In a message dated 21/06/2005 16:18:24 GMT Daylight Time, Alice in Oregon writes:
<<One -- when you do a familliar pattern over and over, the speed improves. <snipped> Second -- the work day was much longer then, than now. In books I've read, the lacemaker went to work as early as 4am and worked until 7pm. That's almost twice as long as we consider a 'work day' now. So -- enjoy your inch-an-hour lace and be pleased with it. >> I think that Alice has, once again, hit the nail on the head. I have a piece of lace that I have had on my travel pillow for over 12 years. When I first started making it, it took 90 minnutes to make one repeat (it is 2" wide by 2.5" long for a repeat). Now I can make a repeat in 30 minutes because I've made over 30 yards of it. I've just started making a piece out of obbin lace patters by Claire Burkhard. It's called Dahlia and is a wide, round piece over 12" in diameter but uses on 10 pairs. Well they published the pattern as 1/3 so you have to cut and match it - which took me over 4 hours to do and after I pricked it I found that I could not follow the lines on the pattern to draw them in then I had to photocopy up the whole thing and stick it to card and cover with film - something I hate doing - I know lots of you love that way but I get into the pattern by drawing it out and getting my feel for it. So, in all, it took 6 hours to prepare the pattern and prick it. About 10 minutes to wind the bobbins and to make it? Well, there are 12 repeats and in each repeat about half the stiches require sewings but I got the repeats down from 4 hours for the first one (I think this took so long because I was still learning the pattern having not drawn it out at the pricking stage) to now, only 90 minutes a repeat. As I intend making 3 of these (1 for me and 1 each for mother and the Aussies mum) this means that the next one should only take me 18 hours to do. This is a big pattern. But it makes up really quickly. Don't be fooled by a piece of lace to think that it takes long - some will surprise you. Regards Liz in London I'm back _blogging_ (http://journals.aol.com/thelacebee/thelacebee) my latest lace piece - have a look by clicking on the link or going to _http://journals.aol.com/thelacebee/thelacebee_ (http://journals.aol.com/thelacebee/thelacebee) - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
