Hello David and everyone Ok, mind is cleared (as much as possible) per your request.
Slender paddle-shaped metal bobbins on a magnetic platform, hmmm, yes you could fit many more than our conventional type on the apron area in a single layer. You are moving the bobbins by the pick-up-and-put-down method (as opposed to rolling them as some like to do). You are making point ground lace which overall, doesn't require that much thread per bobbin. The bobbins don't get jumbled being held in place by the magnetic force, which isn't so strong that the bobbin can't be picked up readily (not earth magnet force as I think someone mentioned!). Some questions - will there be much strain on the outermost threads? Flat or rounded metal bobbins? You mention coat hanger wire - would that be friendly to silk thread? Could the bobbins be crook-shaped for thread-minding off the hitch? You would probably want the thread package to be above the pillow surface to avoid abrasion, an advantage of having the paddle shaped end, or rectangle, its thickness greater than its width as you mention (I had an idea that you could wear tiny magnets on the fingers to pick up the bobbins, but ... no, complicated and clumsy). Your magnetic sheet need only be a layer between the bobbins and the pillow, then the pins would be going through a conventional pillow surface. The magnetic sheet could last indefinitely. To mark groups of bobbins, place a small fridge magnet. Could you move groups via a system of longer magnetic strips placed over the rectangular ends? The hypothesis seems to me a fair proposition for those who make lace in a steady, deliberate manner. Then there are others - speaking for myself entirely - who tend to get giddy and can imagine I'd get all the bobbins magnetized to each other in clumps. On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 8:18 AM, David C COLLYER <dccoll...@ncable.net.au>wrote: > > Try forgetting every tool and implement you have ever used, and come up > with a completely new system for making Bobbin Lace that will make life a > lot easier for all of us who use so many bobbins. > > I gave it a shot and began considering the following:- > > I wondered whether instead of a pillow we could use something like a large > sheet of the stuff that fridge magnets are made from. > > Then instead of the bobbins we know and love, I thought: I need to reduce > the actual width of each bobbin for a start; the volume of thread rarely > takes up much room at all, and I don't think I actually need a neck on the > bobbins as such. I would like it not to roll around the working area though. > > SO.... > How about making bobbins from something like coat-hanger wire with a small > knob on the top and an ever so slightly wider flat rectangle on the bottom. > That way they would adhere to the magnetic sheet. If they adhere well, then > the rectangle on the bottom may prove un-necessary. I wonder whether the > magnetic sheet durable enough to take repeated pin holes though. Or if it's > really cheap may be it could be disposable. > -- 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 arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
