Re: [lace] just cross and twist
One of the things that I find inspiring with many of the instructional books in lacemaking, is how well the methodology of lacemaking is deconstructed into a form that can be followed by someone without prior knowledge. I often use lace and other craft books to show new business trainers how to deconstruct an activity in order to teach it. I have been lucky enough, over the years to meet other Lacemakers who started learning from books or taught themselves a new form from a book. I would also take issue with some of you on the list (in a nice and friendly way of course) that when you say tacit you don't teach, you just show, that actually, you are teaching you just call it another thing. Kind Regards Liz Baker On 8 Dec 2013, at 18:22, Lyn Bailey lynrbai...@desupernet.net wrote: Lace is not necessarily that hard to learn. Look at all the people who could learn from a book. I made lace for 15 years without ever meeting a teacher. Looked like lace, too. And I am far from alone, at least in America. - 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/
Re: [lace] just cross and twist
Devon's words gave me cause for thought. Having worked in adult education and business training for a number years and also taught lace for linger than I've been a trainer, I have been surprised by the number of people who believe that because they are passionate about a subject they will automatically be a great teacher. Having just run the first part of a train the trainer course yesterday, the syllabus reminded me that in order to teach or train a person in a skill, it is not just the skill that needs to be taught but also the accompanying knowledge and attitude. Traditionally I would use a method to deconstruct the activity called blooms taxonomy but simply this gives you levels of what you want to achieve and you compare you learner to ensure you only ever try to take them up one level at a time. Trainers often fail because they either try to teach too much or even too little. We've all heard complaints of how learners were forced to make yard after yard of work bandages for weeks on end and got disparaged by it and gave up. Or were told the thing they wanted to make was too hard and to forget about it until months hence. I recently watched a lacemaker show a have a go pillow to a group of my friends at a craft group (don't ask why I wasn't the one doing). She had set up the Springett snake and the ladies were having terrible trouble doing it. Now I've taught with this pattern since the early 90s and never had a problem with it. In frustration, one of the ladies asked me to show her. The pillow was set up with cotton for the passives - similar to a du cantu 30 and cotton perle 8 for the weavers. Try as I could, I had terrible problems getting the bobbins to move through each other and I couldn't tension them. The pattern also was just a photocopy pinned onto the pillow with no card. The ladies were very demotivated. To weeks later and I'm teaching lace using the same pattern but pricked properly and each newbie is using bobbins of similar weight along with cotton perle 8 for the passives and gold dust for the weavers (as per the instructions). 3 hours later and we had one snake finished and the other nearly done. So materials are important but as I told my delegates yesterday, sometimes it is not possible to teach so etching to a person because they are unable to grasp what you are teaching. They may think they want to learn but really they like the idea of learning, not the doing. I have a very high success rate both in lacemaking teaching and in business training but I was formally taught how to taught and every few years I refresh my teaching skills to ensure they are current and work. And yes, I do the same prep for a lace lesson as I would do for sales training with lesson plans etc so that if I teach the same thing twice I have all the prep work mapped out. Kind Regards Liz Baker On 8 Dec 2013, at 16:38, dmt11h...@aol.com wrote: I know that I am not a successful teacher and the only people I ever tried to teach never really understood it. I was surprised one day to talk to a friend who has taught many, many beginner classes and she confessed that she didn't think anyone she had started had ever gone on with it. So, if it is only two stitches, like knitting, why is it so hard to learn? Devon - 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/
RE: [lace] just cross and twist
So, if it is only two stitches, like knitting, why is it so hard to learn? Devon I don't think of lace as '2 stitches' -C T. But 2 movements; Cross and twist, that go into making 3 stitches; a 2 movement stitch=CT (HS), a 3 movement stitch= CTC (cloth stitch), and a 4 movement stitch = CTCT (whole stitch). I explain it that way and that later one adds extra twists to make an opening larger (as in Pt. Grnd.), or Winkie pins, etc. I have taught several people and those who really wanted to continue have, others haven't for various reasons -too many other interests, etc. Lorri - 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/
Re: [lace] just cross and twist
Devon wrote: So, if it is only two stitches, like knitting, why is it so hard to learn? Lace is not necessarily that hard to learn. Look at all the people who could learn from a book. I made lace for 15 years without ever meeting a teacher. Looked like lace, too. And I am far from alone, at least in America. It was not easy, but it was easy enough for me not to need someone else to explain my mistakes to me. I didn't try more than simpler lace patterns, butterflies, stars, lace edgings. The hard part is being able to find your mistakes and visualize. I learned basic knitting from my millinery teacher in 9th grade, but the rest I taught myself from books. Only thing I haven't learned from a book is spinning, which is much more like riding a bicycle, and therefore not mere instructions without identifying problems to a beginner. That being written, lacemaking also can be difficult, depending. Very similar to knitting. Just ask anyone who's made a Scottish gansey in a complicated pattern. As with lace, you have to pay attention to what's going on. And be able to translate the instructions into the actual article, not necessarily an easy thing to do. And a host of other skills, that go far beyond twistcross or knitpurl. Nonetheless, it's not that difficult to start. And not impossible to make acceptable lace without a teacher, although having a teacher is much easier and a much quicker way to learn. Plus it is much more fun, as you are with other lacemakers. And you learn things from teachers that are not in books. Sometimes they are simple things, sometimes they are small but important things. Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA, where the snow arrived as predicted. Sure wish it would last until Christmas. But it won't. - 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/
Re: [lace] just cross and twist
And sometimes those self-taught people can be in for a rude awakening when they finally find a teacher! Brimming with confidence, they arrive ready to tackle an intermediate piece only to discover that they have wound their bobbins wrong, confused the cross with the twist, have no idea how to keep their bobbins under control, etc., etc... The brave ones begin all over again, but I have seen at least one who just gave up when she realized she had done it all wrong... It was too hard for her to remember which was correct and which wasn't. But she did not give up quietly, (having never learned that it is commonly understood that teachers rotate around the classroom, giving each student her fair amount of time). So needless to say, the class was not so pleasant for the rest of us. Been there, done that! I felt very sad for her... And still wonder if she ever found a near-by teacher to help. Clay Sent from my iPad On Dec 8, 2013, at 1:22 PM, Lyn Bailey lynrbai...@desupernet.net wrote: Devon wrote: So, if it is only two stitches, like knitting, why is it so hard to learn? And not impossible to make acceptable lace without a teacher, although having a teacher is much easier and a much quicker way to learn. Plus it is much more fun, as you are with other lacemakers. And you learn things from teachers that are not in books. Sometimes they are simple things, sometimes they are small but important things. - 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/
Re: [lace] just cross and twist
This is not something I have ever come across, to this extent. I have 'acquired' over the years several people who were originally self taught (as I was myself), and have found they fall into two main categories.  One (into which I complacently put myself) are those who have read carefully, and also carefully studied the illustrations, and not only have got the hang of the basic techniques but have also noticed that the threads should be tensioned and the whole should look crisp. The other group are those who have got the basics but haven't noticed that the threads need to be tensioned and usually they quickly get the hang of the extra techniques and are delighted in the improvement in their lace. So long as all the bobbins are wound the same way, there is no right or wrong.  It depends entirely on the culture the student is learning from. Just because I choose to wind mine clockwise doesn't mean I object to teaching those who wind counter-clockwise, or that I have any problem with their hitch. Even among those I teach from scratch there are those who have problems with the bobbins running, but having suggested variations in technique to suit different thread/bobbin combinations I usually point out to them it is one of the Murphy's Laws of lacemaking. So long as it distresses you, your bobbins will run. As soon as you can deal with them promptly and confidently enough for it not to bother you any more, they stop doing it. And as for someone who has her twists and crosses mixed, she has just learnt to undo before she learnt to do. I have never come across this one, but as I try to teach people to undo as a strict reverse of doing, and for most people I haven't taught previously (whether self taught or from a previous teacher) this is a new concept, I don't see it would be any harder to show someone how to go forward correctly. Perhaps being self taught I have a more positive attitude to others also self taught. I do know that when I first joined a class I was amazed at the way the other students would switch off thinking the moment they got stuck, and wait for the teacher, instead of at least trying to work out what was wrong so I enjoy the slightly different way self taughters approach their work. Jacquie in Lincolnshire Sent from Samsung tablet - 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/
Re: [lace] just cross and twist
Dear Clay et al, How dreadful to have such an inconsiderate, clueless illiterate foisted on the class. But that was not necessarily a function of learning from books. This person also had reading comprehension problems, as books clearly explain how to wind bobbins and the nature of cross and twist. My first class was Flanders, and my second was Honiton, where I was complimented on my lacemaking. Many lacemakers begin from a book and do just fine. It is probably a function of how one learns, the ability to visualize. Different methods of learning work better or worse with various skills and information. Where tensioning is tricky, a teacher can give immediate feedback, which is so much easier than trying to invent the wheel on your own. But where there is no teacher, either because it's the Dark Time Before the Internet, lack of time or lack of funds, well-written books must do, and while it is not always easy to figure it out, it is doable. However one is learning, one builds on two pairs and cross and twist. How high one builds from that point depends on all sorts of factors, including inclination. Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA, where it's been snowing all afternoon. Clay Blackwell wrote: And sometimes those self-taught people can be in for a rude awakening when they finally find a teacher! Brimming with confidence, they arrive ready to tackle an intermediate piece only to discover that they have wound their bobbins wrong, confused the cross with the twist, have no idea how to keep their bobbins under control, etc., etc... The brave ones begin all over again, but I have seen at least one who just gave up when she realized she had done it all wrong... It was too hard for her to remember which was correct and which wasn't. 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/
