Hi Jenny, You have jumped into the world of lacemaking terms with both feet. We're all there with you. I hope this may help sort it out.
There are two schools of bobbin lacemaking -- the Continental Method and the English Method. The English terminology is: Half Stitch CT Whole Stitch CTC Double Stitch CTCT (or Whole stitch plus a twist) The Continental terminology is: Half stitch TC Cloth or Linen stitch CTC Whole Stitch TCTC You can see why there is confusion about the term "whole stitch". Because of this, there are many modern lacemakers who have chosen to use -- Half stitch Cloth stitch Double stitch --as the terms for the three stitches. However, you need to understand both sets of terminology so you can interpret whatever book you happen to choose to use. There are books written with both methods. (A brief note -- the term 'throw' means stitch. It's an older term and not used much now.) You may have noticed that the stitches T and C are not in the same order in the two methods. The English method is CT for half stitch, which ends each stitch with the two threads of a pair twisted. This is called the Closed Method. The Continental methods is TC for half stitch, which ends each stitch with the two threads of a pair hanging straight down. This is the Open Method. If you think about making lace on a bolster pillow, the bobbins hang down when not in use. If they had a twist on them, they would untwist as they hung. The Twist first is necessary on this type of pillow. The English laces are mostly worked on flat pillows with the bobbins lying supported. The Twist stitch will hold it's position when not being used. It may be hard to believe, but there's no way to tell which method was used when the lace is completed. A section of half stitch usually starts and ends with a twist. When doing CT, an extra twist is added at the start. When doing TC, an extra twist is added at the end. The result with both methods looks exactly the same. I hope I haven't confused you completely. You need to know that there's more than one way to talk about lacemaking, and more than one way to do most things. Choose one method to work on now, and don't worry about the other one. You may or may not ever try it. My experience has been that most people continue with the method their first teacher taught them. Happy lacing, Alice in Oregon -- only 3 months till PNW Conference and there's still room in some classes. Check the Portland Lace Society webpage. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
