threads, a very little distance apart, stretched both ways. The second layer of threads must pa.s.s alternately under and over the first, where they cross each other, and the small squares thus left between, must be encircled several times with thread and then b.u.t.tonholed; the thicker the foundation and the more raised and compact the b.u.t.tonholing upon it is, the better the effect will be. Each of these little b.u.t.tonholed rings should be begun and finished off independently of the others.

THIRTY-EIGHTH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 757).--Plain net st.i.tch being quicker to do than any other, one is tempted to use it more frequently; but as it is a little monotonous some openwork ornament upon it is a great improvement; such for instance as small b.u.t.tonholed rings, worked all over the ground at regular intervals. Here again, as in the preceding figure the rings must be made independently of each other.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 757. THIRTY-EIGHTH LACE St.i.tCH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 758. THIRTY-NINTH LACE St.i.tCH.]

THIRTY-NINTH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 758).--Corded bars, branching out into other bars, worked in overcasting st.i.tches, may also serve as a lace ground.

You lay five or six threads, according to the course the bars are to take; you overcast the branches up to the point of their junction with the princ.i.p.al line, thence you throw across the foundation threads for another branch, so that having reached a given point and coming back to finish the threads left uncovered in going, you will often have from six to eight short lengths of thread to overcast.

Overcasting st.i.tches are always worked from right to left.

FORTIETH LACE St.i.tCH (fig. 759).--Of all the different kinds of st.i.tches here given, this, which terminates the series, is perhaps the one requiring the most patience. It was copied from a piece of very old and valuable Brabant lace, of which it formed the entire ground. Our figure of course represents it on a very magnified scale, the original being worked in the finest imaginable material, over a single foundation thread.

In the first row, after the three usual foundation threads are laid, you make the b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tches to the number of eight or ten, up to the point from which the next branch issues, from the edge of the braid, that is, upwards.

Then you bring the needle down again and b.u.t.tonhole the second part of the bar, working from right to left.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 759. FORTIETH LACE St.i.tCH.]

A picot, like the one described in fig. 701, marks the point where the bars join. More picots of the same kind may be added at discretion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 760. WHEEL COMPOSED OF b.u.t.tONHOLE BARS. MAKING AND TAKING UP THE LOOPS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 761. WHEEL COMPOSED OF b.u.t.tONHOLE BARS. THE b.u.t.tONHOLING BEGUN.]

WHEEL COMPOSED OF b.u.t.tONHOLE BARS (figs. 760, 761, 762, 763).--As we have already more than once given directions for making wheels, not only in the present chapter, but also in the one on netting, there is no need to enlarge on the kind of st.i.tches to be used here, but we will explain the course of the thread in making wheels, composed of b.u.t.tonhole bars in a square opening.

Fig. 760 shows how the first eight loops which form the foundation of the bars are made.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 762. WHEEL COMPOSED OF b.u.t.tONHOLE BARS. Pa.s.sING FROM ONE BAR TO THE OTHER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 763. WHEEL COMPOSED OF b.u.t.tONHOLE BARS. BARS AND RING FINISHED.]

In fig. 761 you will see that a thread has been pa.s.sed through the loops, for the purpose of drawing them in and making a ring in addition to which, two threads added to the loop serve as padding for the b.u.t.tonhole st.i.tches; the latter should always be begun on the braid side. Fig. 762 represents the bar begun in fig. 761 completed, and the pa.s.sage of the thread to the next bar, and fig. 763 the ring b.u.t.tonholed after the completion of all the bars.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 764. FILLING IN A ROUND s.p.a.cE WITH NET St.i.tCH.]

FILLING IN ROUND s.p.a.cES (figs. 764, 765, 766).--The st.i.tches best adapted for filling in round s.p.a.ces are those that can be drawn in and tightened to the required circ.u.mference, or those that admit of the number being reduced, regularly, in each round.