here we go again

yep, I'm off work again, have been since Tuesday this week with the same virus. This time I am really getting fed up with it and I've found that I'm tending to sit and not do anything much although moving leads to coughing which leads to sitting down again!!

I've now got about 3/4 of the bobbins on the wide edging, just taking time to work out how to start the rest of them as the pattern guidance starts on the corner and is quite faded, I will get there though.

I've popped the bookmark into a plastic folder and hubby is quite impressed with it and says I should design my own to sell....I would usually say that I don't have the time but at the moment...

 I'm sticking with torchon for a bit before going back to Bucks that was my real love, I'm enjoying the logic of the prickings at the moment. ( I have made Beds and Honiton in the dim and distant past )

 I found an old lace pillow stand during the spare room clear out, Its designed to be used with round pillows and I tend to prefer block ones but this old pillow fits making a good compromise.

I now have a roller block the first step to making a travel pillow, just need to sort out the card and material and check to see if I have any wadding left over from quilting.

Have a good week, speak soon x

Lace failure

So, I got all geared up, found a pattern for a wide torchon edging so I will have something to get my teeth into and started to wind my bobbins with some of the old lace thread that was in my drawer. I tried snapping the thread and it seemed ok so went ahead a wound a dozen bobbins, no probs with the first fan. I did find it a real brain teaser to start to set up the pattern without a guide, but was managing it. I got halfway through the half stitch diamond when one of the threads just drifted apart,

I had another rummage and this time found a spool of Finca 50, emptied all the bobbins and tried again.

Beginning to look a lot better this time, the old thread is now heading for the bin!! Speak soon xx

well, that was a panic!!

I started to type and my keyboard stopped working........spent last 10 mins trying to find a spare battery!!!!

Not a lot going on in the last week, no crafting etc, my cough is back :-( the day job is busy.

Yesterday I went on the Nottinghamshire Pride March with my coworkers from the youth centre where I work in the evening one night a week. We were with several of the young people for the march and retired to the pub mid afternoon for a team social catch up.

I took some photos so here a just a few to give you a flavour of the event.

 Have a great weekend x

Back to normality

So, it's the end of my first week back at work, as I expected I am tired. Domestic chores are proving a challenge this weekend as I have succeeded in burning out my vacuum cleaner but since it is over 25 years old I can't complain too much. Today , Sunday,  means a trip out to replace it, maybe a cycle ride if it stops raining and a look at my plans to make a travel bobbin lace pillow.

Since its Nottingham Pride March on Saturday,  I have been working out how to make rainbow hair slides and wristbands so that the Wednesday night crowd can make them for themselves between  making banners to march with.

enjoy your weekend X

A quiet distraction (written the day after the bike ride)

Well, I'm aching a bit after yesterday so after doing the boring stuff I settled down to try and organise my lace threads and make a list so I have a rough idea of what I have. I think that I possibly have enough of some of them to last the next few years !!

I'm going to order some acid free tissue paper to help protect them and they are stored in the dark

not a lot of motorbikes

Hi

Not so many motorbikes on this blog for quite some time, unfortunately I have not been able to get on or off one for last last two years due to muscle problems in my leg and now use a stick when I'm out. At the same time hubby has been too busy to use the bikes or even visit bike events.
We have thought about adding a third wheel to the Guzzi and making it into a trike but suspect that we will get frustrated with having to sit in traffic etc so we may look to getting a campervan of some kind.

Once things calm down, I'm sure that bikes will feature more but for the time being I have been looking at the pedal variety, since actually lifting my foot off the pedal to reach the ground is an issue I found somewhere to have a play on an adult tricycle.

More difficult to fall off and it sort of gets round the fact that I have never ridden a pushbike before in my life!! We went on a 5 mile ride and the only problem was when we reached a gentle hill I had to get off and walk as I haven't the strength to pedal hard but that will come. This is a hire bike but we will be going back for another go very soon!!

And it has a basket on the back!!!!

Have a great weekend x

how many posts?

According to the stat counter thingy I've made 932 posts to this blog since I started back in June 2007 !! At times I've felt like abandoning it completely  but then I think, why not just see if I can keep it going a bit longer.

This morning I'm having a little sort out in the spare room, the general dumping space that at the moment is crammed full off cast off items, I won't say rubbish until I've checked what is there.

So far I've uncovered another lace pillow so who knows what else is in there!!

This one was given to me a few years ago, I've never used it, its definitely hand made and feels like its stuffed with straw.

I wonder what else is hiding in there??

bookmark finished

hi

I finished the bookmark this morning before doing the housework!! I could really get used to this not working lark unfortunately retirement seems to get further away :-(

anyway, finished photos here and I'm off to look what to make next.

speak soon xx

the big bobbin sort out

Good morning

Firstly I must warn you that I go back to full time work next week so posts may go to just one a week, we will see what happens.

I have finished sorting my bobbins and all the nice usable ones are now safely stashed in their cases.

 I emptied my box of oddments to see what I had, these vary from the very old to continental, one or two have obviously been carved with a penknife!

I have an old lace pillow somewhere so may set something up on that for demos, quite a few pf these have been used by myself on the past. I had a happy few minutes sorting these into groups.

I also had a play with the camera :-)

 That's about it for now, I have a coffee date this afternoon with a spinner who wants to borrow my wool combs, as I have his inkle loom I think its a fair request :-)

short and sweet

today I visited my mum and finished putting beads on 25 pairs of bobbins

like I said, short and sweet, nite nite x

Inner City Farm

Hi, I needed to get out of the house for a while today so headed down to Stonebridge Farm, usually I spend my time looking at the small fluffy creatures that live in the barn, bunnies, guinea pigs , that sort of thing. However the barn was closed for cleaning so I had to content myself with slightly larger creatures.
Just a few photos :-)

some pretty flowers around as well...

speak soon xx

beginning to feel better :-)

Hi,

Definitely beginning to fell a bit better, still coughing but not wheezing so much, helped by the fact that its now cooler as well.
I've managed to do a bit in the garden aka the jungle but I suspect that it may take the rest of the summer to get it into any real sort of order.

I've set up a bookmark on my lace pillow and it got me to thinking about some form of travel pillow or pillow in a bag for taking on holiday ( I often take an inkle loom or spinning wheel on holiday ) not sure if to make one and use travel bobbins or full size ones.

tomorrow I may get out all my bobbins and see how many travel ones I have as I'm sure I was given some a couple of years ago but probably not that many.

I hope you had a good weekend xx

Sorting out the book shelf and some lacey thoughts

I have plenty of books, rather we have plenty of books! Many of which have sat on the shelves for years simply taking up space . Unfortunately most of these don't have any real value and may only make 50p on ebay so I'm checking values and popping them into the charity box. Amongst them are a few ladybird books but having done a quick search on the net I've found that there is no real value to any of these, just a sentimental value .

I finally managed to sort out two boxes of books to go to the local charity shop, three have made there way back onto the shelf as he hadn't read them but its nice to get some of the pile of books next to the sofa sorted away!!

I must confess that I followed this up by falling asleep for a couple of hours, the thunderstorm last night kept me awake and I was also wide awake a bit too early this morning for my liking.

Back to the lace, I need some sort of focus for this, a project that will give me variety of styles but not just strips like I have been doing to try and practise. I don't want to embark on any major piece of work and I know that I get distracted easily by other crafts but I do have the threads, books and purchased patterns that are just sitting around doing nothing.

Some time ago I thought about making bookmarks rather than sample pieces as they would look good displayed together in a book or sewn on to a long narrow cloth that can be kept rolled up when not needed. I started putting ideas together on my pintrest page (https://www.pinterest.com/guzzisue/ ) for inspiration and I'm trying to find out which books some of them are from or at least who designed them so I can buy the pattern. I don't feel confident to design my own.

I will have a think about it............looking back at the lace I made years ago, some of which is on this blog, I feel that I have forgotten so much about this lovely craft.

bobbin lace

practise still needed !!

Have a great weekend xx

bobbin lace

hi, this has proved to be a pretty little lace but I found it really difficult to find the rhythm for this one, I think I may have cracked it now but will do a bit mire just to make sure.

thinking out loud

about creativity....I'm into my third week off work with a viral respiratory infection, the first two weeks all i could do was sit quite and read or sleep. This week I'm definitely on the mend and I can feel the desire to create.

But....

Sometimes it gets buried under work, responsibilities, having to act as an adult.

Sometimes I have all the ideas but can't act on them, they stay in my head.

Sometimes its just frustration that stops me.

Sometimes I feel that I need to remove clutter before I can create anything.


However, the sun is shining and I am going to nurture this flicker of creativity and see where it leads me this time.

Enough of me rambling, I'm going to bake some scones.

(by the time I finished rambling, the sun was no longer shining, the sky looked like this !!)

but we still had scones for tea :-)

Bobbin Lace

So, next book off the shelf is.......

turn to pattern 1 and find that it needs 10 pairs of bobbins so spend a few minutes winding up another 4 pairs, copy the pricking and take advantage of the sun coming through the window to take pretty photos.

this pattern is definitely more complicated and the first two repeats are a mess but I think I'm getting back into the swing of it and we will see how this one turns out.

this photo is to show off my pincushion, isn't he sweet ?

thats all for now. have a great day x