On Dec 8, 2004, at 7:40, Mary Shue wrote:
Is there such a tool as a measuring transparency that if laid over a
pricking would tell you how many dots per inch/cm there are to help guide
you in thread selection?
As Ruth Budge has said, there is, and it's still available. I find it mostly useless, since the threads it recommends for the pin spacing (both on a straight and diagonal line) are almost all out of manufacture by now, and the range of spacing is very limited.
I prefer to use a combination of "engineer's ruler" (a thin and narrow, metal, 6" long ruler, calibrated in 1/32" increments on one side, and in millimeters on the other, with a decimal conversion of the inch increments on the back. Never leave home without it <g>) and Brenda's "Thread for Lace", where she gives the optimum number of thread wraps between the footside (straight line) pins suitable for two most common lace techniques: Torchon and Point Ground. I extrapolate from those for my Milanese and/or Russian projects.
Or am I making the measuring too big of a deal?
Depends on your personality... :) IMO, you need to know the "rules" first, so that you can break them successfully, when so moved.
2nd question - is it ok on a small ornament pricking that is tape lace to
push your pins all the way down ?
If you need to turn your pillow during the construction, it's not just OK to push the pins down flat; you *have to*. Otherwise, they'd get in the way (as Margot had said). But don't push down the last pin you'd set in; wait till there are at least 2 between "you now" and "you then". Once the tension is established, the pins are safe to push down; if you were to push down the *current* pin, the thread might jump off the pin and you'd have no tension at all.
3rd question - is there a technique for adding beads to a spot on an
ornament if I forgot to add them as I was going along? I can't really back
track since there is a sewing between where I am now and the part where I'd
like to locate a bead.
Adding a missed bead with needle and thread after the project's off the pillow is a possibility, especially if it's on the edge, but I'd rank it as a last resort, and use it only if: a) there were more than 2 sewings between the spot and my current place, or:
b) the sewing had been iffy (several tries) and might have frayed the thread. In that case, it's better to let the sleeping dog lie :)
But, if all that's between you and the missed spot is one or two *healthy* sewings, I'd definitely backtrack and undo those.
When you get to the sewing you want to undo, *gently* tug on both threads - one at a time - which made it. Sort of see-saw jiggle. One of them will emerge as being the loop into which you'd put the other bobbin. Put a sturdy pin into that loop (careful! Do not split the plies of the thread!), and gently ease it to enlarge it. Then put the other bobbin through the loop in the opposite direction than that it came in from.
I've done countless "un-sewings" (even farther back than 2 <g>) and they bombed only if the thread had been weakened in the first place (usually due to a too thin hook)
Hope this is not too late to help, --- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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