crazytatter

Have you checked out Mimi Dillman's site? http://home.netcom.com/~ntrop/mimi/cluny.html
She also has a collection of patterns and links to on-line cluny patterns
http://home.netcom.com/~ntrop/mimi/biblio.html
She has really spent a lot of time working through the uses of cluny. I used her visual instructions and was able to finally get it - and that wasn't easy -

Good luck with this - it sure takes a lot of practice to get them even.

short answer: normal clunies can replace chains: you have two threads at the start of them, and two threads at the end of them (loom thread and weaving thread for clunies, core thread and ds thread for chains)

I second the pattern recommendation. Also check Elisandusud's (sp?) blog for gorgeous eye candy.

One thing I learned is that sometimes one joins to the point between two leaves - use a crotchet hook (as oppsed to the tip of a clover shuttle) to make the join...

While practising, I found it useful to make a long line, alternating a cluny leaf and a split ring, to see better where the leaves started. There is a picture in my albums and in my blog here at intatters.

Thank you for the advises, I will check out all the info mentioned here. The more info I can get the faster I can figure out cluny.

About all that stuff that hangs out of the cluny:

At the top of the cluny there should be the thread and shuttle that you wove the cluny with
The ball thread (whether it is on the ball or on a second shuttle)
And a loop.

At the bottom of the cluny is another loop.

The same way you pull the excess thread out of a ring, you need to pull the excess thread out of the loops of the cluny.

During the entire operation, hold the completed cluny in the pinch! Absolutely necessary.

Step 1. Close the top loop by pulling on the bottom loop. Pull one side or the other of the bottom loop to see which side will close the top loop. When you find which side will close the top loop, pull it slowly and evenly until the top loop disappears. Stop when there is no more top loop.

Step 2. Close the bottom loop by pulling on the ball thread.

DO NOT TOUCH the shuttle or the thread that wove the cluny.

As for where the cluny goes, like soyquelosoy says, it can replace a chain because like a chain, the cluny begins at one point and finishes at another point. (Unlike a ring that begins and ends at the same point.) So, a ring - chain - ring could be replaced by a ring - cluny - ring. Another way to use a cluny is to make a chain - cluny - chain. That would make an interesting change to chain section in a motif or doily. Chains and clunies are interchangeable because they both use 2 threads.