Lynn, A Torchon footside is usually worked with the three pairs of bobbins on the straight side of the lace.
The middle pair is called a "passive" pair - it sits there passively, doesn't move its position at all, and the other pairs work backwards and forwards through the passive pair. Assuming your footside is on the right-hand side of your work: Focus just on the three pairs nearest the edge. Take the left-hand pair of the three as the "worker" pair, and work to the right through the next pair in whole-stitch and twist (or cloth stitch and twist if that is the term you usually use). Put the pin underneath the worker pair in the outside pinhole. (At this stage you'll still have one more pair to the right.) Work the two outside pairs together in whole stitch and twist, and lay the outside pair aside with an extra twist. (The worker pair and the outside pair should have changed places with each other.) Now use the middle pair of bobbins to work back to the left, through the passives, in whole stitch and twist. It might help you to "see" more clearly what you're doing if you use a coloured thread for the passive pair. My instructions are for working a footside on the right-hand side of the work - if you're working with the straight edge on the left-hand side, just reverse them. If you'd like a diagram to help, just email me privately, and I'll send you the relevant page from my teaching notes. Regards, Ruth Budge (Sydney, Australia) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If there is anyone out there with instructions on footsides, can you help me. I am new at lacemaking, (I love it) and this has me stumped. Actually it all has me stumped. I have the whole stitch, whole stitch with a twist and a half stitch. My goodness I was so exstatic about it actually looking like lace when I got it. I can't wait until I cqn actually make lace. Is this how you feel when the bug bites. I have a friend who made me a skeleton of a roller pillow and I finished the rest. Now he's working on a travel pillow for me. I am also, at his command making bobbins on a lathe. I have been whitleing them by hand and have finished 10, my hands hurt. :) Ok thats it for my book. Lynn [EMAIL PROTECTED] Clarksburg, West Virginia - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://personals.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Personals New people, new possibilities. FREE for a limited time. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]