Creating "Rope" using Manual Punch
(This page created 5th Oct. 1999)

You can make a simple rope like border or line between about 1.5 mm (0.06") and 4 mm (0.16") wide

This is not a "true" rope type design which is substantially more complex but simply a satin stitched border with stitching representing the lay of the rope.

By suitable selection of the stitching attributes, you can determine the amount of "twist" in the lay of the rope.

To create the rope, use the "Area" section of the Manual Punch tool in L & E (ie. the first of the 3 manual punch functions)

Consider creating a rope of the picture above.
Starting at one end of the rope, click on corner A, move the cursor to A1 and click, then to B and B1 in turn.. Continue clicking from side to side of the rope keeping the angle between pairs of points at right angles to the length of the rope ( or radial to any curves you make) Try and keep the rope a constant width. Double click on the final point to finish (J1) (or use the line or jump functions to move to a new section)

You can go back afterwards and tidy up the width of the rope and add additional point pairs to smooth curves using the point edit tool

Creating the "Lay" in the rope. This is done by setting the stitching attributes of the filled manual punch.

There are many combinations of attributes that will produce a ropelike effect but I have found that the following will give good results.

You can either set these attributes before you do the manual punching, or you can select your design section and then apply the attributes.

The attributes are:

Stitch Type - - - - - - Fill
Density - - - - - - -- -4 st per mm (108 st per inch)
Step Pitch - - - -- - - 2 1/2 times the width of the "rope"
Frequency - - - - - - 52 - 54% or 46 - 48% depending on which direction of "lay" and how much twist is required

If you want your rope to have a 3 dimensional appearance, you can run several rows of running stitch side by side under the centre of where your rope will be. You can also consider a narrow satin stitched line under the final sewing

Well, thats it, please let me know if you encounter any problems.

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