[lace] Must I push down pins?
You will make life easier if you push down the pins, but you only need to keep the outer row of pins.  You can reuse the ones in the center of the lace if you are not already doing so.  You need to keep the outer row because when you are making a sewing you do not want to accidentally pull too hard on the opposite side which might pull your lace out of shape.  I use a pin pusher to lift my pins as I found it was easy to catch the lace with the fork type pin lifters. Still don't have my Bulletin :-(   My husband has stopped telling me it hasn't come.  I know I am on the list as I checked that my subscription had been updated by the Membership Chair because I won a years membership for getting the Popular Vote for the lace on the cover. Janice p.s. It will probably come when I am away next week and sit squashed up with accumulated mail at the post office. Janice Blair Murrieta, CA, www.jblace.com - 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://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
Re: [lace] Using a pin pusher as a pin puller
The pin pusher in discussion is the narrow metal rod with a dimple in the end of the metal. A caution, though. There are two versions of this made by different people.   One has the dimple curving in from the edge of the metal rod. The other has a tiny straight-walled section cut in the rod in front of the curved dimple. It's the second one that works well as a pin lifter. The tiny straight section will catch under the edge of the pin head for lifting. The first kind has no edge to catch on the pin. It is much more difficult to lift pins with. Another caution to new lacemakers. One common pin lifter looks like the forked tongue of a snake. Be very careful with this one. It's very easy to catch a point under a thread instead of just under the pinhead. It can cut the thread when lifting the pin. Of course, you can skip using either of these tools if your pattern is completely finished. Use the Cantu method -- just grab the edges of the pricking and lift the whole thing off the pillow. It takes a tug, but the pins are much easier to remove from the project when not stuck in the pillow. If it's a large project, lift one corner or section at a lime. When the teacher demonstrated this in class, I thought of all the pins I had laboriously pulled out of projects over the years. Happy lacing,Alice in Oregon -- where we had lots of rain interspersed with brief glimpses of the sun. PS -- My lace exhibit is now up in Tillamook, Oregon, for the next two months. On Wednesday, November 11, 2015 12:15 PM, Susan wrote: Hello All! Just wanted to share a hint I learned from Louise Colgan--use the pin pusher sort of sideways to lift pins. Since it is a smooth cylindrical surface, it doesn't have little "feet" to disturb your lace. Just slip the lip of the pusher under the edge of your pin head. Hope this helps Julia with her scarf adventure. Sincerely, Susan Hottle, Erie, PA USA Sent from my iPad - 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://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/ - 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://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
[lace] Using a pin pusher as a pin puller
Hello All! Just wanted to share a hint I learned from Louise Colgan--use the pin pusher sort of sideways to lift pins. Since it is a smooth cylindrical surface, it doesn't have little "feet" to disturb your lace. Just slip the lip of the pusher under the edge of your pin head. Hope this helps Julia with her scarf adventure. Sincerely, Susan Hottle, Erie, PA USA Sent from my iPad - 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://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
Re: [lace] Must I push down pins?
Hello Beth, Julie and everyone Agree with Beth on the ease of work with pins pushed in ;) For Torchon, leave in a good inch, probably two for large format laces but be aware of any threads that might pull the lace if not anchored. You'll soon find out ( 'oops' or a word to that effect), but you can smooth the lace back into place, and at that spot, reposition the pin in all the way, removing when out of the danger zone. On Wed, Nov 11, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Beth Marshall wrote: > Hi Julie > > I'm not an expert on this, but when I do piece-lace motif with fillings I > either push all the pins right down or take all but the edge ones out (and > push those down) before I move on to the next section - it makes a big > difference to how easy (or not ;-) ) it is to push bobbins out of the way. > > >> -- 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://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
Re: [lace] Must I push down pins?
Hi Julie I'm not an expert on this, but when I do piece-lace motif with fillings I either push all the pins right down or take all but the edge ones out (and push those down) before I move on to the next section - it makes a big difference to how easy (or not ;-) ) it is to push bobbins out of the way. On something like your scarf I'd be tempted to remove as many columns of pins as I dared, and would push the rest down almost flat (leave just enough "stalk" to wiggle that pin lifter between the thread and pin-head safely when you do take them out). How many columns of pins you need to leave in will depend on how the threads move in your scarf pricking and how close/loose the weave in - if there are threads which work across from one side to the other with very few pins/twists you'll need to leave more in than if all the threads are zig-zagging between tightly-packed pins. Can anyone more knowledgeable suggest a "rule of thumb" for judging how many/which pins Julie needs to leave in to avoid distorting the worked sections? Beth In a grey & windy Cheshire, NW England (where if it isn't raining, it's usually about to rain...) Julie wrote: So, having done a full column of sewings, I couldn't help put notice the large, obtrusive wall of pins on the left side of my pillow the entire time I was working the second horizontal strip. Having the left side of my pillow cut off from me unpleasantly constrained my working area. I laid a small piece of cloth over the pins so I could throw my bobbins there when I wasn't using them, and that worked fine and I had no problem with threads tangling in the pins, but when I was crossing and twisting it didn't feel natural to try to scale the bobbins over the wall of pins and onto the cloth, so the bobbins I was working with were all over to the right side. Which felt crowded. Also, the tensioning direction was wrong, so after the stitch I kept picking up bobbin pairs and pulling them all the way over to the left so that tension was in the correct direction, in particular so that cloth stich passives didn't bunch up over on the right side of the cloth trail. So, now, here I am, doing a piece lace sort of thing--sewing--and Iseem to remember something about pushing down pins so they don't get in the way? Is that what I really need to do to get rid of the wall of pins on my left? ALL the pins? There are so many! And then I will have to dig them all up again to remove them from the lace! Instead of pushing them all down, should I remove most of the pins when I finish the horizontal strip and just leave in a few columns of pins along the edge, pushed down? How many columns (this is torchon)? I have a pin pusher (I like to push down headside and footside pins in point ground) so it won't hurt my fingers. I think I might also have a pin puller upper, but I never liked it because I worried it would catch on the lace. Will getting rid of the wall of pins really improve my life so much as to be worth the extra trouble of pushing down the pins? It just seems like a weird concept to me, pushing down pins, since it's not something I usually do. - 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://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
[lace] Must I push down pins?
I'd like to make a lace scarf because why not? I've never made a lace scarf before. I'm using a design, design 11, from Brigitte Bellon's Kloppelmuster fur Schals und Tischlaufer. Bellon's scarves are not worked by starting at the top and working down in one long vertical strip. Instead, the scarf is worked in horizontal strips. I turn my pillow so the horizontal is oriented vertically, work the horizontal strip, turn the pillow 90 degrees, work a triangular strip that has the effect of sending all the bobbins into a U-turn, turn the pillow 90 degrees, and start working a new horizontal strip in the opposite direction from the first one. As the new horizontal strip is worked and its edge touches the edge of the old horizontal strip, the new edge is sewn into the old edge. I approach a sewing with fear and loathing and once the whole ugly ordeal is over I try to put it behind me and forget it at soon as possible. I make only continuous lace (specifically, point ground) so I only have to sew when I am making something like a handkerchief edging and endings have to be sewn into beginnings. SO I was a little worried about doing this scarf. "But", I tried to encourage myself, "this scarf is really really coarse. Maybe you hate sewings because the cursed little 15-footside-per-inch holes are so tiny. Maybe it will all be different with this project." At this point I have completed two horizontal strips, so I have made one complete column of sewings, and it is in fact all different! Hooray! The sewings are a piece of cake. Moreover, since I can actually see the twists in the thread I can finally really see why my sewing book says the sewing eats a twist and I need to put in an extra twist after the sewing. I am happy and I am hoping that all this practice sewing in coarse lace will make sewing in fine lace easier. My crotchet hook is too fine for such coarse thread, so when I sew I make sure the thread is positioned above the hook and doesn't split on the sharp point of the hook, but that it easy to do. So, having done a full column of sewings, I couldn't help put notice the large, obtrusive wall of pins on the left side of my pillow the entire time I was working the second horizontal strip. Having the left side of my pillow cut off from me unpleasantly constrained my working area. I laid a small piece of cloth over the pins so I could throw my bobbins there when I wasn't using them, and that worked fine and I had no problem with threads tangling in the pins, but when I was crossing and twisting it didn't feel natural to try to scale the bobbins over the wall of pins and onto the cloth, so the bobbins I was working with were all over to the right side. Which felt crowded. Also, the tensioning direction was wrong, so after the stitch I kept picking up bobbin pairs and pulling them all the way over to the left so that tension was in the correct direction, in particular so that cloth stich passives didn't bunch up over on the right side of the cloth trail. By the way, I am working on a flat block pillow and I work in the closed English fashion. I put a towel or something under the pillow so it is a little tilted, although honestly I have never noticed much difference between working at a slant and working totally flat. I only work continuous lace. When I first learned about bobbin lace it never even occurred to me to do anything else. Continuous lace just seemed so immediately appealing. I really love the way the bobbins all draw up out of the ground, make a motif, and then vanish back into the ground again. I like thinking of the ground as a great ocean which throws up bobbins to the surface and then sinks them down under again. I like the way that making a motif is constrained by the bobbins you have available and you have to logically organize things so the exact number of bobbins are available when you require them. Such constraint is like poetry. It is romantic. Sure, the rules get broken and extra bobbins are added to fill in the motif and a gimp occasionally is cut off instead of working across the lace to the next place it is needed, but overall there is logic in the construction. So piece lace just never looked appealing and I've never tried it. So, now, here I am, doing a piece lace sort of thing--sewing--and Iseem to remember something about pushing down pins so they don't get in the way? Is that what I really need to do to get rid of the wall of pins on my left? ALL the pins? There are so many! And then I will have to dig them all up again to remove them from the lace! Instead of pushing them all down, should I remove most of the pins when I finish the horizontal strip and just leave in a few columns of pins along the edge, pushed down? How many columns (this is torchon)? I have a pin pusher (I like to push down headside and footside pins in point ground) so it won't hurt my fingers. I think I mi
