Dear Arachnes Jane wrote: >Apparently she had had some visitors from South Africa to one or her >workshops and they told her that where they make lace (in South >Africa) they are told to wash their thread!
I am the one who loves washing. Washing thread is not common in South Africa most lacemakers just use the thread form the reel as it is. We all have our preferences and idiocyncrasies. I like to wash my thread before I use it, even very fine thread, if the item has a chance to be washed afterwards. Therefore I would skein it, wash and then put onto bobbins. I have a peg board in my sewing cupboard where I store the marked skeins. I have washed Egyptian cotton 180/2 just to see what will happen if I wash it this way. I would not recommend washing threads to all but it does help in our dry climate to prevent linen from breaking. I bought a reel of linen in the class and it was in relation to this that I said I would wash it before it will be used. The strange thing is that I cannot remember that anyone ever told me to wash my thread. It is something I tried and liked. My grandmother used to say that I would make a very good washing maid because I like washing so much. Maybe it comes from sewing were they warn you to wash the fabric before making it up. A word of caution. Washing linen or other thread may change the charateristics. It is very important to make a test piece to check the final product if you are using washed thread. For linen I usually enlarge my pricking by about 10% to get a similar look to the original. I also tried dyeing thread and would like to experiment more as I recently bought a book on lace knitting using handdyed threads. Keep well Linda Greyling Helderkruin near Johannesburg South Africa --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This message (and attachments) is subject to restrictions and a disclaimer. Please refer to http://www.unisa.ac.za/disclaimer for full details. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- <<<<gwavasig>>>> <<<< gwavasig >>>> - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
