Going to try to kill 2 birds with one stone here :-) Re hitches working or not working: seems like something fundamental is being missed here with thread and hitches. I've had my share of silky threads not wanting to co-operate with staying hitched, that's made me resort to 2 hitches or using a hooked bobbin for a dastardly metallic thread, but it sometimes came back to 2 basics I was missing. The weight of the bobbin, and, letting gravity work on the bobbin.
Seems like I've noticed that lots of newer lacemakers are taught (and I'm happy to be wrong, but please don't flame me :-) ) with their pillows laying flat on the table, and they work on very flat pillows too. Gravity can't help the worker if pillows are neutral. I've seen newbies in their first lesson struggle mightily with thread coming un hitched and soggy/baggy thread coming out of their work, and as soon as I tilted the pillow just a smidge, it made all the difference. Yes, they had to cope with bobbins wanting to slide down, but that's what divider pins can be used for, and all of a sudden tension improved, mind-sets improved, and the hitches have been more likely to hold. It doesn't always hold true - some threads (like isacord and isafil, and some of the metallics) will just refuse to co-operate regardless of gravity and bobbin weight - and the weight of a bobbin does have a little say - if it's too light for the thread, you have a harder time to get good tension. Too heavy for a thread poses another set of problems (over-tensioning, breakage, etc). The other thing is - how many of us hold a book horizontally to read it? I don't. Seems like it might be a little easier for the most part to tilt the pillow if you can make for easier viewing. Obviously you can't always tilt your work, but just a little might help with the hitch problem. I learnt that you have a slight dome to the pillow (helps with the gravity thing) and you tilt the pillow just a little (thank you, Mother and Margaret Cardinaletti for those lessons). Re wonder tape and other 'adhesive' tapes: seems like you would have the converse problem of stickiness left in very dry climates. Can't tell you how many rubber bands I've found that didn't survive Colorado that just fell apart on my bobbin or in a container and left a bit of a mess with bits of semi-dried rubber band to get out of the container or off the pillow (and those are on older UFO's). It still leaves a bit of a residue if you're unlucky, so I can see the WT creating a bit of a mess in time if it should dry out - and it doesn't take very long to dry out if it's a dry summer or protracted dry spell. I'm enjoying reading about people's solutions to the various problems we all encounter at some point. There are some really good points to consider and mull over and try out. Have a great day, Helen, Duvall, WA - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com
