The race is run

Woohoo!  

I really like the way this came out and how quickly it worked up. 

And how it fills out the frame. And how I actually had enough thread for the project. 

Who needs sports?

The nail biting is here. I have this frame:

And I have these 2 pieces that I want to put in this frame:

The problem is pretty obvious. One block of the frame is not like the others. One block needs a piece of its own. I found a pattern that will work (also from Yusai Fukuyama's book). 

But there's a problem. I did the other 2 pieces in a yellow linen thread and I wasn't sure if I had enough of it for another piece. I could do it in white and put it in the middle but the yellow one that's open in the middle called middle so what can I do?

Sometimes you just have to go for it, right?  

So I've started and got the middle flower done and I'm exactly halfway around the outside flower. I'm working the filler at the same time I'm working the outside. 

Eleven paid of bobbins. 

I have thread on all the bobbins but I don't know if they will make it around the second half of the outer flower. Of course, I can always add thread if I need to. Here's how much extra thread I have left to work with:

The race is on. 

Full circle

It took me a while to get started on this last project in my series from the Fukuyama book. 

The challenge was to learn how to do the loops and the fillers  they were both those kinds of things that look much easier than they already are until you've done them several (dozen) times. Then they start to make sense and that's half the battle. Then you do them several (dozen) more times and then you may be able to do them and be happy withe them. 

On the first loop, I discovered that once I work the beginning of the loop, I wouldn't be able to see where the hole pricks are for the end of the loop. Also, once you work the end of the loop, if you're not careful, you will work over top of the pins so when you get to the end, you have to figure out how to get the pins out. 

All 4 projects done and lessons learned. 

A lot to learn

This is the 4th of my 4 projects and by far the most challenging of them all. This one incorporates techniques used in Russian Tape Lace, a style that I haven't really done before. 

Fortunately I happen to have a DVD of Lia Baumeister called, oddly enough, Russian Tape Lace. Isn't that convenient?

She makes it all look so easy, so smooth. Easy peasey, nice and breezy. But for me, it's awkward and clumsy. I don't know what else to do but just keep going. What do they say, "practice makes perfect"?  

So I'll just keep going and chalk it up to experience. I don't think I've done a terrible job with it but I can already see that I missed a doodad down in the bottom right part of the pattern so I'm going to have to go back and pick it up. I have to remind myself that this is the back of the piece. Maybe it'll look better from the front. 

One thing about learning something new like this is that it keeps that awkward beginner feeling very fresh so I can really feel the pain my students feel when they're learning something new from me. 

Things aren't always...

I was poking around an antique mall a couple of weeks ago and found the pattern sheet for this doily. 

When I first saw it, I was taken aback because I thought it was a bobbin lace piece. The tallies, the plaits, the center flower. Of course I realized very quickly that it was crocheted but I bet you anything it was copied into crochet based on a bobbin lace piece. 

There are numerous examples of crocheters producing "mock" lace based on either knitted or bobbin lace examples. This would, I imagine, have been copied from some Bedfordshire pattern. 

My thought is, wouldn't it be fun to crochet this version and then work out the pricking and do the bobbin lace version?  I think it would!

3 down, 1 to go

I wasn't sure after I got the middle flower working if this thread was going to be too thick but now that I've got the inside and outside rings done, I'm glad I stuck with it. Before this little project, I had not really worked with linen thread and I have to say that I really love working with it and I can completely understand why it's the traditional material. 

Building Blocks

I was at an antique mall today and saw a small table that was made using spools. Very interesting concept so I went straight to Hobby Lobby to get some supplies. Small dowels, spools shelves. Those combined with some pieces I already had gave me this:

It's about 14" tall and about 8" wide. 

Details

It's all dry fit and I don't think I'm going use any glue because when I varnish or paint, whichever I decide to do, I think that will seal things. It's all tightly fit so it's not going anywhere. 

Don't know what im going to do with it but I'm excited that it actually worked!