I think we are 'cheating' a little. On the other hand, we aren't spending
time in the convent learning a lace pattern we will make for the rest of our
lives, either. Making yardage, you learn the pattern from the diagram, but
after some repeats, the number depending on the complexity, you ignore the
diagram. Lacemakers go from one piece to another, and most lacemakers make
more than one kind of lace.
Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying making lace with a diagram, because then I
know exactly what to do at that particular point. And I am learning a new
kind of lace, on my own, no teacher. I hate to say this, but it just seems
too easy. I'm waiting for the other shoe to fall. Call me crazy. And the
diagram, with a possible exception of twists at the edges, is completely
accurate, so I'm never confronted with pondering why the diagram isn't
working with the pricking. Also, this is a relatively simple piece of lace,
where I'm not confronted with multiple motifs, different grounds and the
like. One element at a time.
I recently took a course where the teacher flat out told us that the goal
was to be able to read the pricking. And in the part laces, where the
'pricking' is actually a line drawing, one is constantly making decisions
about the number of pairs to use, what stitch to use for light and shade,
all that sort of thing. A colored diagram, which instructs pinhole by
pinhole just doesn't afford such freedom, or give such responsibility to the
lacemaker. Is this good or bad? I don't know. Might be necessary.
Certainly is welcome to me as a student of this kind of lace.
Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, US, where they've closed the libraries,
churches are beginning to close for today. West of us is much more serious.
Power outages are occurring.
-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Neff
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2011 1:56 PM
To: Arachne
Subject: [lace] diagrams
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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