lacey update

Firstly let me say thank you to all those who have commented on here and on facebook with get well wishes. What I thought was going to be a couple of days of cold and sniffles has turned into two weeks of virus infection affecting throat and ears, Yuk and double Yuk!! I hate being ill and having time on my hands but not being able to do anything crafty, managed a few rows of knitting and some lace whilst having coffee with a friend ( and not realising how ill I was) Still I'm on the mend and will be back at work next week but I suspect I will still be coughing as I have been for weeks now.

In the middle of last year, I was contacted via the Stitched up group by a lady who had been left a considerable amount of lace equipment so I visited her house, had coffee, identified what I could and she decided that she would sell what she was able to over eBay. There were some lovely bobbins and a couple of nice pillows but I wasn't in a position to make a serious offer for them.

Some months later she emailed me to say that she had sold most of it but had a few bits and pieces left and would I like them to use in teaching or to pass on to other lace makers. So I collected a cardboard box one night and put it on one side to explore later when I had time although I did open a round tin that had 20 or so bobbins in it, mixture of beds and east mids with broken beads on them.

I have now had chance to explore the contents and spent time with my young student going through old patterns and magazine cuttings dating back several years.



In a separate bag I found these wonderful honiton bobbins. I am going to try and find my magnifying glass and see if I can read the inscriptions any better.







Another bag contained lace threads which I suspect will be used :-)







Three of these patterns had the lace samples with them and I suspect they will become the next project for Pete. The samples look like they have been made from silk and I forgot to photo them!!!



and these that have been very well used over the years.



And I'm not sure what to do with the homemade roller pillow at the moment. I have quite a few old bobbins so may set it up as some sort of demo.



And this is my progress so far on the bookmark.



Hopefully my next post will be more details about the bobbins if I can read the inscriptions