Adele, in your response re support pins, among the others, I think you make a good point: 2. Get lots of practice. Many lacemakers just make a few short samples and call it a day. Pick a pattern and make a couple of feet of it; long enough for you to go through the pattern many times, and then you’ll be much more comfortable with the process.
I am thankful for many reasons that I don't have to make a living for myself and my family by making lace. I'm healthier, more comfortable, and I have a better understanding of lace in all its variations, along with its connection to history and sociology than most of them did. BUT, they knew their pattern. We tend to make something in a class, and might finish it when we get home, but not necessarily. Then it's put away and not done again for months, usually. And we tend to make bits and pieces, seldom a whole handkerchief. To say nothing of yardage. I am guilty of this, too. But I used the appropriate lesson in Ann-Marie Verbeke-Billiet's Binch Syllabus I to learn to make tallies, where it is a handkerchief edging filled with tallies, and you're expected to finish the handkerchief. Practice certainly does make better, if not perfect. And I learned a lot about all sorts of things when I made the edgings for the altar cloth, some 9 feet on one altar, and there were! two. Same pattern. Wow did it go faster at the end. I make lace almost every day. It goes along with my one LARGE cup of morning coffee. Great way to greet the day. Of course, now I'm retired, children long gone. Since I make no money from my lace, its priority is actually well below a number of other things, even now as a retiree. But I think daily lacemaking, where your pillow is always set up, bar cats, dogs and children, is very helpful. Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA, where the heat wave has finally broken and the air conditioning isn't a necessity. "My email sends out an automatic message. Arachne members, please ignore it. I read your emails." - 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://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
