I have joined a lace making group that meets on the first Tuesday of each month for more or less the whole day. It is a small group and the teacher is wonderfully patient with me. My mistake has been trying to run before I can walk.....so I am slowing down and am determined to perfect some very simple basic stitches and techniques without keep asking for help. I couldn't afford to buy lovely wooden lace bobbins, so have bought a job lot of some plastic ones. I had fun adding the beads (spangles) but now think that all that effort should really have been done on wooden bobbins after all. Perhaps I should save up and just get a few every couple of months. The beads I already had....they are glass, not plastic.
Trying to learn the terminology is a challenge but I am slowly getting to grips with half stitch, pin, twist, whole stitch, worker pairs, passives.....and heaven forbid.....spiders!! My first sampler was done with much help, but the techniques were forgotten as soon as I left the room....so now I am being very strict and will not move on until I am very confident with each technique. The sample on the right is done with half stitch ground(Torchon) and half stitch diamonds. Boy did this take m e some time to get my head round. The edges are called footsides, and I have added a contrasting thread for the 'passives' that run down the side. These passives are for adding strength to the edge of the lace but I have not done them quite right as there should be some twists at the edges to give spaces...oops. More help needed I think! Thank goodness I bought a beginners book, and where would we be without all the videos on the internet!!
