Interesting thread (pardon my pun :-) ) on shredding threads. Devon got me thinking about how I wind my bobbins (East Midlands) and Alex got me thinking about my cover cloths.
I have to admit that I don't stick with tradition and have my hitch on the head of the bobbin - I have it on the neck. I've used some quite frustratingly slick threads at times, and have had to double hitch them (before I knew about using tiny butterfly hair clips), and it's really tough to keep a double hitch (esp. in a gimp) on the little heads, so I just do them all on the neck now for less aggravation. I used to wind my thread on to my bobbins by rotating my right hand (with thread) around the bobbin, and I think I had a little more trouble in those days. I now do a couple of turns like that to get a bobbin going, but I now roll/spin the bobbin onto the thread - more like a bobbin winder. I also have the thread come off the spool by turning the spool, like a sewing machine winder might, rather than feeding off the top like a serger (although I will do that sometimes). Don't know if that has anything to do with it. I haven't found this to be a problem to my threads, and in some cases, it's been a bit of a godsend as a couple of bobbins have tiny little burrs in the tip of the head that catch threads they're unwound. A couple of antiques also have 'notches' and so threads tend to unhitch and unwind (really annoying during tally work). All of my cover cloths are hemmed, and I have a variety of types of hemming. Some are a simple overlocked rolled hem and that seems to work well for the most part, although some of the finer threads pick up some fluffies at times from the edge; a couple are taffeta with a hem and a decorative scalloped straight stitch - no fluffies to catch on the thread, but the stitching might be a little abrasive due to its tension; a couple have just a straight hem or selvage (again a little abrasiveness on the selvage); and one or 2 that have 2 cloths stitched together, so all seams are internal, and these seem to have the least amount of abrasiveness. I wonder if shredding thread is a combination of many things, that maybe varies according to type of lace? Do laces with tallies seem more likely to suffer the shredding than laces without? If it's in one place is that representative of multiple retrolacings/undo-redo's? I would also suspect that climate, age of thread, and quality of the batch would come into play. I usually don't have a problem with the threads parting or shredding, but I remember 1 thread I used for a project was just awful - and I think it was when I was still in Australia, and it was a drier than normal summer (and Denver is the driest place I've ever lived in, with 6-8% relative humidity in the summers). It's quite a complex issue, and fascinating to follow. Cheers, Helen, in Duvall, WA - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
