In a message dated 19/06/2005 04:38:49 GMT Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> You'll need two work cloths and, for both laces, you'll need similiar ones > - a square or round cloth with a small (no more than 2") hole in the middle. Depends on who the teacher for Honiton is! Really you should use 3 or 4 ordinary cover cloths, preferably a reasonably light weight (plain dark coloured) cotton fabric, and you dress the pillow with a triangular hole using 3 or a square/rectangular hole using 4. The cloths are pinned low down on a proper Honiton pillow (or way out at the edges if you are improvising with another sort) so they need to be big enough to do this. They are stretched absolutely drum-tight (so you need 6 or 8 strong flat-headed pins) and the last cloth is the one at a 90 degree angle to the predominant direction of work (to give the flattest working area). As you go round curves you often change the *top* cloth by swopping the positioning of the ends relative to each other (NOT completely re-dressing the pillow). But by having the cloths tight, the bobbins pass over the edges with little difficulty anyway. This tight-to-the-pillow arrangement means you can also use a slider (a piece of acetate or clean x-ray film with 'very' smooth edges) under the cloths (not held by pins) and it covers any exposed pin heads so your very fine thread doesn't catch and break. Having the separate cloths also means you can have a much smaller uncovered hole - most Honiton beginners motifs are less than 2" across so the round-hole cloths would expose the complete motif and even if you keep sliding it about you can't get a tight down to the pillow edge to work over and you can't get the tight fit needed to hold a slider. And the rest of the cloth tends to 'flute' on the pillow which the light weight Honiton bobbins hate, they like smooth to work on. The cloths don't need any fancy hems, I just tear mine so there is as little bulk as possible under the folded over edge, and wash them in the machine a couple of times, after which they don't fray any more, but if you are uncomfortable with that, a zig-zag edge is sufficient. Hope this helps, 'cos apart from the number of them (but you can never have too many cover cloths anyway) these torn cloths will be much easier to make and more useful for other lace in future if you don't take to Honiton. I use the same arrangement for all my part lace - Bruges, Duchesse, Withof and Milanese and have never owned a cloth with a hole. But I have seen them used very successfully for the 'bigger' types and watched students struggle with them for Honiton. Jacquie - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
