Following Tamara's excellent advice about tensioning, I also wonder if your comments about the lace curving and being tighter towards the footside could indicate you are taking your pins out too soon.
Depending on the pinhole spacing, you will need to leave probably at least a couple of inches of pins in place so that you're not 'gathering' the lace as you tension. As well as leaving in plenty of pins right across the width of the lace, try leaving the footside (and headside) row of pins in for a long as possible, because the footside or headside passives are the only ones travelling from top to bottom and particularly if you are working these pairs in cloth stitch, they will pull through easily if not supported by pin. So, leave these edge rows of pins until the blocks need to be moved on a block pillow, until the lace needs repositioning on a cookie, or as far as possible on a roller. Because on the latter the pins don't (can't) stay in for as long as on other types of pillow, you need to be especially careful not to tension the footside passives too enthusiastically. If your pillow allows you to, and your roller is firmly anchored, you can re-pin the edge to the pillow behind the roller. If you do this you need to be very aware of the fact you have done it so you remember to unpin it before you try to move the roller! Jacquie in Linconshire. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
