>My question now is about bobbins. I know many of you use the spangled >ones but I was wondering if anyone uses the square European ones I have >seen on some websites. They look like the would resist the rolling >problem that has been mentioned and I wonder if they would make a good >starter bobbin or what. I see myself as ultimately doing yardage lace >for the most part and I don't know if that will make a difference.
Hi, Janet, A bit late, sorry, I have been slow reading my emails last week, but I just wanted to tell you that I have started using square continentals after years of using Midlands. I love the spangled bobbins, and I have quite a lot, but now I am getting a bit of rhumatism and RSI in the fingers, and some of them are just awkward to catch. Also, they cannot hold a lot of medium/thicker thread (over DMC 30 cotton), and I use a lot of linen to make yardage, so I find that I can store more on the continentals, they are bigger than the Midlands. I had some normal round continentals before, mostly as "show" pieces, and I used them when I needed them, but never liked their rolling (I actually noticed that a lot of my antique Le Puy bobbins had been sanded by previous lacemakers on one side at least, indicating taht they must have found them irritating too!!) I discovered some of our Australian bobbinmakers make square continentals, and I bought a few pair to make a particularly long but fairly narrow yardage, and loved them, so I've bought 50 pairs more. I'll see how I go now, I'm sure I'll find some new ones at the AGM this year in Adelaide from different bobbinmakers, I can't buy them all the same, can I? I use them on a travelling roller pillow, but also on a flat pillow with movable squares in the middle part, which you can replace as you go down. They work well in both cases. They do take a bit more room than the Midlands, but I can live with that. If you want to individualize them, you can have things written on the squre part, it's big enough: i.e. birth dates of grand-children, special events...all you need is to know someone who can use a pyrograver, or wood-burning stylus. Yours in lace, Helene, the froggy from Melbourne Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies. http://au.movies.yahoo.com - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
