I can see how cross-and-pin helps, but what if you're for example making
tape, or just a piece in a Torchon pattern that doesn't have pins
wherever two pairs meet? It seems like in this case if you let the
workers go off the sides, all of the correct tensioning will be lost...
Nope. Traditionally, you work the open method (ending your stitch with a cross, bobbins untwisted) on pillows like the bolsters, or the Spanish uprights, where the bobbins fall off (or down) the pillow and are likely to get mixed up. The same gravity which makes them fall off, keeps them tensioned. But, if you're really worried about getting them mixed up (and, at the beginning, it *is* a worry <g>), pin off like Bev said.
You pin off whole batches of pairs -- preferably "logical sections". I.e., say, 6prs which make a trail on one pin, the workers and passives of the footside on another pin, etc (in Russian Tape pinning off is not only un-necessary, it's cumbersome, because it happens too frequently).
Pinning off
Use long, but reasonably thin (less damage to the pillow and the covering fabric) pins (until you get yourself some divider pins, the so-called "corsage" pins, available from places like WalMart, Michaels, etc are fine). When you've finished a "logical section", and while all the bobbins are still spread flat in front of you... Um... I'm right-handed and pinning off is much easier for me to do on the right than it is on the left, so that's what I'll describe, OK? Pinning off on the left is a mirrored action (I'm not so good with mirrors, including driving backwards, but maybe you are)
Slide the pin, horizontally, under all the threads of your section, right-to-left. Twist the pin down, then up over the threads forming a loop. Carry the whole bunch you've "captured" off to the side, out of the way, and stick the pin in. When your copy of Cook's Practical Skills in BL arrives, you can see an illustration of the process; it is the same movement as the first part of a double picot, but you're picking up many threads instead of one, and pinning farther away from your work.
When that bunch of pairs needs to come into play again, unpin, carry the whole bunch to where they need to be, withdraw the pin and the bobbins will fan out, ready to work. Miraculously, if you withdraw the pin horizontally, after the bobbins themselves are where they're supposed to be, they're likely to arrange themselves "just so", without losing/acquiring twists, *even if* they got tangled while hanging off.
I use that method almost all the time when working on a roller pillow. There isn't a whole lot of room on the "apron", the finer edgings are likely to have in excess of 30 pairs, and I like to have my "pairs in use" well fanned out... That's also one of those situations where a 6" leash is better than a 4" one; you need longer threads if you're going to "scoop up" a whole bunch of bobbins and pin them well out of your way. Unless... you're willing to lengthen and shorten them constantly, which I'm too lazy to do :)
I think I'll enjoy trying to change patterns from CT to TC or back
I had a lot of trouble at first, switching to the open method (first learnt from books which used the "closed" method -- end your stitch with all the twists needed). In the end, like it better, though don't use it all the time. If you're working with fine threads, it's easier to see that a pair has suddenly acquired a twist where there shouldn't have been any, then to notice that it has acquired one extra, and now has two instead of one. But it has a downside, also: even in the open method, you still start your cloth/linen stitch with a C, so you're constantly shifting between the two starts.
What helped me... I was, at that time, counting the movements (still do, sometimes). Since I'd always started with a C, it became "one", and so firmly embedded in my mind, that I couldn't change it. So, to start with a T instead, I went to music, and started counting: "and, one, two, three"... :)
Re: using your lace.
The subject comes up occasionaly, since most of us like to *make* it but either don't relly like to wear it at all, or else can't imagine making yards, and yards, and yards, yawn... of the same pattern...
Samrah's (Cinde in Southern California - good to have you with us, Cinde) solution is a clever one, since she's using short lengths and different widths (before she gets terminally bored, she's onto something new), and she'll have something to show for it (and suitable to wear at demos in the future). I used to use my samples (intermixed with various, lace-related pins) to decorate a special pocketbook I made, but have run out of space on it, and will have to think of some other "dumpster" :) David (Collyer, aka "Downunder") is an orchestra director -- he decorated his "fraque" (English?) with his lace and made a lace bow tie to go with it. Another friend has a gadzillion shirts, each with a different technique on the pocket band...
I think all of us make a lot of lace which we give away. Mostly, it's small projects like Christmas ornaments, bookmarks, earrings, etc which are either "traded" (Christmas exchange, for example) or used as fundraisers for charities, but not always. Wedding hankies, garters and ring pillows, and baby bonnets and booties make excellent personal gifts. Grandmas will go to "any length" for christening robes (Clay even learnt Bucks for the purpose <g>)
You'll need at least a collar or two, to wear at the banquets, once you hook up with a lace group and start attending "events".
A lot depends on the thread thickness you like to work with and the style of lace you prefer to make -- each lends itself to somewhat different uses -- but I never found it difficult to get rid of my lace; indeed, the first few years, my DH used to complain that I'd spend 10-12 hrs a day at the pillow (instead of tending to his comfort) but, when he wanted to brag a bit about my abstruse passtime (and explain his un-ironed shirts), there was never anything to show...
Just this past week, a 7yr-old visiting "small fry" (youngest daughter of my stepson) came up to me -- after having eyed my wire paisley covetously all evening -- and asked: "Bunia, can you make me one like that, when you have the time?" Thankfully, I happened to have 4 samples and will only need 3 for the article, so she got it the next day (though only after she helped me clean up after the b-day party; I'm mean <g>)
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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