In a message dated 07/01/2004 18:00:33 GMT Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> > I don't see the *need* to pre-prick a pattern Time to add my tuppence worth. The *need* depends very much on the lace you are making. It is relatively easy to prick-as-you-go when you are doing lace of the type you were talking about in your post. The holes are usually well spaced, and if one is slightly out of line it probably won't notice. On the other hand, for Julie who is working her way through Bucks, where the pin holes are close together and multitudinous, to try to prick as you go is very much more difficult and has the potential for disaster, because it is so easy to miss a hole half hidden by a gimp line, or by mis-pricking slightly through all the threads to have one hole where two should be. Also you can work this many-pin lace much more fluently if you can just put the pin in the hole. If you time how long it takes to prick a hole in a flat pricking on a board, about half a second I would reckon, and compare that to accurately finding the hole in the gap between pin and thread, trying to accurately prick with a pin or reaching yet again for your pricker and then picking up and placing the pin you'll get the idea. It only feels as if you are saving time. I have just finished a couple of bits of Milanese which I pricked before I worked them - and kept wondering why I had. Having studied Withof worked on an undotted outline where you put the pin where you need it, I now enjoy doing that, and in Withof and similar laces it is accepted that you will prick as you go. In Milanese sometimes you need the holes opposite each other and sometimes as a zig-zag depending on the braid chosen, so I was making new holes where I needed them because I had revised my plans as I worked. When the holes are close to start with, there's not much of a gap to have second thoughts in. So yes, as I said above, this way placing pins can be slower but if you're not sure where you are going to want the pins it can be a lot easier and I don't believe you do *need* to prick first. Picking up on the thread about the "angle" of the hole, I was taught that the pricker should be held as near vertically as possible to get the most accurate pricking. I think that when I am pricking I am concentrating on accuracy without worrying at which angle I should be pricking at. And although I follow the basic 'edge pins out and middle pins back' rule, the pins around design features go at a slightly different angle to those that are 'just' ground, to give the workers more support for tensioning. I don't think I could cope with working all that out as I prick but it just happens as I lace. Jacquie - Tempted by the thoughts of starting a new bit of lace and at the same time bitten by my conscience to work on a UFO? - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
