I've never tried Mechlin, but Skansk is another lace with pins only at the edges. What I did through the ground was work to an edge and use that pin to maintain the worker's position while carefully tensioning each ground stitch along its path. Even in Bucks, they traditionally didn't put support pins at the ground stitches, but used tensioning to get them into order.
In Skansk, I used support pins as needed where the ground threads entered a CTC motif, because the threads change directions when they do. This allows you to tension within the CTC without distorting the edge. However, this is a peasant lace, done with coarse threads, unlike Mechlin. I don't know that you can get away with major tensioning (through a lot of stitches) with the finer threads. Robin P. Los Angeles, California, USA (formerly Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
