Original October 16 question: Hello All! May I ask what brand linen thread you are using & why? I'm a bit steamed to find big hunks of lint stuck in 90/2 linen thread & unsure of whether to pick it out & risk breaking the thread or cutting it out & adding a new bobbin. While I realize that linen was nicer in the "good old days", I'm concerned that there seems to be so little quality control for thread that is now $xx a spool! Is one brand doing a better job of it than another or is this just the new normal? Comments? Suggestions? Many thanks. Sincerely, Susan Hottle USA
------------------------------ To add to explanations about visually disturbing slubs in linen threads produced today for making lace. AND to add to your understanding of the history of women in the lace "industry": There are books that will supply interesting background information about the massive destruction during World War I of the areas where flax was cultivated in Belgium. Ugly oil from German tanks contaminated the lands where flax was grown. Water from the River Lys, used for retting, was contaminated by war ships. This water containing unique chemicals/minerals had produced the whitest linen thread then available - anywhere. One strain of most importance for the making of the finest threads (claimed to be finer than a human hair) was completely lost. No seeds survived the war. The cultivation of this strain had been completely manual, with personal attention given to each plant. No machines in the growing fields. It grew tall (I think I remember it was waist high), meaning less joins (if any) by spinners. After WWI, all citizens were needed to rebuild the nation, and produce quickly-made products for export to pay war debts. Fashions required much less (or no) lace, which could be supplied by elderly lacemakers. Younger lacemakers turned to other available work to support themselves. Hopefully, everyone will have read "Bobbins of Belgium" by Charlotte Kellogg? It was scanned from my copy, and is on the Arizona site. She wrote a second book, "Women of Belgium" which was about how they organized to keep the domestic population fed and clothed. They used aid that came from the Commission for Relief in Belgium, set up in England by a future U.S. President - Herbert Hoover. The negotiations with the Germans occupying Belgium, and the British which had many ships deployed as a blockade, even included thread needed to make lace. The Germans insisted the thread (produced in another country) be weighed when it was delivered to Belgium, and the finished lace was weighed when it was sent out to defray some of the costs of the aid. We call this "War Lace". Here is an address where you can read both books: _http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Kellogg%2C% 20Charlotte_ (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Kellogg,%20Charlotte) There are also books about growing flax, and sometimes processing it. The best (to me) is by Bert Dewilde of Kortrijk/Courtrai (Belgians are bi-lingual: Flemish/French). Title: "Flax in Flanders Throughout the Centuries: History..Technical Evolution..Folklore" Published in English by Lannoo, ISBN 90-209-1498-7, 1987, purchased as an out-of-print used book in 2013 through a local book store which ordered it from Belgium, 216 pages. Here, you learn everything about Belgian flax. Dewilde is behind the founding of the Flax Museum in his town, and participants of the 1998 OIDFA Gent Lace Tour went to this fabulous place. In a separate building, an enchanting large lace collection was presented, which I believe was reviewed at the time in OIDFA publications. Also in this town is the thread business of Bart and Francis. So - if you appreciate these kinds of things (?), here are several resources for you to research further. Sorry to those who do not appreciate history. It seems a shame not to share. WE STAND ON THE SHOULDERS of remarkable, very hard-working women, whose history has been undocumented. They saved children from starvation during and after terrible wars all over the world - going back to the beginning of human habitation of this world. In this case, even before WWI, Belgium imported much of the food needed to sustain its population (it is a land-poor nation), so you can imagine the magnitude of the problems they faced. You may be descended from some of them. A new book about the War Laces and what has happened since the end of WWI (1918) is being written in Belgium by a highly-regarded lace scholar, and will be published in 2018 in honor of our favorite subject: LACE. It will be available to those who travel to Bruges to attend the lace festivities being planned by our Belgian "sisters". Incidentally, the Australian crochet expert, Barbara Ballantyne, wrote about the poor quality of lace threads today in her book (reviewed March 23, 2011 on Arachne) "The Structure of Threads for Lace". You can search the title in our archives to read what she had to say. Maybe an international committee of lace experts (including shop owners) should organize to work with thread manufacturers. I doubt manufacturers hear complaints from many of us. That may explain why they have gone out of business! Please read the next to last paragraph in the review. You'll note I recommended this topic to Program Chairmen. Did anyone follow up? Put book title in the Search box at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/index.html Jeri Ames in Maine Lace and Embroidery Resource Center - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
