As Peg's teacher for the Milanese class I'd like to say a couple of things.
I suspect the threads weren't 'wearing out', just untwisting. This was one of the things I told the class to watch out for (and if they saw it happening to retwist any affected threads), but I was giving out a lot of information at Ithaca and not all of it finds a permanent home in every brain. When doing the sewings I showed the class how to use the hook so the thread is pushed through the sewing, as distinct from pulled, so the 'stem' of the crochet hook rather than the hook itself is pushing on the thread. This minimises damage. I also showed them that that they shouldn't try to force the thread in any way as this probably means that they have either split the thread or caught the hook on part of the made lace. The loop should 'pop' through the sewing with minimum resistance. The other important technique I demonstrated was how, at least until they were proficient and confident doing sewings, to make the sewing onto a loop of the thread several inches from the finish of the lace. This has several advantages all of which stress the thread as little as possible. It allows you to hold the thread tight, balancing the pull against the hook. At the same time, once it has 'popped' through the sewing you have a loop of thread to pull through rather than needing to pull against the thread at the end of the lace as you drag enough through to make the loop for the other bobbin to pass through. If you fail to achieve the sewing first (or second, third....) try, each try will almost certainly be on a different bit of thread. Finally, in the worst case scenario, if you do break the thread it will have broken several inches from the lace so the tail is long enough to knot onto and still do the sewing. Regarding magic threads. Yes, I do use them when I know the sewing is going to be difficult either because of its position or the thread being used, but in the lace Peg is talking about she was doing top sewings in every one of 14 to 16 adjacent bars along a previously made edge. While it is perfectly possible to put those magic threads in place as the work progresses it is just one more thing to remember to do every row, near the start of the design, and just as the first Milanese braid is being started. Having got the loops in place they are then making a bump under the cover cloth and bobbins as the homeward bound braid is worked. Even with the magic thread colour rotation as taught by Springett's, I have found that many students find that many magic threads, so close together, more difficult to deal with than learning how to do sewings. It sounds as if Peg's problem was definitely with the weak threads rather than having problems with getting the hook into place, so if this had occured while we were still in class together I would have firstly reminded her to twist all the threads, (apart from returning the thread to its proper strength, it means the hook is more likely to engage with all the plys) and if she was still having problems with the thread, suggested that she used a lazy susan to do the sewings. Best wishes Jacquie in Lincolnshire Sent from my iPhone On 7 Jan 2012, at 05:14, Witchy Woman <wytchy...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > When I finished the Isis Heart piece I started during my Milanese class in > Ithaca I had a problem with the passive threads. By the time I got to the end > of the piece they were seriously fraying. I was using Brok cotton...I think > size 40. This made a smooth and invisible join pretty much impossible. 3 > threads were so fragile they broke when I did the sewing...pulling it > gently through the loop with a fine crochet hook was enough to make it break. > And I made sure the thread was fully around the hook before I pulled. > > I've > had problems before with threads fraying by the time I get to the end of a > piece. On these pieces I had a combination of cotton passives and metallic > passives and weavers. I had assumed the fraying was because the metallics are > a > bit abrasive and wore away the cotton threads as I tensioned them. But the > Isis > Heart piece was all one type of thread, and the thread was fairly new. > Am I doing something wrong or is this a common problem? > > Peg > in Fairview Park > OH where it was a spring-like 50F today. The birds are so > confused...they > were singing like it's Spring. > > - > To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: > unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to > arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: > http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
