Nancy I think you are right, that the only time a right and wrong side occurs in straight laces is if there are tallies lying on top of a cloth stitch or half stitch section. I suppose it is possible to have a right and wrong side with gimp, if the gimp is handled in such a way as to make it more prominent. The way to do that would be to pass the gimp through the weaver going in one direction, but to just lay the weavers on top of the gimp, without stitching the gimp, when going in the other direction. In this case which is the right side would be the side where the gimp lies on top of the weaver pair for part of its journey. But I am not aware of a straight lace where this is regularly part of the work. But I don't claim to know everything.
I have seen a part lace collar with a very raised gimp of this type, I thought it might be related to Bruges. http://lynxlace.com/bobbinlacerevivalerapart.html Go about 2/3 down that page to the collar #180. Unfortunately my photo isn't close up enough to demonstrate this clearly. But I remember studying the piece as I photoed it. That thick gimp, like packing twine, was prominent on the right side, but scarcely visible on the wrong side. And this effect was achieved in the manner I described above. It occurs to me that there might be another reason for a wrong side in straight lace. If you have gimp outlining parts of a floral design, the motifs will end periodically and the gimps will be crossed underneath the motif and cut off (to be restarted at the top of the next repeat). You would want those cut crossed gimps not to be too visible on the right side. Therefore in this situation the side which faces you as you work would be the wrong side, because that is where the crossed gimps are cut. From the other side the crossed cut gimps would not be so visible. But it wouldn't matter which side the foot is on. It would be the crossed cut gimps. The foot goes with English or continental working methods and is not the important factor here. Lorelei Halley - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
