Gently pootling around the house.

 Since I'm now confined to the four walls of our house, I've been slowly doing small jobs that have been hanging around in the craft room.

I have several boxes of craft materials and magazines, these are now all destined for the local scrap store where I know they can make good use of them

Yes, three vacuum bags full of yarn, all acrylic from several years ago.

I've had a sort through my books shelves and destashed some more books even though there are many more to be checked through in other cupboards.

I finished the latest headband, sewed in the ends and even washed and blocked it.

oops, photo before washing and shows the jogs at the back haha

I did some more spinning, still working on the Jacob so will photo once finished.

During a sleepless night I cast on some mitts for myself as I can't find my thin Shetland yern mitts that I usually wear indoors.

and discovered a lace pillow that I bought second hand some time ago but haven't used.... up till now.

I hadn't used this one mainly due to the fact that its a funny height on my desk however I have found that I can now sit with it on my knees quite comfortably so I've decided to try it out.

Another job that I had been meaning to do was re - skein about eight skeins of hand spun and measure to see exactly what I have.

Other than that , I've been stitching which will be in a future post and prepping some dark brown fleece that I was gifted at the weekend. 

Once I've finished with the Jacob on the Argonaut, I'm going to have another go at plying as last time it was a disaster. This time I will use commercial yarn to see where I was going wrong!! I prefer to ply on the Ashford but when we are travelling that will not be an option.

Nottinghamshire Bobbin Lace Society lace day

 On Saturday I made my way down to Nottingham High School, This was previously Nottingham Boys High School and I had not been inside the building for around 50 years ! not since I was sneaked into the boys sixth form common room as a teenager as I attended the Girls High School across the road and this sort of behaviour was frowned upon.

Whenever it got foggy in the afternoon we would pray that the headmaster could no longer see the statue from his room as that would the signal to call the school buses in early to take us home.

Anyway, back to the lace.

The bookmark banner was on display, this was made for the anniversary last year and I believe that this is one of the longest running lace societies in the UK

Around 60 members attended throughout the day, spent there pennies with the bobbin maker ( I may have also spent some) and enjoyed the birthday cake.

I was very impressed with how light and airy the room was. Wandering round I spotted a friend who always uses bone bobbins and she was sat with another lady who also uses bone bobbins, these are beautiful. I have a few myself but I'm a little too clumsy and found out that I'm safer with wooden ones.

I did make some progress on my lace edging but spent a lot of time chatting :-)

My anniversary bobbin arrived last week, I originally was told that since I'd re-joined (after a few years) after the anniversary date that I wouldn't have one but this arrived in the post much to my delight.

My purchases were a few bobbins to go in my black and silver collection, a lace day bobbin ( the red one) and some second hand patterns and threads from the society sales table.

I probably have more threads than I will ever use but at least I have them to hand if I ever fancy starting a new project :-)

Crafty Monday

 I liked to have days when I craft and meet up with people. First stop today was Nero's where I chatted with a gentleman who I occasionally see there. He lives on a canal boat and has an interest in textiles and the arts. Our conversations are always enjoyable and pass the time as I knit or sew.

This morning I was working on the hem of the embroidery band .

Next stop will be at the Monday knit group that meets in the library, lovely people who are happy to share their knowledge. I have a hat to finish so hopefully I'll get that sorted this morning.

Job done, hat completed !!

Next challenge is to crack on with the lace trim  :-)

I had a voucher for Coffee#1, free coffee and half price cake so that sorted dinner out. Not healthy but I've been so good since last June that I decided that a treat wouldn't do too much damage.

Lace making followed for an hour whilst listening to my audio book. This is the trim for the band but I'm beginning to think that the thread is too thick so I may have another look in my thread stash.

Back home and it's chance to spend an hour working on the Fox and Rabbit 2026 Sal which is based  an antique band sampler. Each part is issued on the first of the month.

Busy Day !!

BAL 2026 (bucks point lace) and a lace gathering

We have a local bobbin lace society, Nottingham bobbin Lace Society (NBLS) I've been a member on and off since around 1989 and  re-joined (again) last year. We have four meetings a year with a supplier (s) present, monthly meetings with a second hand sales table and a small group  who meet weekly  to simply make lace.

Yesterday was one of the monthly meetings, usually I would walk over to the venue as its only a couple of miles from where I live but the ground was so slippery that I had to take two buses to get there ! I took my lace pillow with the Bucks Point Sampler on it and actually made a little progress on it.

There were 30 or so lace makers present, abilities ranging from a few months experience to those who were taught by their mothers and now teach their own classes.

We have three rooms of varying size which means that we all have space to work and chat, in our room I suspect it was more chat than work haha.

I always have a look at the sales table and this time I was in luck. There was a set of blocks for a lace pillow, I've had most of my pillows for 20 plus years and recently had to swop the blocks between two of them to make a decent one .

I checked the size and purchased this set. Bargain especially as I don.t have a roller block for either of my larger block pillows.

I also treated myself to a few second hand bobbins including a Christmas at the Lace Hall one ( many years ago I used to demonstrate lacemaking there )

There were a couple of lace pillows for sale and an lovely small travel pillow, you know me, always on the look out for small pillows to use in the van.

Yes, it came home with me ! its a good job that I have a craft budget ( which I may exceed this month as its the anniversary meeting in a couple of weeks time which, if we are not at the coast, I will be attending)

My challenge is to get a narrow edging on the go on this over the next few days just to see how useable it is.

back to the lace

In early August I received a parcel in the post, gave it a shake then realised what it was.

measuring just 32cm x 23cm x16cm it is one of the smallest lace pillows that I have seen. 

I haven't really had chance to test it out yet but I will let you know when I have.

Meanwhile I have bobbins on two pillows, one with Downton lace on it which unfortunately had to be taken off once I discovered that the threads were week and several snapped without my help. A shame as I do like the pattern and was planning to make a longer strip.

I then sorted out my recent purchases, second hand bobbins and threads from a Lace pop in session.

                and set up a traditional pattern called sheeps head to use on the lace doll.

This is as far as I got with the Downton lace

more purchases, two new ebony bobbins and another antique bone bobbin.

I plan to get back to lace making in October and have a good play with the travel pillow.

a bit of bobbin lace

 On Saturday I went to the Nottinghamshire Bobbin Lace summer lace day and didn't take many photos, I was too busy chatting and making lace haha

However here is my lace pillow in Neros before heading down there, weird angle and untidy bobbins.

Once there  I bought a couple more ebony bobbins for the collection, forgot to take a photo so will try to remember once we get back, I did grab photos of the suppliers but that was about it, sorry but I was having an enjoyable day !!

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