Just a couple more ideas I haven't seen.
If it's a thread you use a lot, then bobbins with lots of thread on, keep
them as you can wind half across to make a pair. The rest, as you take the
thread off the bobbins any that there is more than half a yard (a short arm length)
just drop it, as it is with all its curls, into a small zip-top type bag.
Add the bobbins with thread and a label to say what it is.
When you use the thread again, you have some pairs half wound as a starter.
Wind the rest with new thread. (If it is a biggish project and your recycled
pairs have less thread than the others, use them as footside passives etc not
as fan workers <G>.) If/when you need to join in new threads use the bits
from in the bag instead of new thread. You'll find that you can just pull a
length from the bag. I think the curls help to stop them tangling and very rarely
have problems.
Don't be paranoid about running out - if you do, join in a new thread. If
you were making a table cloth or metres of lace for a project then you would
have to join in new threads, and if you break a thread you have to join in a new
one. So learn to join new threads in well and don't worry if you might run
out. It is far better to join in new threads than to overfill your bobbins,
which means the thread is rubbing on the pillow. The thread should never be
wound wider than the body of the bobbin.
Another thing to use shortish ends for is to do a tension swatch (yawn,
boring). Make a graduated pricking with a simple repeat pattern increasing one
grid size (1mm) at each repeat - the photocopier is useful here, make a note of
the percentage increase to get each "next size up or down" and do each one as a
bigger and bigger increase (or smaller and smaller decrease) of the original
to avoid distortion. By knowing this percentage, you can reproduce the same
size pricking in future from your standard graph paper. The pricking will sort
of look like this I I
I I
I I as each section is a little
wider than the previous.
Start your work from a grid a little too small through to where it is
obviously to widely spaced, working straight across the change of size. This is
usually about 4, 5 or even 6 grid sizes.
It gives a very useful feely sample, often from stiff through to floppy, as
well as visual. It is especially useful for working polar and other distorted
grids where there is a range of spacings in the same pattern, but I often find
thread/straight grid combinatins that I hadn't thought to use. It is also
easier to change a pricking size slightly to best suit the thread that you
already have than to go and buy yet another different thread for one project.
You only need to do one sample for each thread, but for it to be useful you
do need to attach them to a note book and label them with what they are and
maybe add comments such as it broke a lot or was very difficult to tension.
Jacquie
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