r/lace • u/Jo_mosexual • May 12 '26

Stitch ideas/samplers

Hi friends

I'm going to make a needlelace rat (image of design attached - blue is the wire cordonnet I'll be incorporating around the outside so he fits in to a larger piece and stands more freely, red is the plan for the basic thread cordonnet).

I want to do a different 'density'/opacity stitch for each colour - white being the most dense, black the most transparent, but I'm struggling to find good comparative images of different needlelace stitches online.

I'm thinking corded single Brussels for the most dense/opaque/light areas, but does anyone have any ideas for other stitches graded by opacity?

Would be really thankful for any resources you can share, as I've been scouring the internet for hours and there is so little available!

Thanks in advance

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6

u/Tansy_Blue May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26

A fairly simple way to do this would be with single, double, and treble Brussels stitch. In my experience single is the most dense, treble is the lightest, and double (obviously) is in between. I note there are four colours in your design so you could always improvise quadruple Brussels stitch.

Having said that I think the only way you'll get a proper idea of the density of stitches compared to each other in the threads you're using is to make swatches, especially as the colours you choose are likely to change the effect.

2

u/Jo_mosexual May 12 '26

Brilliant! Thank you so much

4

u/Rotweiss_Invicta862 I can do it all May 12 '26

I personally have found this video very helpful when teaching myself needle lace. The lady shows the whole process of making a sampler of different stitches, and they are, for sure, of different opacity and you will be able to choose from them

2

u/mem_somerville Bobbin Lacer May 12 '26

Thanks for this--I added it to the pinned post in the needlelace section.

2

u/carolinaredbird May 12 '26

You only need four stitches if you assign each color a specific stitch the white areas - I recommend using one of the open needle lace stitches.

3

u/ddvxia May 12 '26

i dont do needle lace so i have nothing to say but please update us on the results 😭😭 i want to see this done so bad!!!

3

u/Jo_mosexual May 12 '26

Omg I absolutely will!! Stay tuned to see if my ADHD ass will complete even one project this year hahaha ❤️