![\"2017-11-05](\"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/2017-11-05-13.59.21-e1509908479284.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nLast night I soaked this lace in a mild solution of Eucalan, a gentle cleaner that I use for washing wool locks that I want to clean before spinning, as well as cleaning my handspun yarns.\u00a0 This morning I took that bit of lace outside to get a good look at it to see if it had come clean.\u00a0 To my horror, I discovered that the stain was not just in the first inch of lace…..it was a discoloration that ran the length of the lace in a distinct pattern.<\/p>\n
Somehow, when I started this lace, I managed to wind bobbins with two different colors!\u00a0 One was pure white, and the other was half-bleached.\u00a0 So I’ve got two colors running through the whole length of my lace–almost 2 yards.\u00a0 That lace has taken me over\u00a0 100 hours to make, and I hate the mottled look of the two colors.<\/p>\n
How could I have done this?\u00a0 I still cannot imagine the scenario.\u00a0 Surely, I must have been interrupted as I wound the 36 bobbins needed for this pattern.\u00a0 But I know I would have left the spool of linen with the unwound bobbins.\u00a0 How did I manage to get a 2nd spool of linen into the mix?\u00a0 It’s no use wondering how this happened.\u00a0 It’s time to decide what to do about it.<\/em><\/p>\n My first reaction was to make peace with it.\u00a0 I pinned the cut piece of lace to the dress.\u00a0 I\u00a0took it to different rooms as well as outside to look at it in various lights.\u00a0 When I’m in a gloomy room and cannot see the problem, I don’t mind it.\u00a0 Anywhere else, where I can see the color changes, I hate it. I think this photo does a reasonable job of showing the color problem.<\/p>\n Solution #2 is to tea dye it and make the whole thing off white.\u00a0 I cannot get onboard with this.\u00a0 The dress is a bright white, and the smaller lace at the neckline is also.\u00a0 I just can’t go there….and what if the lace still looks mottled after the tea dye?\u00a0 It could very well look dirtier!<\/p>\n So, as I’m writing this I am taking desperate measures. I am soaking the small bit of lace for the bodice in a weak solution of bleach.\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 I’ve done a futile internet search on bleaching linen and come up mostly empty handed.\u00a0 I\u00a0called my friend Clare, who is a far more experienced lace maker than I am, someone I hoped might have had a similar situation.\u00a0 And she has! She bleached some vintage lace in the past, and it worked while not harming the old fibers.\u00a0 My linen threads are new and should be able to take this treatment.\u00a0 I’m following her lead.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n