On May 3, 2004, at 14:56, Amanda Babcock wrote:
It turns out that the sewings I'm having trouble with are neither top nor edge sewings.
I thought that might be the case, when I heard you mention "tape"... :) It hardly ever has the 3 exchanging workers necessary to form the line edge onto which you make your sewings.
When there is no filling to be made, the edge is made with: T the worker pair, CTCT, pin, CTCT, head back across
Try: T the worker, CTCTTT, pin, CTCT, head back. Gives you a more rounded, more "defined" pinhole, with: 1 tw for the "leg" out, "one for the pin", and one for the "leg" back. It is also -- later -- easier to "match", when a plait does need to be sewn into it.
When I need to take the edge passive and the worker out to do fillings,
I've been doing: T the worker, CTCT, pin, start plaiting, eventually
plait back around to the tape (ending the plain on a T), remove the pin,
sew into the hole, make sure the sewn pair has a T, CTCT, take the pair
closer to the tape back across as the worker, use the other pair as the
edge passive.
Um... Possibly not the traditional way (I'm self-taught on Russian Lace), but try a "double" sewing: hook one *pair* into the starting pinhole, and put the other *pair* through the resulting loop. My reasoning has always been that if two pairs leave, two should come back :) Into the same spot. To make the join as tight as possible, I like to have both pairs in the untwisted position as they approach the starting pinhole (another good reason to use TC in a plait).
If colour isn't an issue, let the bobbins sort themselves out (ie, which ones want to act as the worker pair next, and which as the twisted passive/edge)
But, note, the way Russian Tape fillings are charted, they cross back over themselves when they rejoin the tape.
Which book (and whose diagrams) are you using? Because that's *not* what they're supposed to be doing...
When the plait leaves the tape, it moves "upstream" first -- in the direction of *already made* tape. Which leaves half of the pinhole "exposed" and ready to receive the sewing (you may want to put an extra twist on both pairs at that pinhole, to make the hole larger and easier to sew into). When the plait comes back to its starting point, it sews into the "lower half" of the pinhole, with both pairs ready to move down again. Both pairs need to have a twist on them -- the worker to approach the cloth st. part, the other to resume its function as a twisted passive/edge pair. But there should be no crossing over themselves...
if I take the returning pairs *below* the pin after I sew, the join is ugly as it sags down between this pin and the next.
Not if the whole thing was well-tensioned before the plait'd left on its trip, and *both* returning pairs are *sewn **into** the starting pinhole*
if I take one above and one below the pin after I sew, closing the pin (again) with my last CTCT, I end up with a little circular loop of thread hanging out there.
No, that's definitely not the answer :)
The pin ends up having whole stitches before and
after it both times (if you count the stitches that comprise the plait).
It's supposed to. As I'd said, you may even want to add an extra twist there; you are, afterall, trying to mirror your "free hanging" pin-loops, which don't have any plaits coming or going...
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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