remember we were chatting about one-handed lacing - I tried it with my Flanders
ground edging - did not last long with working with one hand. Torchon no
problem, but Flanders ground - it goes much better with both hands in
motion (not to say it can't be done with one hand, just that the
technician is happier using both).
Thanks for doing all those experiments; I had wondered about the one-handed lacemaking ever since I first heard about it here (who was the pianist who'd lost his hand in WWI and then Ravel wrote a concierto for him?), and considered trying it myself. I suspected that I might be happier leaving *that* road as "not taken", and I'm glad to have my suspiction confirmed... :)
When I first heard about the method, I was working on the piece I started in Loehr's class (last triangle put in today -- yippee! Need to finish it off, neatly, tomorrow -- shucks <g>). The dividing lines between the triangles are: 38 prs, in cloth stitch, with a pin at each end, or 3 cloth-stitched pprs, with a pin on the side (depending on which side of the triangle you're working). The fillings are Binche snowflakes -- 28 per triangle, and each triangle has a different snowflake as filling (that's what makes it the "Snowflake quilt").
Each snowflake has has 6 pins to it -- 3 before you start, and 3 after you're done, and, most of the time, they're not there to help you tension; they're there to help you remember where the heck you're *at* <g>. In between, when making the snowflake, you have -- depending on the complexity -- anywhere from "many" to "a busload" of *different* movements...
Make all those single-handedly, while the other hand rests and waits its turn to put in a pin? Sheer madness :)
I think that the single-handed method might work very well for PG *ground* (and Bucks, especially, has *lots* of ground, in proportion to the motif area <g>); CTTT (with one hand), pin (with the other) makes sense, because there's so little time and movement *between pins* in the ground (OTOH, the super-dooper lacemakers didn't use *any* pins, and cut the time needed for production further still <g>). It would work for Torchon *ground* as well; CT, pin, CT can keep both hands occupied in almost equal proportion (again, Freehand lace, before Torchon, didn't use pins, though the patterns were often similiar)...
But, everywhere else, it's a waste of resources; one hand does most of the work (stitches), while the other waits to "pitch in", *once in a while*, with a pin... Reminds me of Toni and her reminders of the inequality in our lives -- the pin hand would, definitely, be the lazy, spoiled, aristocrat or CEO :)
I agree with Bev that working one-handed on a *curved* (bolster, or even a sizeable roller, I'd think) surface might be easier (I mostly work on *flat* pillows, not even domed like cookies. And I keep them flat, not canted. But I have worked on a roller, and found its attractions and limitations <g>). But still, the un-learning and re-learning might not be worth the effort, unless one was making *mostly net*...
----- Tamara P Duvall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
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