Many beginner lacemakers get worried about how much thread should be wound onto bobbins at the start.
To start with, I must point out that if you do run out of thread, you cut always add more, either using a slip knot, or the parallel thread method. But of course you want to avoid this!
You can measure the thread you use when winding on bobbins, either by stretching the thread from your nose to your hand (about a yard or metre), or from one hand to another (2 yards or metres) - in both cases, with arm/s outstretched. For vey short pieces, measure from hand to elbow. As a rough rule of thumb, I use a yard for shortish pieces, and 2 yards for normal pieces. For a very long piece, I might use 4 yards but that is rather entangling to wind onto the bobbins! I suggest that you try an amount of thread, see how much it produces, then use that as your personal measure.
I have heard that for Torchon lace, wind most pairs with 4 times the length of the lace, but the weaver or worker pairs should have 7 times the length of the lace.
I tend to wind on too much rather than risking too little. This means wasting thread on the bobbins that I haven't used. Problem with bobbin lace, I'm afraid! Some people do keep the bobbins with thread on after cutting them from the lace, make a knot and reuse the thread. But it's nice to have a smooth start to the lace, so I've never done that.
One thing to watch out for: Solid areas of cloth stitch use far more thread for the workers than the passive pairs, because the workers go backwards and forwards. It depends how the cloth stitch is spread through the pattern as to whether this matters. But if you have cloth fans along one headside, you may have the same pair as workers for the entire lace, and they will need far more thread. I ran out of thread several times before I worked this out! It does take some experience to work out which pairs at the start are going to end up as the workers. But if you can, and this happens in this pattern, wind on more thread for that pair.
If you find that one pair seems to be running out of thread more than another, then you can "cheat" by swapping pairs. There are several ways of doing this. At the start of a fan, change which pair is the worker pair, for example. Or at the edge of clothwork, rather than take the worker pair round the pin and back for the next row, make the end passive pair the worker pair.
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Click here for how to wind thread onto bobbins. Click here for how to make a slip knot to join on more more thread. Click here for the parallel thread method, to add on more thread. |
© Jo Edkins 2020 - return to lace index