Kathy told us how upsetting it was when she took her first piece of lace off the pillow and it twisted.
Well, Kathy, I don't know how long you've been subscribed to Arachne but not so very long ago Brenda Paternoster was trying to do a 'research project' to establish which combination of threads and stitches had this effect. And that's what made your lace twist. Unlikely to have been any mistake in your lacemaking (except that your tension was probably good or the thread wouldn't have been 'stressed' enough to twist the whole piece), just an unfortunate combination of thread and stitch type. Unfortunately I don't think Brenda was able to come to any firm conclusion of which combination of threads and stitches to avoid. One of my very early pieces was a simple Torchon fan edge worked as a circle. I made it in crochet cotton which was way too thick and when I took it off the pillow it buckled and just wouldn't lay flat. So I then made the same piece in sewing cotton which was way too thin (I did learn eventually how to sample threads, and now with "Threads for Lace" life is so much easier). It lay flat but was so flimsy I had to applique it to fabric so it didn't pull out of shape. The problems with the first I blamed for years on the thread being so thick, but one day I was showing the two extremes to a student and was playing with the thick bit. Quite by accident I folded it and all of a sudden it was flat - somehow I had worked two repeats too many! So obvious in hindsight. Jacquie in England - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
