The sample lace illustrated in a previous post was Torchon, not Honiton.
Tensioning in Honiton is via a completely different method to that used in other laces - you do not pull on any of the threads, but control the work by moving the bobbins well from one side of the pillow to the other whilst working - this evens out the areas of cloth (for which there should be sufficient passives to ensure a close "evenweave" cloth results in areas of cloth stitch - leave sparse weaving for the likes of Bucks!) and reduces the chances of breaking threads by pulling on them at all. The aim is for even tension on both threads, if the runner dominates, then it has been pulled too tightly. At the footside edge, you place the pin before making up the stitch, only tensioning lightly before the next row, particularly if you worked a back stitch on the previous pin where any pulling could result in disaster.
The hang of the bobbins on the pillow (which should be about 12" diameter and look like a flattened football - it has a very slight dome, but not so much as a cookie pillow) will also control some of the tension. This is one lace where the choice of tools does affect the results!
Colour dominance will also be affected by many other factors - including ratio of warp to weft and the relative tones of the two (or more) colours used - a bright red will stand out against a dull green. In weaving, you can use a neutral colour and wider spacing of the warp and so allow a closely woven weft to dominate, (in bobbin lace weft threads are runners, warps are passives) but here you are aiming for an even weave with neither thread dominating the other.
In message <50e949ac.20...@capuchin.co.uk>, Beth Marshall <b...@capuchin.co.uk> writes
So I think it is the tension that makes the difference - there's more of the more loosely tensioned thread to see, as well as it being more on the surface as Robin pointed out
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