Bobbin lace, once more

Every winter I am consumed by the desire to create lace. I think it started a couple years ago, when I made some tatted snowflakes as tree decorations. This year though, it was bobbin lace that called to me.

I had dropped it last year because it was a lot of work (of course) and, at the time, I needed something more familiar to occupy my hands. So when I picked it back up again this year, I decided to dive right back in.

My first project was a circular mat. I wanted to learn how to do picots and leaf/pointed tallies, and this mat had both.

Unfortunately, I did not learn my lesson about pattern scale and thread size from last time, and ended up having to make some drastic adjustments because of my thread size.

This linen is beautiful lace-weight knitting yarn, much too large for bobbin lace.

But it was successful overall, and I got a lot of practice with some new techniques.

Right now, Bedfordshire and modern Milanese styles really appeal to me. But I also really enjoy Torchon! I immediately wound bobbins for a bookmark, after finishing the mat.

Jenny Brandis’ Rachelle Bookmark in size 40 Lizbeth (120% scale, truncated)

Again, I hadn't quite learned my lesson about thread size, so the pattern scaling had to be adjusted, and the number of repeats truncated.

But I ended up making the bookmark pattern again, with the right size of thread (finally!).

Size 40 Lizbeth thread on the left, size 80 on the right.

Detail shot of both. Again, size 40 on the left, 80 on the right.

I learned French fans, cloth stitch buds, and the cloth stitch trail from this project. The spiders were by far the easiest to execute, but the legs could have better tension.

And now I've got a couple more patterns I would like to work. First up is Claire Bonito's koi pattern. I saw this years and years ago, before I had even started bobbin lace. It's stuck with me since then, and I finally gave in and ordered the pattern. I am very excited to make the fish. We will see if I learn my lesson about thread size.