Laid Work Halo – first stage

You know, short(er) posts really keep me working!
This post is one third on topic, the rest is given over to general sewing!
As you can see from this picture..

the halo is coming along.
Well, its certainly a relief to have worked out a good use for the piles of Lurex I seem to have accumulated. 

As you can no doubt spot on the picture above, I’ve run into a little difficulty at the outermost edge of her hair.  There is a most annoying gap declaring itself.  I plan to fill it, hopefully, but failing that surreptitious act, I would need to extend her hair a little further.

I used a fine ‘antique gold’ coloured silk thread to couch the strands of Lurex. 

I was aiming to couch a neat Brick pattern but things went a little haywire, as there were too many things to consider simultaneously, such as:

• Turning the gold at the end of the row and preventing it from twisting
• Making sure there were no gaps
• curving the eventual shape
• Then joining the two curved areas into a larger arc.

So with all of that, the Brick pattern kind of disappeared.

I can see on the original, that the direction the gold strands take are not that smooth to begin with, but end up as a smooth overall shape.  I will have to adopt those methods when I come to fill the (dreaded) internal spaces between the crown’s spikes. 

What have a learnt so far about Laid Work?

1.  Work towards you when couching, by coming out at the top edge of the gold and coming down into the gap between two rows, to finish the couch stitch. 

2.  Couch using Stab method, because the distance between the stitches is too small. 

3.  Don’t worry too much about the appearance of gaps as you work, because its only when you complete the couching stitch - towards you - that the gold ingeniously nestles into its correct position, directly above the previous row.

Off Topic – Cath Kidston Knitting Needle Case

Laid Work is quite tiring for the eyes, so to rest them a bit I decided to get on with a  much-needed Knitting Needle Case, using some fabulous Rosie printed cotton duck fabric by Cath Kidston.

I’m a big CK fan and happened to notice just this weekend that she’s published 2 new, mouth-watering books, this time on the subjects of knitting and crochet!   

The pattern for this Knitting Needle case, incidentally, is from her book called Sew.

The case if fully lined but I must admit, I did alter the pattern slightly for that section.

We’re directed to sew the whole thing together inside out, as one, then bind all the seams. 

I decided at that point to divide the task into two.  Then, by missing out one of the side seams of the outer case, I could pull all the layers through the right way.

This meant I needed to Blind stitch the final seam closed, taking care not to make the hand stitches too tight as that would cause it to pucker.

Sew is a neat little book and tucked inside its front cover is a huge sheet of actual size patterns to trace over.

Oh dear, between Country Bumpkin, Search Press and now, Cath Kidston, I may eventually have to move into the shed and transplant the bulging book collection into the house…lol!

Gotta go ppl !
P.S.  I really must get on with all these Pdf patterns I keep mentioning.  I would like to complete them in one job-lot.  With a little luck, that will be before the holidays…

P.P.S.  I amended this post 2 days later as I made a mistake with naming the Goldwork technique.

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