This 'twice around each end' is how Bridget Cook showed me for Russian leaves. She said "You do know how to do the leaves for Russian lace, don't you?"
"Ummmm, just run it past me again, please." And was shown the three bobbins held in one hand, the two edge passives going out sideways almost and the centre one with a shorter thread (so the tension is the same on all three) held in the centre (surprise, surprise). The weaver then passes back and forth through as for a normal leaf, except that as Christine says, it does a complete turn around at each end. I didn't find it any easier or harder to keep the leaf edges even, but don't like holding the bobbins in my hand (which is on the small side, if that makes a difference) as I get cramp in it. I also don't like the finished leaves as much, as I like my weaving to be 'full' and the extra bulk at the ends means the centre is a little starved. When we were in Moscow a couple of years later we were shown how to do the leaves, in our hand as above, but not passing around the ends twice. When I did it to show them, there was much head shaking and "why would you want to do that" looks. Perhaps it is a technique confined to Valogda lace, which is the type of Russian lace in Bridget's books. We had a good laugh (Nicky, do you remember this?) when we were told the name of the technique, which the young girl who was showing us had obviously looked up in a dictionary and rehearsed for our benefit. "Sheep", she said, repeating it a couple of times looking at our completely blank faces. Sheep, sheep..... Then she did an undulating movement with her hand and the penny (or should that be rouble) dropped; not sheep but ship. The weaver passing through the passives is the ship. Jacquie in Lincolnshire - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
