Lace class, 3 February

 This tiny patch represents three hours in lace class! Of course much was done, then undone, then redone. I am learning to throw out pairs from the half stitch section, as well as the 12 legged spider! I know it looks easy, but I really struggled...I must try to keep going because I leave to stay with my mother on Saturday, and if I don't practise I will forget how to do it. :(
Plus as luck would have it I need to work today and tomorrow.

 Oh, I am including the finished pincushions, with the buttons sewn on.

They were fun to make and I have some more evenweave, so I might do some more blackwork...although the evenweave is green, so I am not sure how well it will work.

January update.

 I had to make a bobbin roll for all 52 pairs I needed for Monday's lace class.

 Delia is still causing me problems, I had to cut again...I have lost my enthusiasm. I get like this when something takes too long, hence the heaps of WIP hanging around on my desk.

 I am continuing this edging slowly, I have a plan for it.

 I made this while waiting for David, and having nothing in my bag but a lonely half wound shuttle!

 Lace started, a torchon ground, called chemin de Rose.

 Another view.

Somethings are finished!

 My blackwork project is done, well I still need to finish stuffing and add the buttons, but I am happy with it. I might even make another one.

 This lace butterfly was quick and easy, except I will never try to finish with a cluny again! Another time I will start the two antennae, then join at the head and then work the wings.

The cream and black one was worked by a friend at lace class. She also had difficulty finishing with a cluny!

More lace

This is a sample of Torchon ground showing four different stitches.

This is the finished sample of Flanders, with the (not very) heart shapes.

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.)

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.

Passive-aggressive lace

 At the beginning of December I had a lace lesson, I knew I did, but when I had driven all the way over to the teacher's house, (1hr's drive) she said I was mistaken, and that I was supposed to ring her to say whether it was this day or the following week. I knew that I wouldn't have said that, because I have fixed off-duty, but I didn't really say what I felt, I just drove away, feeling all upset. When I got home I ripped off the lace angel we had been working on, I hate sodding angels anyway, I never chose to make an angel, and also removed the heart that I finished tant bien que mal, and started this motif.

I am using the book by Pamela Nottingham, and doing as well as I can, all the time being aware that being passive-aggressive is probably not the way forward if I want to improve my technique. Oh well, give me time, and I will probably get over it! I have yet to finish it properly, but I am quite pleased none-the-less.

Nothing happening here.

All I have available to show is this heart. I can't work out quite how to do the final bit, I need to join three pinholes, and throw out some pairs...it needs a bit of concentration.
At lace class yesterday they mentioned that IKEA sells tables that are ideal for lacemaking at 19.90 €, what a good idea!
I will try to update when I get back from visiting my mother in the UK. The outer row of the clover doily was chewed by my puppy, and had to be cut off. Luckily the centre wasn't damaged.
Yes-U-can doily, I have done 2 motifs on the next row... a bit bored with that now, I will try to get on with it at a later date.

Blogging again

I have been offline for several weeks....things have been a bit crappy. I didn't feel like talking to anyone, but as my job requires me to do so, I just avoided the computer as much as possible instead! I did tat though, it is good therapy for shattered nerves, I think.
I completed the jewelled square, with Miranda's thread and Fox's beads.

Pascale Provost's pattern 'Pétalite'

There was enough thread left on the shuttles to make the oval rose from Sharon's book.

Sharon Brigg's pattern 'Oval Rose'

I then decided, inspired by the pretty beads to make a gecko in the brown and green thread. I wound too much onto my shuttles, and so I made two of them! I am always getting the pattern slightly wrong, so even though I now have three they are all different!

Jane Eborall's pattern, 'Pamela's gecko'

I have at last finished my lace pillow and actually made a little sample of lace on it. This pattern is very simple, and is made in DMC 80.

I love the way cats are always so helpful.

not sure why there's such a big gap under this picture, oh the mysteries of 'Blogger'

This is the edging once it has been removed from the pillow.

I have also been tatting an edging, Mary Konior's 'Maids of honour', which is a good one to do because one shuttle goes a long, long way. I have done all this and have still a nearly full Shuttleshop shuttle, (which means it's not the biggest one I have.) David's daughter is getting married next year, and a tatted handkerchief seems to be called for, so I will probably use this pattern for that, only in white of course.

Mary Konior's pattern 'Maids of Honour', first row.

I have been making things...except nothing seems quite finished!

After the lace class I wanted to have my own traveling roller pillow, and when I asked Elly where she bought hers from she said she made them. She said she didn't have a pattern, she just made it up with bits she had around, so I juggled some ideas around on an envelope, and with much help from David, I made this! (For some reason I cannot get the photos to stay where I want them today!)

This is what it looked like once it had been stuffed with straw.

This is the basic wooden framework.

Another view of the stuffed frame.

And here we are with the beginnings of the fabric cover, and the roller, covered with an old felted sweater.

I have also been trying the new threads I received via the thread exchange. This square lacks the final round, because I find split chains so difficult! I have decided to cut and tie, after making two really miserable attempts on the first two rounds.

Magnolia HDT made into Meadow Square from the book by Sharon Briggs.

This "star" from Mary Konior's Tatting Patterns is made from Pear Glacé sent by Miranda.

Trying to tat with beads.

Fox very kindly sent some beads and a threader thing, so despite the fact I am not very good at that sort of thing I began this motif by Pascale Provost...it is made in the size 80 Majestic colour Teal from Miranda. I think the beads compliment the colour very well. :) Despite the threader, (which I lost, when we had a thunderstorm and I had to bring my stuff in, in a hurry) I find wriggling the beads onto the picots extremely fiddly, I can't help feeling I must be doing it wrong.

Camomile from Tatting Patterns by Mary Konior

This edging is called Camomile, and is made using some vintage thread I found on a market stall. It is DMC special dentelles size 70, and a pretty pinky colour. I bought several threads, but when I looked at them once I was home I wasn't sure how useful any of them might be for tatting. Still, I will probably try them all in time.

My first ever lace lesson!

Today at Caniac le Causse I met with four other keen lacemaking students for a day of learning picots with Elly, our teacher.

For some reason I can't write beneath the photos, so I hope no-one needs any explanations.
The day was wonderful, we sat upstairs in the morning, learning three methods of doing picots, then ate a delicious lunch outside, a carrot flan with Cabecou goat's cheese drizzled with saffron oil, green salad with a sprig of fennel, whole walnuts, cherries, pears and cocktail tomatoes. (All local produce) For pudding I had lemon cake, and to drink, home made iced tea with lemon.
In the afternoon we sat under the trees and did various samples, Marie-Amelie did two! My piece is the one on its own...I finished last. :(
My tatting was admired and the others voiced an interest in learning how to do it, so maybe we can organise a tatting day sometime soon.