In my opinion, fan passives are very susceptible to being pulled out of shape during the making of a fan. Some lacemakers seem to unwittingly pull the passives to one side or another - and I find that this pulling can be made worse by a pillow being tilted one way or another. If you find that your passives (particularly in an ordinary fan) pull to one side or the other, gently pull them back the other way (away from the direction they're curving) as you work the fan. It's a bit like training a child - keep gently showing them the way they should go!
Fish-tail fans, like those in Noelene's pattern, seem to require even more effort to make sure the passives are curving correctly as you go. And with this sort of fan, I actually encourage students to turn their pillow sideways a little to work the second half of the fan to help the passives lie nicely. Again, they need to be pointed in the right direction as you work. The passives also need to be tensioned firmly, but not too hard, otherwise you'll lose all the curve! If passives are loose, they can more easily shift out of place. The other thing which can affect the shape of these sorts of fans is the placement of the pin at the end of the row. I'm sure I'm not the only lacemaker who's pulled on a worker pair and found the pin at the opposite end of the row has sighed quietly and started to lean! If the pin is pulled out of position, it will affect the curve of the passives. So, if necessary, correct the positioning of the pin to retain the shape of a row. I've never had much success with correcting problems after the fan is complete - I think its much better to keep an eagle-eye on them as I work and get them as near to "right" as possible at that time. I hope this helps a bit! Ruth Budge (Sydney, Australia) Jean Nathan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Firstly is this 'twined' gimps (as in twisted round each other) or 'twinned' (as in double)? Secondly, thank you Noelene for enabling such a close up of the fans. Even though the rest of the lace is perfect, and the gimps very effective done that way, I'm so happy to see I'm not alone in getting imperfect fans. (Not criticising you in any way.) I agonise for hours, by tensioning or moving the threads with a pin, trying to get the passives in fans to be evenly spaced, perfect curves and never succeed. I thought everyone else got them perfect. If anyone does get them perfect, how do you do it? Jean in Poole http://greetings.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Greetings Send your love online with Yahoo! Greetings - FREE! - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
