In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes >Watching Achim's excellent video, I thought it was interesting the bobbins >are wound anticlockwise (as most of the world seems to do) I thought clockwise was the norm? Or is it another case like the footside being on the right or left where England differs? > >Or perhaps so long as the important rules of "wind off the side not the top >of the spool" and "wind the bobbin onto the thread, not the thread onto the >bobbin" are observed, it doesn't much matter which way the thread is held on >the >bobbin.
As I'm sure you have, Jacquie, I have over the years had several students who are somewhat haphazard in the direction they wind their bobbins and so both winds are on the pillow at the same time. It doesn't appear to make the slightest bit of difference to the finished lace. It does slow you down when you come to lengthen the thread from the bobbin, because you have to work out which way is "unwind" first! > >Does it help to prevent the problem that some people have, particularly with >the Madeira cottons, of the thread untwisting and just falling apart. Or is >this partly to do with the type of cotton fibre that Madeira is made from? > Thanks to a correcting comment from Margaret Allen, years ago, when I was having this problem with DMC Broder Machine, the solution here is mostly in being strict about turning the bobbin so that it is at right angles to the thread [between it and the lace] before winding or unwinding. This way you are unwinding the bobbin, not adding or removing twists from the thread (as you would if you kept the bobbin in line with the thread). In certain laces, eg Bucks, the way the bobbins turn in use has a habit of untwisting the thread, and here I've found that switching from DMC to William Hall (presumably thus changing from S to Z twist, I haven't checked) thread solves the problem. I haven't really noticed the problem with Madeira threads (I have Cotona on one pillow at the moment; it is the one with DMC that I'm having to retwist at more or less every picot). >Continental bobbins) the hitch is always on top of thread so it slips less and >only needs a single wrap into the hitch. I always put my hitch on the thread, regardless of the type of bobbin. (Except for hookies, which don't need a hitch!) Bobbins that have the wrong hitch for the direction the thread is wound always slip, so I do pay attention to making the hitch according to the way a bobbin is wound - I always wind clockwise, and hitch thus:- holding bobbin in left hand, head to the right, with index finger parallel to the bobbin, thread comes from under the bobbin, back to front, up and over finger, down and between finger and bobbin. Place finger tip on top of bobbin head and slide the loop from the finger onto the bobbin. Hitch made. For an anticlockwise wind, the bobbin is held as before, but as the thread is now coming from back to front over the bobbin, it goes down and under the bobbin, behind and over your finger, down between finger and bobbin. Then place finger tip on head of bobbin and slip the loop onto the bobbin as before. If you hold the bobbin in your right hand, then the anticlockwise (second) hitch above is the right way for thread wound clockwise (looking down on the head of the bobbin) and the hitch described first is right for an anticlockwise wind. Some bobbins will not behave, regardless of the above, possibly because of their weight in relation to the thread (I don't use the short neck so that isn't the reason). Some threads are too "springy" to stay on bobbins - synthetics, particularly rayon, and metallics (the 3 ply DMC gold once drove me bananas!) and for these the hooked bobbins are better. Thinking back to this gold, the problem was that once the thread was wound on the bobbin, the coil thus formed round the neck loosened, and the bobbin slipped out. I'm wondering if this is the problem Sister Claire is referring to in talking about the "curl" of the thread? In this respect, I don't think there are any proper "lacemaking terms" - we just use the words we know to describe what is happening (and I say this after 19 years of making lace). Where there are terms, as with learning any new language, we all have things we don't know the word for, and if you ask, someone will fill you in if there is a specific term. There may be several words (as with a worker pair, in Honiton it is a runner) but then, often there isn't a specific one! This is why one student (who was also studying for a degree in textiles) said it would help if lace books had a glossary at the beginning, so that you could check the meanings (particularly for things like whole stitch - CTC or CTCT???) before you start. -- Jane Partridge - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
