On Jul 29, 2004, at 15:15, Weronika Patena wrote:
Each time you do a project, keep track of how much you wound on and how
much is left.
How exactly do I tell how much I wound, if I wind it directly from a spool?
When using a (hand) winder, you measure out, say, one yard of a particular thread, wind it onto a bobbin, and count the "cranks" (though, for obsessionally-inclined, it's not an exact measurement; the upper layers load more thread per "crank" than the lower ones)...
For winding by hand:
I, mostly, make my lace in the same environment, so the measurement is easy: the table top is 30", the lace-table is 27", the lace-pillow is 24", the cover cloth is 18", etc... I pull that amount off the spool, before pulling off its multiple.
When I have to wind bobbins away from those set measurements (as in a workshop, for example), I use the tip I learnt from an Arachnean (can't remember who), 6 yrs ago, in Nottingham: know thyself :)
Take a tape measure, hold its beginning with the tips of your fingers, and extend the the arm which would hold and wind a started bobbin (left, in my case) to the side. Note the measurements: to the elbow joint (on the inside), to the first "socket" (end of the arm), to the second "socket" (accross the chest), to the next - also extended, but to the other side - elbow joint, and to the tips of the fingers (ditto; extend the other arm to the side). Although none of those measurements is going to be *precise*, at least one is likely to be easy to remember (relatively so; I need to remind myself, before going away on a workshop trip <g>). I compensate for that by writing "ca" ("circa", or "thereabouts" in my notes).
You then: wind about an inch or so onto the bobbin; enough to hold the thread without slipping/unwinding, but not enough to worry about. Hold the bobbin with the tips of the fingers of one extended hand. Pull the thread from the spool, enough to reach the remembered measurement, and hold the thread there with the other hand, tautly. Roll/wind the bobbin to that spot. Repeat, if necessary. Count the numer of repeats, and you have the amount of thread you'd wound.
It is, BTW, important, to keep the thread stretched tautly between the bobbin's neck and the "stopping point" pinched between the fingers of the other hand. I learnt that, when I began to work with metallic threads, which tend to stretch; if they're stretched when winding, they slip their hitches less. So I have no problems when winding other than metallic threads; I just use the same pressure. But our teacher in Prague did, several times, become exasperated with loosely-wound thread on some people's bobbins; the tension of bobbins falling down the bolster pillow wasn't quite enough to keep the hitches in place... And it was even worse on flat ones, where there's no natural tension on the thread between the lace and the bobbin.
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) Healthy US through The No-CARB Diet: no C-heney, no A-shcroft, no R-umsfeld, no B-ush.
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