>>>From: Katja Gamby [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] The parchment is for use on the pillow, and the paper copy is the new master. The reasoning is that however carefully you try, you are bound to enlarge the holes of the master copy; next time you use it, it will be more difficult to prick correctly from it. If you make a new master each time, the pattern won't need to be trued up too often.<<<
Yes, but this passes on every mistake, where you were a little off on a hole. The next time you prick from the copy, all the "off" pinholes will be copied, and new "off" pinholes will be added. The errors accumulate as you make each new "master", creating the formless lumps you see in some of the old lace traditions. Flanders is what come to my mind--where the surviving pieces of old laces have flowers and such, the modern designs *based* on traditional patterns have slugs and blobs. For that matter, photocopies aren't 100% accurate, either. A photocopy is usually a couple of percent smaller than the original, and one direction more than the other (e.g., top-to-bottom vs. side-to-side). Many people have had trouble matching pieces when they photocopied a pattern, part of it turned "portrait" and part of it turned "landscape" on the photocopier. And if that's then photocopied, distortion is added to the distortion. Whenever you have a copy of a copy of a copy.... there's a problem with increasingly greater inaccuracy. By always keeping the same master and photocopying it (not copying the copy), you can at least just keep the single layer of distortion. Another reason (purely selfish!) for buying the book instead of photocopying a friend's copy of a pattern. That's why we have to true up traditional patterns. That's why I love having a computer lace program. Robin P. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA http://www.pittsburghlace.8m.com - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED]
