Finnish coil-embellished apron (part 2: finishing coils)

For different areas of the Finnish coil-embellished apron, there were different kinds of coils I’d need. I had a few different requirements:

• a lot of same-length cut coils for the side borders
• stretched-out coils evenly divided for the gridded motifs
• a number of coils cut to various lengths for the open work motifs

Finishing cut coils

For cut coils, I needed both ends to be reasonably smooth so that they don’t shred the yarn or catch on fabrics too much. In an initial attempt with these coils I tried pushing the cut edges into the tubes, and while this worked ok for very large diameter spirals, this was not good for the small ones because there wasn’t enough room inside for the threads to pass, and the yarn became snagged even more easily than without them tucked in.

measuring and dividing the spirals with a chisel

Snipping the spirals with wire-cutters

Using the tip of needle nose pliers to restore the shape of the coil edges

 

To make the cut spirals I:

1. measured the spiral to length, and used a chisel to divide the wire. Unfortunately the chisel wasn’t suitable for cutting the wire which would have been ideal!
2. slipped the spirals with wire cutters. This wasn’t perfect because it squished the coil a bit, making the next step necessary
3. used the tip of needle nose pliers as a mandrel to re-open and restore the shape of the coil along both edges.

Threading the coils back on the jig rod

Smoothing the wire edges on the jig rod

 

Next, I:

1. Threaded the coils back onto the jig rod
2. Used needle nose pliers to smooth the edges of each coil along the rod, making a smooth spiral.

Finished smooth coil on the jig rod. Pearl head and regular pin for size guide. These are small!

The smoothing of each of these takes a LONG time.. I timed one 13-15 centimetre strip, dividing it into 8 2cm long spiral beads. It took 5 minutes to finish off just the 8 beads, and that doesn’t include the time to wind the coil!

cut but unsmoothed coils above the measuring tape, smoothed coils below

Finishing divided coils

For the divided coils – where they’re stretched out rather than cut, the finishing involved some similar steps, but not all. This also took a lot less time, since there were far fewer rough wire edges.

Dividing a strip of coils with the chisel

The divided coils ready for snipping

Divided and undivided strips of coils

Finishing the edges of the coils, stretching them, and straightening them

The steps included:

1. Measuring and dividing the coils with the chisel as previously
2. Using the snips to cut the strips into the desired lengths
3. Stretching the coil spacing with my thumbnails, and trying to straighten out the coils which curve through the dividing slightly.