Hi Mark and everyone What the weaver gave you are 'thrums' (= end waste on the weaving loom) and the fiber is tencel. Yes threads vary in size system according to content and purpose. If your lengths compare to the pearl cotton 12, that is quite fine for weaving! and coarse for bobbin lace :p
This is a good question, and I don't have a pat answer, it just depends on the lace design. For passives, you have a measured amount, for weaver/worker pairs, 'lots'. However, here are some tips that will help you. To get the most use out of your 18" lengths, use waste thread at either end of each strand. One waste-end is the leader around the bobbin, the other waste end is useful at the start, as a handle for the lace thread during setup. Further hints below, you might not need to do this if you know the lengths of the pathways. Plan on a fringe at either end, then you won't have to deal with knots, and the piece will look balanced. A straight-across start would be my suggestion, rather than a pointy one, or, using waste thread in the same colour tone and size as your feature thread, start the pattern from a bundle at the point. The knotted section can be wrapped as for a tassle, later. End the same, with a tassel. If you have time, make the pattern in some other thread of the same lengths, to find out how far the 18 inches will go; if you need to be really miserly at the beginning or not. A quicker way: With colour pencils on a copy of the pricking, trace a few of the thread paths, and measure the colour pencil line. anyway, hope this helps. On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 11:18 AM, Mark Myers <tat...@tat-man.net> wrote: > > To get to my question, how would I know that these 18 inch lengths will be > enough thread to finish a fairly good length of this pattern. > -- Bev in Shirley BC, near Sooke on beautiful Vancouver Island, west coast of Canada - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
