On Feb 4, 2010, at 6:23, Jean Leader wrote:
I know from my teaching that some lacemakers have trouble with some threads untwisting and breaking but I've never been able to work out why. All I know is that the reels of thread they give up on work perfectly for me when I try them out.
Nine times out of ten it may be true and then there comes the Rogue Reel (or the Suspect Spool, depending on which side of The Pond you have to cope with it) :)
Because I design patterns for publication and because I like to work in colour, I often acquire an entire/nearly entire colour range of a given thread (something that's currently easy to obtain. Unfortunately, the "current" never lasts, so I have lots and lots of thread that's useless for my purpose). Of the three drawers-full of Madeira 50/2, one colour -- ONE! -- breaks about 5 times as frequently as any other. I'm aware of it so even if I forget, the moment it breaks for the first time I'm reminded of the minefield and start "treading lightly": I begin to treat it with extra-special care and manage to finish the project. But the pain-in-the-neck is real, not imagined and someone coming to that thread without the "precondition" I've had is likely to respond by throwing her hands up in the air, denouncing the thread and avoiding the entire brand in the future.
Actually... I think it's a chemical used to dye the thread. I've had 'dentical-same problem with the same colour/shade in two other "lines" -- one other cotton and one linen.
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
