A Little Lace

Thank you for your comments on my last post - I'm glad I'm not the only person who's immediate reaction was 'WHAT??? Backstitch with TWO strands???'... Although there is a lot of BS on the piece it is going really quickly. I've probably done somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 now - it's hard to assess accurately as the design isn't very even over the size of the piece.

Last night I took a break from the BS and pulled out my lace pillow. Louise came over - I cooked us a scrummy Bill Granger chicken dish, and then we carried on with our Beds. Lou and I are both Bedfordshire lace fanatics - but from two very different schools!! Lou was taught by people who really follow the traditional methods of making lace - where people made as much lace as they could as quickly as possible, as they got paid by the inch (or by the pin - hence 'pin money'), whereas I've learnt Bedfordshire lace from Christine Springett, who adapts traditional patterns and 'borrows' techniques from other laces, to make as perfect a piece of lace as possible. Lou and I spend hours discussing the different ways we do things - and neither of us quite gets the other one, which is actually really fun!

Anyway, last night I finished off a small motif that I was doing. The pricking was by Christine, but I didn't have the working diagram, so I just had a bash. I'm really pleased with the result - apart from my messy finishing, something I really want to improve - although I used 18 pairs of bobbins, not the 14 Christine noted on the pricking...



This weekend we're off to my parents for a family gathering. I can't decide whether I need to hide a small project in my bag. I don't have anything little kitted up, and I probably won't have time... but it would feel odd not to have something with me, even for one night!