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Several years ago, at a lecture on needlework in Williamsburg, I noticed a very interesting stitch. The slide wasn't very good, but the speaker was and I learned about the plaited chain stitch. It was usually done in metal thread on jackets worn around the house by women in the 17th century. The jackets have a spiral stem coiling all over them, with crewel or silk flowers inside the coils. I really liked the plaited braid as it was used as the coiling vine in those jackets.
I went home and looked in my stitch references and only found one description of the stitch. It looked to be quite complicated and I set the idea aside. Later, in a burst of enthusiasm, I looked through a university library for other directions for the stitch. I didn't find any and again set the idea aside. I spoke of my desire to learn this stitch to a needleworker I know with a historical focus. Aha! She'd taken a class on the stitch some months past and attempted to show me how to do it. We were not successful, she didn't have her notes handy and had very little time.
I finally decided that I wasn't going to learn this stitch any younger, so I dug through my references again. I now have two books that give instructions for it. I marked the pages, pulled out a large scrap of fabric for a doodle cloth and a selection of fibers and needles. Metal thread isn't for practice. I studied the diagrams carefully, and realized that no matter how many loops of thread ended up on the face of the fabric, the stitch was really only two steps. The trick would probably be the placement of the achoring stitch and the tension of the loops. I decided the tension would have to be consistent. The spacing was probably secondary. I also thought I'd want to work in a hoop at the least and perhaps in a frame with a stand. I started in a hoop. Though the stitch was historically done on a ground like British Satin, I chose a linen suitable for counted work to help me in placement and spacing.
One lunch hour later, I'd tried and failed with a Trebizond silk and was determined to try again with a big, fat thread that I could see. The next attempt using three strands of Watercolors as it comes off the skein, went better. I could see what I was doing, but my sample didn't look anything like that 17th century jacket and didn't even look like the diagram in the book, either. I did learn that I needed to use my left thumb to manage the loops, and the hoop was not going to work. I set it aside and worked in hand. I decided to keep going with the large thread to learn the rhythm of the stitch and to perhaps learn some of the proportions of it. My results looked only slightly better, but I was gaining consistency in placement and tension. I was consistently wrong. Finally, I gritted my teeth and tried using only one strand of Watercolors and working a bit smaller overall. The first few stitches were pretty ugly looking but I finally hit on the secret! I leave the loop big, so I can see where I want to place my needle. Once the needle is in position, I pull the fiber taut as it wraps around the needle and then I pull the needle through to finish the stitch.
Yahoo!!!! I have a nice looking plaited chain stitch! Now, I'll try slight variations of placement and tension to see if I can duplicate the finished effect I want. I'm not going to work with metal thread until I am more sure of the result. I don't need to look at the diagrams any more and I have directions that I could share with another stitcher. I could probably teach another stitcher in a few minutes, if they were willing. I don't think it's as difficult as the direction books make it out to be.
I will warn Wenches that most chain and looped stitches are extremely tension sensitive. If you pull the wrong loop tight or pull it tight at the wrong step, you will get a knot. The stitch references rarely include direction on what to pull when and the diagrams usually show the stitch 'exploded' with nothing pulled tight. The only thing that will help is just what I did, practice and trial and error. Take your time, only change one part at a time and see if it helps. Eventually, you'll learn. It isn't brain surgery, it's OK to make mistakes.
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