Hi Adele and Candy -
It sounds like your lovely pins, Adele, are the same pins I use for
Binche. Originally, I got them from Holly (Van Sciver) who sold them in
small tubes of 150 pins per tube. And they *were* expensive, (especially
since one tube is not enough for most projects!!) and of course the
price went up as the exchange rate went against our favor. Then Susan
Wenzel (Lacy Susan) found a supplier who could provide them less
expensively, and they are my favorite pins now. They're still
expensive, but they're packaged 300 per box for $14.50. The size is
38mm x 0.4mm. They're stainless, and they ARE lovely. It took me a
while to get used to them... I bent quite a few at first! But now I
rarely bend one, and they do make beautiful lace. I found that two
boxes is enough for most projects, and I got a third box recently, to
compensate for the pins I had bent.
An alternative is to use insect pins, which are less expensive. They
can be found in scientific supply companies and you'll find them if you
google. They come in several sizes, and I actually used them before I
discovered the stainless pins that Holly carries. Size "0" is
equivalent to 38mm x 0.4mm, using Adele's measuring system. The insect
pins I have are black enameled with little gold heads. They also bend
easily, and one problem is that occasionally when they bend, the enamel
flakes off and gets onto your lace. So I'd use those in a pinch,
because the stainless are much better in my opinion.
When I worked Tonder, I used the traditional Tonder bobbins and they are
very pretty. But because of the bulb at the bottom, they take up a lot
of room on the pillow, and you also have to learn how to manage lots of
pairs, since it's almost essential that you stack them to one side when
you're not using them. On the flip side, the bulb does keep those
bobbins from being right on top of each other, so your fingers have no
trouble getting the bobbin you mean to get... However, until you fall
completely in love and decide that you're going to do nothing but Tonder
for a long time, the midlands (or continentals) work just as well.
(That's my "pocket snake" talking).
Clay
Adele Shaak wrote:
I have googled and saw lots of pretty lace, a few bobbins and no
definitions on the size of the pins.
Generally Tonder uses very fine, long pins. I'm no Tonder expert, but
I feel the finer pins are better because you use very fine thread and
you often close your pins (ie, C-T-T, pin, C-T-T). If the pin is wider
than two twists of the thread, then the thread starts having to go an
extra distance to get around the pin, and the pin itself is changing
the shape of your lace. I don't know if I've explained this very well
- hope you understand what I'm getting at.
But, if you're taking a beginner class, they might use a thicker
thread (in the class I took at PNWC this June the beginners used size
120 thread; more advanced students used 160). If you're using the 120
cotton you might be perfectly happy with the normal fine lace pins of
.55 mm or so.
I used the 160 cotton at my class and I remember being glad that I had
brought the very fine Tonder pins, which were already in my stash.
Unfortunately I bought the pins a while back and I don't recall the
brand name of the pin or what size they were. But, I just put some
side by side and measured - 9 pins cover about 3.5 mm, so I guess
they're about .4 mm each. Lovely pins. Wish I could get more, though I
do recall they were very expensive!
Hope this helps. And - if anybody recognizes these pins from the
description I've given, and knows where I can get more, do let me know.
Adele
North Vancouver, BC
(west coast of Canada)
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