Many thanks to Bev for finding the address for the mooring threads message. That's a technique for stablizing a pricking on your pillow without bumpy pins that is well worth another discussion.
Here's how I move lace...there are a lot of words here, but it all goes much faster than it might seem at first glance: I prefer to move when the lace is mostly ground (point, binche, torchon, whatever) and a bit beyond a completed cloth stitch area. When moving Beds or a tape lace, I look for a place where the trails are converging and wide cloth stitch areas are completed, and the number of bobbins is low. 1. Lengthen all the threads (leashes) to at least 12 inches long, more if you are new to moving lace. If you are slow at lengthening/shortening leashes, then this good practice for you. I used to be slow but now lenthening/shortening goes quickly for me and I don't avoid it. 2. Put all your bobbins on sticks or knit stitch holders. Stack all your sticks/holders on top of each other on top of a large handkerchief or light weight dish towel that has been placed on your pillow. 3. Fasten the large handkerchief/towel very tightly with pins of any kind, by knotting the handkerchief corners, or by tying a ribbon. Make absolutely sure that the sticks/holders and their bobbins are completely immobilized. The cloth that you use to bundle the bobbins needs to be lightweight so that you can really pin or tie the bundle tightly. Thick cloth won't let you get a good tight bundle. You should be able to safely toss your bundle around after you've taken your lace off the pillow. 4. This is the key ingredient: fasten the handkerchief opening so that all of the threads are coming out of a teensy weensy hole just big enough to let the threads through. Sometimes I tie a ribbon or thread around the threads and a bit of the handkerchief. Sometimes I have enough handkerchief to tie a square knot with two corners around the threads. Sometimes I use a couple of lace pins. It is vitally important that pulling on the bobbin threads outside the bundle will not result in any bobbin movement inside the bundle of bobbins. 5. Take all the pins out of your lace. 6. Move the pricking to a more comfortable spot on the pillow and TAKE A BREAK. 7. Rotate the pillow 180 degrees so you are looking at the pricking and lace upside down compared to how you are usually looking at it when you are making lace. 8. I begin by putting in one pin right in the middle and exactly on the most recently worked edge. Sometimes it helps to have worked to a point before starting the move. Then I put in more pins slowly working back towards me (remember, I'm at back of the pillow) and outwards towards the headside and the footside. Feeling stressed? TAKE A BREAK! Even a couple of minutes can really help to keep your hands dry, cool, and relaxed. 9. Carefully do just a few of the headside picots. I don't think it's necessary to do very many. When I distort anything, it's usually a picot so I don't like to force them. I have found that replacing 3 picot pins is sufficient in my experience. 10. Get some of the footside pins in. 11. Fill in 1/2 to 1 inches worth of pins. I have many times filled in only 1/2 inches worth of pins but then, in that case, I immediately work 1/2 inch's worth of lace. Be very careful when tensioning as you start to make lace again. Look for any movement of thread and buckling of lace. If that happens, turn the pillow around 180 degrees and put in more pins where the movement occurred. There are usually a few pins in the lace that I worked just before moving that I have to do over again, two or three at most, and maybe a picot needs to be redone. I have seen Anne Marie in Bruges wrap all of the threads around a large, heavy pin in a kind of half hitch (I think that is the name of the knot - I can do it, I can draw it, but I don't know if I can call it by the right name) and then leave the bobbins hanging loose off the edge of the pillow while the pricking is moved, the lace repinned, etc. The principle is the same, you just need to be sure that you have a very long length of thread on all the bobbins between the heavy pin and the worked lace, and that tugging on the leashes between the worked lace and the heavy pin does not move the bobbins beyond the heavy pin. One more story...I have large Flanders handkerchief edging that I had completed halfway when someone needed to borrow my pillow. I was not doing well at the time and, to tell you the truth, I couldn't be too concerned about finishing that lace at the time so I went through steps 1-5 and tossed the half square of lace into a dusty corner of my sewing room. There it sat for a year. I went back and forth about it in my mind, finally decided that it was worth finishing. So I rummaged around for that bundle, dusted it off, and went through steps 5-11. I finished the square some time later and I dare you to find where the working edge of the lace was for that year. I can't see any difference in the lace. Last bit of advice: stay calm, take a break if your hands get damp or your eyes cross or rude words start springing to mind. I don't mind moving at all now. I rather enjoy it. It gives me time to think about my next step in the lace. With practice, moving goes very quickly and then you don't get much of a think afterall. Sally - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
