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 :-)

Soed Idee Jubileum week three

 I'm at a lace meeting tomorrow so I'm posting this on Friday 23 Jan, week three completed so I'm now caught up and ready for week four to be released tomorrow.

Although I am tempted to add some small butterflies !! I have been knitting and spinning this week so will update you on those as well over the next few days.

Soed Idee Jubileum SAL, A quick update

 I've caught up with week two so I'm nearly on track, the latest part was released on Saturday so fingers crossed that I will be caught up by the end of the week.

The needles are out.

 Last year I started to try and knit up the oddments of yarn that I have handing around, I had a bag full of odd balls left over from hat and mitt knitting, some of these have gone into more hats and I'm now knitting headbands with the ones that are left. I think I started off with between 1-2kg but I'm not sure where I am now.

This last week I've finished one band and started on another, I'm planning on a few of these to take up to Scotland so it's keeping the fingers busy.

this one is a bit subtle Jacob and Ryeland

This one is Ryeland and an unknown possiby lincoln cross? it has a shine to it.

and a slight accident last week means that I have had to replace the plastic box that I've used as a yarn bowl for many years so I now have an actual bowl ( I think that it may have been my grandmothers)

The reason for all the hemming

 Over the years I have often seen very long Dutch band samplers similar to this on Pinterest and other places.

unfortunately there wasn't a credit on this photo, however it seemed that there were a few places releasing the designs as a SAL but tracking down the Dutch sites was proving difficult until just after Christmas when someone kindly sent me a link to one of the shops that does a weekly stitch along every year.

The next challenge was trying to find the fabric wide enough to take 99 stitches across the width. Most places are currently sold out or they have fabric that isn't wide enough.

My options were to wait several weeks or stash dive! As I need 2 couple of metres or so the stash dive option was obviously the heaper option. My fabric is around 57 inch wide so at some point I will need to attach more but I'll sort that out at some point in the future.

So I now introduce you to Jubileum SAL 2026 by Atelier Soed Idee  I'm nearly at the end of week one and playing catch up at the moment as week three will be released today.

Interestingly, this anniversary sampler is made up of patterns sent in by people that have participated in the past so I'm curious as to what designs are included.

Why Bridlington ?

People often ask why we travel to Bridlington so often during the year, there are many reasons but one of them is the Coble Boats. These traditional boats can still be found up and down the coast and as far away as Cornwall and we are developing more of an interest in them.

In October Ian went over to help them lift one of the boats out of the harbour for annual maintenance and has sent me his photos to share. These photos were taken at sunrise back in last October.

The cradle that the boat sits in moves across the harbour on wheels, If you look at the send photo above you will spot the man with the remote control.

We returned again in December as this boat, The Three Brothers was back in the harbour and work had started on Gratitude in the other boat shed.

There was another boat awaiting restoration, I didn't realise at the time that I would be speaking to the previous owner the next day.

You may ask what I do whilst this is all going on, well I explore coffee shops and craft or hop on a bus and visit nearby places. More about this soon.

If you are interested in seeing these historic boats, the Bridlington preservation society details are here along with a list of sailing dates ( weather permitting)

finished stitching the hem, now working on the trim.

 As the post heading suggests, I've finished the hemming of the fabric and I'm working on an edging which will also be used to hide any joins that may be necessary.

New Year, New project.............. Gansey sampler day six

 We now have a front as well as a back on the gansey looking at the book, the next step is shoulder strap and sleeves? anyway this is a whole new territory for me so it might take me a day or two to figure it out.

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.

Why did I buy another e-spinner ?

 Hi, Firstly I want to say that the snow did settle, was very slushy and they didn't even have any two roads away! It was enough to cancel my bus this morning but as Ian was doing the weekly shop, he dropped me off on the main road about a mile away where the buses were running normally.

Anyway, back to the subject of this post. You may have seen a red e-spinner turning up in recent posts and now I must confess that this is my third e-spinner.

The first was Ashford back in 2019 and this is still my main wheel to use at home. I still have two treadle wheels for demos but the Ashford is the workhorse.

The bobbins hold 200 gm which is a bonus but it is heavy to carry around with me and I was looking for something that was a lot more portable.

So I bought the Nano

Yes it works but the bobbins are only 25 gm so I'm still plying on the Ashford plus I have two groves in the plastic which sometimes catch the yarn making it really frustrating.

At this point I heard about the Argonaut and a friend of mine likes them so much that he bought two of them. We met up for coffee so I could have a play on one of them. I liked it enough to buy one.    

The bobbins are 100gm plus, the set up took me a while to get used to but I have that problem with any new to me wheel. I've now spun a few bobbins and I'm happy. Plying is something that I still have to nail in regard to tension but I will get there.

Its heavier than the Nano but much lighter than the Ashford which means that when we are away for several weeks, I will only need to take the one wheel rather than two. More space and slightly less weight in the van.

It will never replace the Ashford but definitely will be used more than the Nano.

Thurs 8.01.26 and we have a snow warning

 I'm always a little excited by snow warnings as we don't normally get much where we live and over the last couple of years or so we've see more snow when visiting the coast or north of the border than we have here in Nottingham.

Still , I popped out for a walk and made it back whilst it's still light although the temperature has dropped to around freezing.

I have an appointment at 9.30 tomorrow which I may or may not be able to attend depending on the state of thing in the morning.

Today I've stitched a bit more of the hem and I'm working on one of the items on my craft list, knitting the hat using hand spun Jacob and ryeland.

later .......

it might be snowing, will update you tomorrow as to whether it hung around overnight.

Just stitching a hem, nothing to see yet.

Although my project count may have just gone up by one.