Living on the Edge

I've finally been brave enough to try an actual edging with the bobbin lace. 

It's one of those things that you learn as you go so you can see quite a few mistakes until the last 2 repeats.  I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and from there it worked just like it was supposed to.  Now I've started on a new one so I can get a good length of proper edging.  Looks almost like the real thing!

Fortunately, the program at the Lacemakers and Collector's Exchange (L.A.C.E.) on Saturday is about reading patterns (or prickings, as it's called in bobbin lace) for beginners.  Yeah, that'd be me.  But, like I tell my students, you just have to press through the mistakes and keep going.  Don't worry about taking all the mistakes out, just keep pressing on. 

Good things come to those who practice and don't freak out about being lousy at something when they're first learning, right?

And let me introduce you to my lunacy.
I, like all of you, don't have an abundance of free time (time not working for the man).  Then once I knit, spin, tat, teach classes and preparing for them, go to meetings, oh, yeah and eat and sleep, there's really not much time left.  So, of course with all this going on, I figure it's time to take on a few new things.  There's the bobbin lace thing but now I've been talked into taking a not-very-beginner (to put it lightly) weekend workshop on overshot weaving (with a 4-harness loom which I've never touched in my life) and now a friend has given me the loan of her smaller harp so I can learn to play the harp.  Actually it's the same person who's talked me into both of these things.  Do you think she's got a little undue influence over me?

More Bobbin Stuff

I've been working more with the bobbin lace stuff and although it feels good to be getting some patterns done, I know I'm still just rankest beginner.  All you have to do is look at all the mistakes in my latest project.  I'm not worrying about it too much because I got the cloth stitches done better than I've ever done before.  That's a success, right?  Now it's just about practice, practice, practice. This is also the most bobbins I've ever worked with at once (16 pairs) and it takes some getting used to as well.

I'm working here on my new "pillow," one that I made myself.  The book I'm working from (Beginner's Guide to Bobbin Lace by Gilian Dye & Adrienne Thunder) gives a description on how to do it and I think it came out pretty well.  Pretty well except for the dimensions.  I would do it differently another time but I suspect part of that is getting used to it.  Here are a couple of other projects I've done from the book.  The one on the left is a straight Torchon background using the interplay of the colors as the design element and the one on the right has a Torchon background with larger and smaller spiders.  This is the first time I've really been able to understand how these work and I was amazed it came out as well as it did.  I love this book and the clear detailed photos it has.  That has helped more than anything.

 So, I'm going to try and visit a lace group that meets near Chicago and see if I can track down some folks that I can watch and learn from.