Bobbin lace - lace weight this time!

Me and wonderful mum went back for another class with Louise West in the summer.  We had our first bobbin lace class their earlier in the year and this was the progression.  We made another bookmark, but this time we used lace-weight thread - size 80.

Here is my lace pillow, with the pricked pattern attached and the bobbins wound with the lace thread.  I used a lovely aqua/mint thread for the bobbins and white for the workers.

This pattern is made using just the two stitches that we learnt last time.  It's amazing how different lace can look using just these two stitches.

As last time, I was able to finish the bookmark in the class, the first person to ever do so!  Once I get in the zone, I'm throwing those bobbins around like nobody's business!

Ta dah!  The photos above were all taken in the class room.  The ones below are taken outside in natural light so should show the pattern a bit better.

You can see that the centre is the aqua/mint colour and the frilly bits are white.  I have no idea how people work out lace patterns and know how to get the colours in different places.  it's like magic.

There is actually a bit of mistake in this piece, though i can't see it on the photos.  My tension wasn't very good in one of the aqua/mint areas and you can see a real difference between that and the rest of the pattern.

I'll know to be careful of that in the future.  And there will be a future!  I love making lace and want to go to more classes with Louise.  For my homework she said I have to make the same pattern all in one colour as it's a little bit trickier keeping a grasp on where your workers are.  I haven't started yet...  ooops!

making lace

A couple of years ago I got a lacemaking kit from my parents for either my birthday or Christmas.  I got a few craft kits this year for both my birthday and Christmas, so decided it was time to start an old one!  This is for making bobbin lace.

The contents seemed a bit bizarre until I actually got down to it. The polystyrene roll is the worksurface, it's now been covered in the navy fabric provided.  Each of the bobbins had to have a beaded dangle attached, that took me ages!

I could have sworn I'd taken a work in progress photo, but I can't find one so clearly I didn't.  I'll get one next time.  

This is the piece of lace I made.  Don't laugh!  It was my first time...  One the right is the start and it seems I was doing it wrong, then I started doing it right and made the rest of the piece.  As I was following the instructions I realised that they were to make a rose with petals and leaves and a decoration at the back.  I thought it was just making random pieces of lace.  As my attempt wasn't quite perfect, I plan to start again, but I need to get some more of the thread first, it's just DMC but I'm not sure I'll have enough left.

I promise that next time I'll take some photos of the set up and tell you more of what's involved.  I really enjoyed trying something new, must do it more often!