Last message of the night, and that's a promise also <g>
On Apr 26, 2004, at 23:17, JE Anderson (Janet) wrote:
My question now is about bobbins. I know many of you use the spangled ones but I was wondering if anyone uses the square European ones I have seen on some websites. They look like the would resist the rolling problem that has been mentioned and I wonder if they would make a good starter bobbin or what.
The subject of square bobbins comes up periodically and, since people tend to harbour quite passionate feelings about them, you're likely to get a lot of --contradicting -- responses.
Myself, I love them; they're *almost* perfect (nothing is *absolutely* perfect, IMO <g>) for all the work I do. They're "controllable" -- they won't roll wildly all over my pillow, yet I can push a whole swath of them with a single motion, and flip them over one another easily if I need to. I've experienced *far less* "unplying" of thread after I started using them.
But... Most of the lace I make is in the Milanese area, which requires a lot of sewings, is likely to be accomplished with relatively few pairs, is best done on a flat or a cookie pillow, and I like fairly fine thread... It makes *my* needs different from those of some other people.
I started learning with spangled Midlands, then reinvented the wheel, and designed my own "frequent tie-rs"; they had a thicker body than a Midland (to compensate for the lack of spangle), a tapered "tail" (for the ease in sewings -- the spangles in Midlands were driving me batty! <g>), and the double head of the Midland (to keep the hitch away from everything else. Makes it easier to shorten the leash also, which is something nobody ever mentions -- don't know why).
In essence, I'd re-invented the Bayeux bobbins (more or less; mine had shorter necks).... :) And they *still rolled*.
I went back to the drawing board, and came up with the squares. Jacquie Southworth's DH made those for me (reluctantly <g>) for a while but, when he wasn't able to do so any longer, Neil Keats (an Oz Arachnean) picked up where Eric left off, and even improved on the head shape (less hitch slippage, even with slippery threads, and even without much tension)
I love Neil's bobbins to death, have a fortune invested in them, and don't use anything else, no matter what lace I make, including PG.
But... Squares *do* have their "downside"... They do not stack or tranport easily -- there's not a perfect way of managing scads of them (so far; I'm working on it <g>) easily and quickly... I don't make much lace which requires lots of pairs, so it's a minor nuisance for me, but, people who make "4-pers" (4 pairs per pin instead of 2, as in Flanders, Val, Mechlin, Paris, Binche) hate the squares with the same passion that makes me love them :)
So, the kind of lace you make (or are likely to make) will make a difference. The *technique* will make a difference also; you can't work the "Sluis way" (used for Withof Duchesse) with squares, because there, the bobbins *have to* roll...
I see myself as ultimately doing yardage lace for the most part and I don't know if that will make a difference.
To an extent, the *pillow* will make a difference also. On a flat/cookie/block pillow, the squares won't roll and, if you don't have more than 50prs, the stacking problem isn't likely to be overwhelming either, so squares are advantageous. On a roller or a bolster it makes less difference whether the bobbins are square-handled or round-handled; they'll get tangled occasionally whatever shape they are (including the spangled ones, and those are harder to un-tangle <g>), because of the "physics" of how and where they fall, and because there's less space on those pillows to fan your bobbins out, so you're always working with just a few pairs at a time (while "parking" the others).
A *very personal* note on the "European squares" Janet mentions as being available through various websites... I *hate and abhore* most of them :) In the pursuit of "pretty" (to match the Midlands and the beaded Danish ones), they're -- usually -- heavily carved in the "handle" area. Which makes them *almost* as much of a problem in sewings as the Midlands; the carvings catch the thread in sewings, unless you --constantly -- lenghten (and then shorten again) the bobbin which is doing the sewing...
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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