Four Roses

This is the latest piece of bobbin lace that I completed this morning. It is the pattern Four Roses from Idrija Lace and was quite fun to make until I got to the two areas of grounds!

The roses were fun to make and I liked making the petals. Slowly but surely, my petals are becoming a even. Still not even close to looking like they should, but at least I can finally say they are getting there! The leaves were not to bad to make. There is one corner that I think is not drawn out well. I tried a different variation in each repeat, but could not get it to work out nicely.

I was really tempted to stop with the flower and the leaves and just fill in the center ground and call it quits. Ultimately as you can see I decided to go forward and complete the whole piece.

The grounds were not much fun to make! It would have been easier if I had more bobbins wound with this thread. I only have 14 pairs and decided it wouldn't be work winding more bobbins. About halfway through the center ground I was starting to reconsider, but at that time it really wouldn't have made sense to wind more bobbins.

I worked the center ground from left to right with no pins and it ended up pulling a bit out of line. It's not as obvious as it was when the pattern was still on the pillow, so it doesn't bother me too much. I think if I had enough bobbins to hang them all (or most of them) in form the start, it would have been easier to keep the honeycomb ground in line working from either side towards the center. I think putting in some strategically placed pins would also have been beneficial. Live and learn.

The plait ground was a bigger pain to make than the center ground. At least I managed to make the center in 1 day - the plated ground took quite a bit longer. Again, it would have gone by much faster if I had more bobbins and didn't have to keep pairing up and adding in new ones.

Over all I am not too sure what to think of this pattern. I do like the roses and the leaves, as a rule I am not too crazy about square patterns.

The pattern measures ~ 7.5 inches along each side.

Motif No. 38

The 25 motif challenge part II is barely plugging along! I completed this motif earlier this month, but it sat for a while waiting for me to scan it. It is Crystal Petal Snowflake from Tatted Snowflakes by Vida Sunderman. The motif was made with Kreinik braik No. 4 (very fine). As always, this thread tatted up fairly nicely.

Bobbin Lace Star V

I am not sure what happened, but I just realized that despite making lace on a fairly regular schedule (and actually finishing things!), I have not posted since early March! For some reason the bottleneck now is with scanning finished projects so I can post them on my blog.

I completed this little guy earlier this month. It is another snowflake from Geklöppelte Weihnachtssterne. It had been a while since I had made petals using this metallic thread, which is probably the reason why they are not as even as I would like them to be.

Little Spiders

I would say I finally tried something new in puncetto, but that would not be 100% accurate - I had tried making spiders a long time ago. I made a few a week or so ago and they were quite fun to make:) Starting was a pain because the square is so small, but once I got to the second spider things were a lot easier. The tension is out of whack, but what else is new... I am looking forward to incorporating spiders into a motif now.

Made with DMC cebelia 30 in ecru.

Teneriffe E

It's been a while, but I finally picked up teneriffe lace again!

I know I have mentioned several times how I think teneriffe is not a very sturdy lace. This motif seems a bit sturdier than most of what I had done so far. The relatively large areas of weaving rather than rows of knotting seems to help. I still suspect the main problem is that the thread I use is too thin for the pattern. I really don't want to switch over to thicker thread though! I am also not sure I want to start shrinking the pattern quite yet.

Made with DMC special dentelles 80 in ecru.

February Progress

I've been working late hours so I don't get much done during the weeks. Since yardwork has not yet started, I do manage to get some lace in during the weekends. If this continues, I foresee another lace hiatus this summer...

Bobbin lace:

Still plugging along with the pattern on my pillow. I have had a chance to work on every weekend so I am actually making progress! I debated not completing it (I am at a good stopping point and it would look finished if I took it off the pillow now), but I think I will keep on going.

Tatting:

Slowly plugging away on two of my WIPS.

Needle Lace:

I continued the piece I started last month.

Teneriffe:

I finally finished the motif I started last month. I am still very ambivalent about teneriffe. It just does not seem like a very stable lace. Granted it doesn't take as much time as needle lace or bobbin lace, but it still seems like it doesn't take much to undo or pull out of shape all the work that you put in. Maybe it's because I don't have any good patterns. I am trying to pick out new techniques to learn. I still suspect that the size of thread I am using is not well balanced for the pattern.

Knotted Lace:

Nothing.

Puncetto:

Finished the square I started last month and started a new little sample.

Crochet:

Nothing. I did finally scan a piece from a while back. Does that count?