Bobbin & spangle sizes

Sally Reason bobbins with 7 main beads, including the crystal rondells.

When I first started to make lace in the heady days of the late 1980s I was obsessed with buying big, bulky east midlands bobbins and having heavy spangles with 7 main beads on them.

It was as though I needed something heavy duty to grab as I learned to make lace.

Within a year or so I stared to buy slimmer bobbins and moved to five main beads in the spangle, with small seed beads between the main beads to stop them rubbing.  It was as though as my speed increased I moved from grabbing at the bobbins to 'throwing' them.  This change in technique is somewhat aligned to how when you start to drive you say out loud 'Mirror, sigal, manouver', then after a while you just do that without having to say it.

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Gradually I respangled all of my bobbins to match my preferred style and started to move to buying bone bobbins as I could afford them.  

The move to bone bobbins was for a number of reasons:

• When I started lacemaking, quantity of bobbins was more important than expansive bobbins.
• There is something romantic about using bone bobbins on a straw pillow that links you to lacemakers from the past
• Bone bobbins are naturally heavier than wood which means that they can thinnner than wood allowing you to wrangle more bobbins in the same space on your pillow which is perfect for larger and/or more complex pieces.

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I usually buy new bobbins unspangled but sometimes this isn't an option and with secondhand, you get what you get.  

I'm always torn as to whether or not to change the spangles on preloved / secondhand bobbins.  They are show you part of the character and personality of the last owner but other times they can be impractical.  ​Often you realise from it's condition that a bobbin has not been used and it's obvious becuase of the spangle. 

They can be unwealdy due to dangling bits or just too heavy or too light.

With bobbins to the right, the one in the middle has 7 beads on it but is of a good weight.  The one to it's left, well, I tried but that dangle just keeps getting in the way.  To it's right is a hinged bobbin whcih I have to say, is perfectly balanced.

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So, is there a rule as to how many beads you should have on an East Midland's bobbin?

Nope - none at all.

What I will say is that you are going to find your perfect weight and it may be quickly after you start or much later.  But at some point, you are going to embrace the fact that you need to respangle ALL of your bobbins.

It's inevitable.  Just go with it and enjoy the fun.