On Dec 1, 2004, at 14:32, Alice Howell wrote (in response to Julie):
When a thread has gone through 2-3-4 stitches/pins, it should be anchored, not loose. If the thread is started along the gimp a few stitches ahead of where it will strike off on it's own, it should be secure.
It is safe, however suspect it may seem to be :) The only time it might not be safe is when *the same thread* which had been added as a passive ends up being removed 3-4 stitches later on, without a major change of drection (pin). But chances of that happening are very slim in half-stitch and, if it looks like that's going to happen, you just add a twist, or remove another pair.
Polychrome adds and removes singles all the time; a "pair" composed of one thick (coloured worker) and one thin (same as the basic thread) thread is added for every motif. Like Chantilly, Polychrome is made in silk - slippery at all times. But the threads stay, and don't unravel.
Anyway, what's safe on removing is also safe on adding :) If you're really, really worried... Cloth stitch, instead of half-stitching, through the first/last pair you encounter in the operation.
Another method is to wind your pair full. When it's time to throw out the threads, just lay the pair back to the top of the lace. When needed the next time, pick them up and lay the threads back in the new place and continue working. [...]
Personally, I've never liked that one very much, because I like to add my pair/s at a certain angle (consistent with the path they'll take), and that's not always the angle at which they exited. Though, I suppose, one could skew the angle of re-entry to the correct one by choosing - carefully - the placing of the pin on which the loop of the extra thread is hooked... I've never heard of using that "bypass before the re-entry" before - thanks, Alice - so I didn't see the advantages of that method.
Though I don't see why you'd have to wind *a* pair full... A different pair comes in, and a different one goes out. At least, that's the optimum for security reasons, as I'd said above. Either all pairs ought to be wound full, or all pairs ought to be wound with one bobbin full and one skimpy. When the skimpy one runs out, you replace it - as you would a broken thread - with a full one...
If the threads don't pull out when you take the lace off the pins, they should not pull out the next week or month or year, etc.
All those stitches around the pins hold the shape of the lace.
A lot depends on the length of the added/removed thread, vide gimps surrounding individual honeycomb holes (flower centers, circles in the ground, etc). I've seen plenty of laces where, after a time, some gimp bits stayed, but some slipped their moorings and disappeared altogether :) Less likely to happen in the 4-per-pin laces, but it does happen a lot in PG ones, when there are only 2 prs (one each side of overlap) to hold them in place. You can leave longer "whiskers" when trimming, but it looks ugly...
Happens less with gimps composed of several strands (say 6-8 threads of the basic thickness) than when using a special (but only 2-3 ply) gimp thread, which - once again - makes me take my (imaginary <g>) hat of to the lacemakers of old, who had it all figured out long before we came along with our puters... :)
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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