We all seem agreed that the most enjoyable part is the actual bobbin
clicking!
To get over the worst bit, of pricking and winding bobbins, I usually start
doing this in small stages before I have actually finished the previous
lace - an hour or so at a time. This way, the pricking is easiest as it is
best done in small bits, before the concentration goes. Winding (setting up
the winder) I try to do in batches of (50 / 100) bobbins, and as I usually
do Binche, I do start before they are all wound.
The overlap (lassen) I also do in small stages, as again you need to
concentrate very hard. Mounting onto fabric is harder - you have to get the
correct fabric, and making sure it is exactly square is a fiddle. But its
mounting a circle thats the worst - getting it exactly round takes a bit of
undoing (or reverse stitching).
Tallies etc are OK, provided you join in the non-worker side first. The
hardest result to achieve is when in a piece of Binche you have both the
usual thin long rectangular ones, and the sideways gate ones, and trying to
get them looking the same - judging the number of rows to work, and making
sure they are firmly anchored. In some patterns, whichever way you do them,
one of the worker pair needs to be the worker in the next tally, with only 1
or 2 stitches inbetween, and its so easy to use the wrong one! When using
the plain Binche bobbins, there is little to distinguish the worker, so its
all down to thread length.
So, do I have a 'worst aspect'? maybe doing leaf tallies, making them nice
and firm and regular. Thinking about it, its probably doing picots in Beds -
not the edge ones, but those on the inbetween plaits, where there is one
either side, and trying not to get a hole in the plait at the same time.
Also, the nine pin edge in Beds seems very boring and fiddly.
It will be interesting to see the results.
Milada Marshall
in a very wet Somerset
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