Wittering about lace

This photo shows the first heart completed...yes, ok it looks more like a kidney than a heart, but still...

 I want to insist that this is probably the most bobbins I have ever worked with, and it can feel a bit daunting sometimes.

Yesterday I received this excellent book from Jo Firth lacemaking. I had been looking for it for some time, but mostly it was way too expensive. This copy is in mint condition.

 Who wouldn't want to make this cute kitty edging? I think it's a bit too complicated for me at the moment, as just working out the bobbins for the heart shapes takes me ages.

 The patterns are so pretty though.

Right, today I want to finish heart number three, ready for the final lesson on Monday. (This is the backside of the lace, it looks better from the front.)

Oh D--n!

I had started Delia, using Perfect Quilter colourway Pansies. Here it is, after I had done the first repeat, and I was quite happy with it.

But then I started to make mistakes...and after I had cut and restarted I realised I had made a mistake way back...and the scissors need to come out again. Oh, it is so frustrating!

doilies and lace

 So Cornelia was finished last Sunday.

Snowflake doily has some more snowflakes completed...but I used a different shade of yellow for some of them. I know some tatting friends would cut and throw...but I will probably just aim for symmetry.

 This is three hours work! Yes ground lace is slow progress.

112 bobbins...I thought that impressive...

 Then I had a go at this butterfly, which was not only lots of bobbins, but all running in different directions. There are quite a few mistakes not least being the choice of thread, which was much thicker than the pattern called for. Rule 1, obey the  instructions. :)

So this is the first wing finished, and I took about five days to get this far.