Fellow Arachnids, I am interested in what you all think about the colored diagrams that accompany much published lace. I was struck by the phrase "which is sort of paint by numbers" in a recent post. The full quote is "It has colored diagrams for the whole thing, which is sort of paint by numbers, but if you think about what you are doing, and try to figure out why it is planned that way, you learn a lot." I agree with everything said except that paint-by-numbers reference. It's not that I don't think it is valuable to tackle a lace without a diagram. I have done my own diagramming of lace, for a relatively simple floral bucks pattern for example, and found it challenging but do-able. Also, I have found what I think are errors in diagrams (not just twists, but in thread paths), or at least places where I thought there was a better way to do something. One can indeed learn a lot from following diagrams--I agree with part of the statement. They are important for those of us who don't have easy access to a regular teacher and have learned lace mostly from books with clear diagrams and published patterns with the standardized-color diagrams. Finally, however, I think the colored diagrams are invaluable in lace reconstructions because they document how the original laces were actually made. Plus I find following a colored diagram in a wide piece of Binche or Old Flanders quite a bit more challenging than I ever found the one paint-by-number I started. (I don't remember finishing it, I think because I found it boring.) I think I found the phrase a little disconcerting because I have had to "retro-lace" more often than I care to admit because I've made a mistake in following the diagram in more difficult parts of the Binche I'm working on now. I just wondered what others think of using colored diagrams in making lace. Are we "cheating" a little, at least in modern designs? Nancy Connecticut, where the snow has started to fall...
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