I used to teach my students how to lace using waxed cotton. It sorts the men out from the boys, shows who has the temprament to do a neat job. Several used to give up in the first two weeks becouse of it
those who stuck with it were always a higher caliber student.
I myself was trained by old brittish post office engineers so everything had to be exact. It makes fault finding so much easier when the cable it neat and tidy
Kenny