Page:Embroidery and Fancy Work.djvu/158

154 and much prettier way is to have a lead cushion or sewing bird for securing the loop. Some, however, pin it to the knee, as in sewing. For beginning I would advise some twine or coarse knitting cotton, as is it very much easier to learn anything in coarse materials, where the details can be easily seen.

A wooden netting needle is generally used for coarse, and steel ones for finer work.

Fig. 38. When a very small mesh is used, a long blunt darning needle must be employed as the filled netting needle would not pass through the loops. The meshes are made of boxwood, bone, and ivory; they can be either round or flat. Knitting needles of various sizes in these materials make good meshes, steel ones being employed for fine work. Pieces of whalebone cut to the requisite width make good meshes. The size of mesh and cotton must be adapted to each other so as to give the work just the right appearance, neither too open nor too close.