Thank you all for the many suggestions. Let me elucidate a little about Malvary's request for a cover for my pricker needle.
As she said, the dense styrofoam doesn't stay on reliably, the cork (which was from a pressurised Cava bottle) also slips off when you're not expecting it to; ouch. Although it wasn't a full cork, I cut a cube that was plenty big to cover the point and some, and would think that loose in a bag a complete cork would be more likely to get knocked off than a smaller bit is. My Richard Gravestock pricker has a wooden handle, and despite having been modified by a puppy many years ago, is too fat for toothbrush type boxes. The whole point of my exercise is to have the lightest possible weight load in my tool bag - partly because I am lugging it to classes but also for flying, so I don't want to add another layer of wrapping to the pricker. I just changed from a clip-loc type plastic box to a fabric bag to reduce weight flying to Spain, which is why this is a recent issue, and in the autumn I am teaching Milanese lace at Ithaca (assuming enough people sign up!) so will again be lace weight-watching. I have some tubing, and will try that. If the internal dimensions are right it might push down over the collet and grip securely. For accurate pricking, I only have a very short needle point sticking out (0.5cm) which is probably one reason why it's difficult to get anything to stay on. I don't want to keep taking the needle in and out as the collet is tightened with pliers each time so the needle is secure. Carrying pliers as well would rather defeat the weight gains of changing from a box to a bag. I will also try the jewellery findings, either from stick pins or some earings which have a push on type not-butterfly; until I try the potential problem I can see is that my needle is probably a lot finer than most jewellery studs so it may slip out. Jacquie in Lincolnshire - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
