David, What's that saying about adversity being the mother of invention? :-)
Maybe you need to find something that kind of works for you, and then hybridize/fine tune it to suit your specific needs and MO. What works for me, may not work for you. I'm somewhat anal about keeping my pairs in order when they're stored to the side and not in immediate use. It irks me to have to futz with my threads to make sure each one is in its correct place and not crossed/twisted with its neighbor. I like to just slip my bobbins off the holder as I need - sometimes 2 at a time, sometimes the whole lot on that particular holder. You may not be quite so bothered by spending a little time checking as you go. I currently have a length of beds on my multi block/roller pillow that takes anywhere from 75-100 pairs at a time to work (depends on the point in the repeat and pattern segment). I've found that I use the knitting stitch holders and in some places where I'm working in the middle portion of the pattern, I can stack the holders horizontally on either side of the pillow. There are other places where I have a worker going through 3 outer segments of the pattern (and thereby working through potentially 20-25 pairs), and so I have a pile of bobbins sitting to one side 'resting'. When I'm working on a side of the pattern, I will end up tipping the stitch holder/s so that they are more vertical and I place a corsage pin to hold them more vertical. It's not perfect, but it helps control the chaos. I've had to do this with another piece of floral beds on another pillow when the piece was at its maximum number of pairs (don't know how many - but lots of pairs). Cheers, Helen in Duvall, where the sun is shining for the moment after periods of hail and groppel the past 2 days. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
