Hi Julie
I'm not an expert on this, but when I do piece-lace motif with fillings
I either push all the pins right down or take all but the edge ones out
(and push those down) before I move on to the next section - it makes a
big difference to how easy (or not ;-) ) it is to push bobbins out of
the way.
On something like your scarf I'd be tempted to remove as many columns of
pins as I dared, and would push the rest down almost flat (leave just
enough "stalk" to wiggle that pin lifter between the thread and pin-head
safely when you do take them out).
How many columns of pins you need to leave in will depend on how the
threads move in your scarf pricking and how close/loose the weave in -
if there are threads which work across from one side to the other with
very few pins/twists you'll need to leave more in than if all the
threads are zig-zagging between tightly-packed pins.
Can anyone more knowledgeable suggest a "rule of thumb" for judging how
many/which pins Julie needs to leave in to avoid distorting the worked
sections?
Beth
In a grey & windy Cheshire, NW England (where if it isn't raining, it's
usually about to rain...)
Julie wrote:
So, having done a full column of sewings, I couldn't help put notice the large,
obtrusive wall of pins on the left side of my pillow the entire time I was
working the second horizontal strip. Having the left side of my pillow cut
off from me unpleasantly constrained my working area. I laid a small piece of
cloth over the pins so I could throw my bobbins there when I wasn't using them,
and that worked fine and I had no problem with threads tangling in the pins,
but when I was crossing and twisting it didn't feel natural to try to scale the
bobbins over the wall of pins and onto the cloth, so the bobbins I was working
with were all over to the right side. Which felt crowded. Also, the
tensioning direction was wrong, so after the stitch I kept picking up bobbin
pairs and pulling them all the way over to the left so that tension was in the
correct direction, in particular so that cloth stich passives didn't bunch up
over on the right side of the cloth trail.
<snip>
So, now, here I am, doing a piece lace sort of thing--sewing--and I....seem to
remember something about pushing down pins so they don't get in the way? Is
that what I really need to do to get rid of the wall of pins on my left? ALL
the pins? There are so many! And then I will have to dig them all up again to
remove them from the lace! Instead of pushing them all down, should I remove
most of the pins when I finish the horizontal strip and just leave in a few
columns of pins along the edge, pushed down? How many columns (this is
torchon)? I have a pin pusher (I like to push down headside and footside pins
in point ground) so it won't hurt my fingers. I think I might also have a pin
puller upper, but I never liked it because I worried it would catch on the
lace. Will getting rid of the wall of pins really improve my life so much as
to be worth the extra trouble of pushing down the pins?
It just seems like a weird concept to me, pushing down pins, since it's not
something I usually do.
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