Following recent local talk about the method of doing prickings, may I ask
what is your normal / preferred method?
Since I almost never make the same piece twice exactly (making umpteen samples, re-sized by 1 or 2% doesn't count <g>), my patterns are not meant to last. So it's the paper photocopy, slapped with a dry, re-positionable glue stick onto any odd bit of relatively thin cardboard (gift boxes are good, recycled that way <g>), with a piece of light-grey Contact on top (I like the grey better than the blue and dread the day when I run out of it, since *my* Walmart doesn't carry it), and then prick.
However carefully I prick, it's never careful enough -- the point of the needle always hits a different part of the printed dot, depending on how I'm looking at the pattern. I've learnt to live with that, and it doesn't seem to distort my lace too much.
The main disadvantage of this is the lack of accuracy, and the difficulty of getting the pins in (and out).
Never had that problem.
I am currently experimenting with photocopying directly onto coloured card.
The (commercial) copier I used before I got my own, would not "take" very thick card. So I still needed to cover the whole with Contact. I used that method before I got my light grey and will probably revert back to it once I run out of it and am reduced to the clear stuff (still easily avilable at WMart)
From: Darlene Mulholland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I can see that I've been using too large of a needle for pricking - I'm sure
the one I've used is larger than my pins so I'll have to try and use
something thinner.
<g> In Loehr's class, we pricked only the nearest bit to be worked -- on the pillow. We also learnt to "pin out" all the pairs not needed for the current snowflake (which used only 6 but was, sometimes, diffcult). Me, I put the pins between the pin-dots -- like Milada, I prefer my holes *slightly* (but only *slightly* -- if they're too small, you might have as well spared yourself the whole pre-pricking process; your fingers will shred as if you were tackling virgin-ground <g>) smaller in diameter than the pins. But, when MS Loehr came to my pillow to demonstrate, she plunked the (fat!) divider pins right *into* the pinholes... "when you come to this hole, you won't have to prick it, yes?" At first, I was appalled. But, I came to those pinholes later, and worked them, and the thin pins held just fine, without distortion... :) If anything, the big pinholes were better, because they covered the entire printed ones, instead of just the part...
OTOH, Ms Loehr reccomends running stainless steel pins, one-by-one, through a piece of paper when transferring them from a box to the pincushion, to get rid of the residual oil which coats them. While I tend to grab a batch, push them all into the pincushion all the way, pull them out partways, and am happy enough... To each her own obsessions, but getting rid of a few won't cause the end of the world; it won't even make much difference in your lace :)
----- Tamara P Duvall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
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