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Monday 27 April 2009

it works...


... much better now!
today I received the wooden "stackers" I ordered for my bobbin lace in germany, from here. (available in english, too!) I had seen them somewhere ages ago, but couldn't find them anymore on my usual links. I finally found them under 2nd hand equipment - though they look brandnew! I tried them out immediately - finally enough space on the pillow, no tangles and no mess anymore! of course they're not suitable for transport, but perfect for stacking when working! I can separate the bobbins according to the lace pattern - which makes controlling the large (ok, for me at least!) numbers of bobbins much easier.
I did a good bit - but will take a break now, my finger is suffering in silence:))
I also finally used the dyebath with alderbuckthorn berries - but I can say already that the fresh berries give nicer colours. it looks like a muddy brown, which is entirely my fault. I kept them for a while after defrosting (had no choice, because we got a new freezer and they had thawed through by the time the new freezer worked), simmered them after they fermented a bit.. and then left them for quite some time, until the top layer was lovely greenish-blue mould:(( I took that off, strained everything through old fabric nappies - but of course the nice colour is gone... I was told mould does change the colour of avocado peels - so why not my berries as well. pix to follow once yarn is dry....

5 comments:

Guzzisue said...

I've never seen these stackers before, interesting idea.

Leigh said...

Gosh, the whole thing looks sooooo complicated! I'm every impressed. I'm sure I'd get hopelessly lost before I barely got started.

Anonymous said...

right, there is no word for how I am impressed. I can only say, two sticks and a string are quite enough for me.

hugs
U^^

Woolly Bits said...

it's far less complicated than it looks - at least with torchon! of course you don't start with that many pairs, but believe me, once you get over the "being impressed" and try it yourself, you'll find that there are only 2 basic movements, just like the two basic stitches with knitting! and I don't "throw all the bones" at once, you only use 2 pairs at any one time:))

Margaret said...

Hope you are still on line where did you get the stackers? I’ve found some similar on a German site but too expensive