I am in complete agreement with Jean! A few years ago, I worked a very
long scarf which was also wide, so while it did not qualify to be called
"yardage", it was interminably long... I was bored to tears with it
after just a few inches, but I has spent a lot of money on novelty
threads to make it, and had loads of nice bobbins tied up on a nice
pillow, and so I wanted to finish it. It seemed to take forever, and I
vowed I would never again work a project in which I could not enjoy the
process from start to finish. I did finish it, and while it is lovely,
I have such a negative feeling about it that I rarely wear it!!
Consequently, the pieces I work now are always challenging, and take a
long time. I do not have a burning desire to finish, just a compulsion
to make the lace as beautiful as I possibly can. So... speed is never
an issue. My current project has been huge, and I can see the end in
sight... and I am already grieving that it will be done soon.
Fortunately, I have just found several other patterns which sing to me,
and will keep me "off the street" as my DH loves to say when he thinks
he's being clever.
Before I made lace, I did other things such as embroidery, and learned
then that those things which were finished quickly did not please me,
and never found a permanent place in my home. I preferred to work
something that occupied me for as long as a year, and then I had
something I could really be proud of. The same perspective applies to
my lacemaking.
Clay
Clay Blackwell
from Sweet Briar, Virginia, where I'm basking in the glow from 36 happy
students making wonderful lace all week at "Lace at Sweet Briar"!
On 6/22/2011 11:51 AM, Chris Vail wrote:
On the whole, I agree with you Jean; it's at least as much about the process
as it is the progress. But in defense of speed - well, the current project
is 9 yards of a fairly straightforward braid lace, so the sooner I can plow
through it, the better!! :D
Actually, I think Lyn said it well. I prefer efficiency in making my lace,
because that makes the process of trying new stitches and combinations more
fun for me. It's not that I'm trying to be fast, it's that I've found a
comfortable way of doing the basic movements for me so I can concentrate on
the 'where' and 'why' and not so much on the 'how' any more. To take Lyn's
example, I learned to knit originally by throwing the yarn with my right
hand, hated it and completely stopped knitting. After nearly a decade, I
went back but taught myself to hold the yarn in my left hand and pick it
through, and I haven't put the needles down since. Picking is more efficient
for me, and it makes me happy to knit that way. It also happens to make me
faster, but that's a side benefit. For bobbin lace, TC is more efficient
for my hands than CT, with the same happiness and speed boosts. *shrug* This
is why I encourage my students to try things out - I give them my way of
doing things, and why, but then I let them know that any method that gives
the desired end product is good, so long as it works for them. Life is too
short to do hobbies that make you unhappy!
Chris - trying not to drown in Chicago :D
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:02:40 +0100
From: "Jean Nathan"<[email protected]>
Subject: [lace] yardage - speed
I'm bemused as to why anyone would be concerned with making lace as fast as
possible, unless you have a deadline for a gift or an event such as a
wedding or a display/competition. It certainly can't be with an aim to sell
the lace because you could never make it fast enough to make a living.
I take pleasure in the process of making lace, reverse lacing where
necessary to correct mistakes and learn how to correct what I did wrong. I
may or may not be pleased with the finished item, but I'm not particularly
interested in that. It's the process and mastering techniques (or not) that
I find fascinating - there are so many that I don't think anyone could
master them all. David, with al of his experience, has provided a good
example here in deciding what to do about the poppies in the piece he's
currently working - gimps? twists? tallies?
Jean in Poole, Dorset, UK
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