Lace Bobbins ... They're supposed to be different!

[Skew's_Girl]

'Allo all, this is the fruit of today's jaunt down to the shed:
Well, since I've picked up spinning I've progressively been able to spin finer and finer yarn. I've gotten to the point now that Skew says I'm basically spinning lace thread. But what am I going to do with all of it? ... there's only one answer. Lace.

So here are my first lace bobbins. A pair I made, a pair Skew made to show me the traditional 'midlands' style head with different style handles and a pair I munged up but Skew managed to save from the fireplace. ... shouldn't be hard to tell which is which.

I need a fair bit of practice with my tool control and apparently measuring length but a complicated piece of lace could have upwards of 100 bobbins so I should get that practice pretty quickly. I'll be putting a wire loop in the ends to keep them from rolling off the pillow.

Anyone have different style heads or handles they'd recommend?

cheers,
Anne

[ian]

my sister has several hundred bobbins, I'll ask her to take a photo

one thing, the wire loop is not to stop the bobbin rolling -- you add beads to the loop to balance the bobbin

Sorry, but I don't know how a lace bobbin should be balanced, but I'll ask.

[powderpost]

The "beads" that adorn lace bobbins, is called a spangle, and is there to stop the bobbins from unwinding and to help in the identification of pairs. Or so I am told by some lace makers...

Jim

[Old-Biker-UK]

Torchon style 'thumper', although this one is a bit big for lace making!
Honiton type bobbins on a pillow with a lace sampler WIP here

Mark