On Apr 25, 2009, at 20:16, Alice Howell wrote:
A hint of warning... the longer the leash, the greater the chance that the threads can get tangled together. On the other hand, too short a leash gives you no working space.
There's also the issue of tension control. When I first started to teach myself, the book I used didn't mention leash length. I settled on about 3", because it seemed like the best way of keeping all of my ducks in a row (or, at least, under my beady eye). But, after a short spell, I realised that the short leash -- especially in conjunction with thick thread -- caused overtwisting, untwisting, breakage and all sorts of other miseries; the control was *too* rigid. So, I lengthened the leash to ca 4-4.5" and most of the problems went away. However... they might have gone away because I grew better at handling the whole mess -- I'll never know :)
Over the years, I've continued to lengthen the leash slightly -- irrespective of the thread thickness and lacemaking technique -- settling at somewhere around 6". And was startled to hear a Brugge-trained teacher complain, bitterly, "I can't work on your pillow; your leashes are so d...d short!"
To each her own comfort zone :) -- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
