Finally, just when I thought that forward was the only direction for me now, one of my threads broke right at the edge of the weaving so there was no tail to use to tie the bobbin back on. \u00a0Ugh! \u00a0The break definitely happened because of all the weaving and unweaving I’ve been doing. \u00a0Twisting and untwisting caused this fine linen thread too much stress.<\/p>\n
Along came my wonderful lace mentor and dear friend Micheline, who heard of my dilemma and called to ask me if I remembered the phrase “milking the faerie cows.” \u00a0Well, yes I did…..but I had no memory of what it meant. Micheline credits Christine Springett with this bit of sage advice, which is: \u00a0when you are making a braid you must tension it as if you are milking faerie cows; i.e, very, very gently.<\/p>\n
Bingo! \u00a0(On top of everything else!<\/em>) That is exactly what I was doing wrong. \u00a0I was really giving my edge bobbins a good strong pull to get my braid threads to tension evenly. \u00a0And on top of all that forward and backward weaving….well, that fine linen just could not take any more. \u00a0It doesn’t solve the dilemma I’m in now, but it sure will help me not to do it again.<\/p>\n So….alas….yet another bit of unweaving. \u00a0Micheline says I need at least 1\/2″ of unwoven thread to make the mend in this thread. \u00a0I believe the mend is called a ‘lace knot.’ \u00a0It’s the knot you make to connect two bobbins of thread together. \u00a0It involves making a slip knot in one thread, then putting the other thread through the loop of the slip knot (in this case my tiny 1\/2″ bit of somewhat shredded linen) and closing the slip knot while pulling on the thread in the loop so that the slip knot transfers onto the thread in the loop and<\/em> so that slip knot no longer slips. \u00a0It’s the very thing you do not<\/em> want to happen when you are tatting.<\/p>\n \u00a0Since I’m dealing with such a short bit of linen where the break occurred, I plan to enlist Bob’s help (I can hear him returning home just now!) to hold the little bitter end of broken thread with a tweezer while I attach the longer thread from the bobbin with this technique. \u00a0Wish me luck!<\/p>\n ….no luck on having the third hand for help. \u00a0I released Bob from bondage and managed to do the knot by myself on the first try. \u00a0Even at this magnification, I cannot see the mend….I hope you can’t either! Forward again!<\/p>\n![\"2014-05-16](\"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014-05-16-13.37.231.jpg\")
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