Two Lace Books

One thing you might not know about me over on this blog is that I do a lot of crafting. I go to a craft club in Penistone every Monday morning and I love it, it really helps set up my week. And during the week I try to craft most days. I can crochet, and have made several huge blankets over the years. I can cross stitch, and recently finished a huge watercolour piece on evenweave fabric. I have done embroidery, I sometimes do scrapbooking and that kind of thing, I like jewellery making and a bunch of different crafts. I'm willing to give most things a go! 

And when I was little, I made bobbin lace. I learnt when I was around nine years old and made a bunch of different bookmarks and mats and so on. I learnt at a Saturday morning class near my house and I went for about five years; I stopped when I got a Saturday job and didn't like doing both things on Saturdays. My lace making things sat untouched for years and years.

Then over a decade ago, when I was in my late twenties, I got into it again. I bought some threads and I went back to some things, and I bought these books. They were just off eBay for a few quid, not loads of money. I must have moved on again, though. Recently I was packing some things up and I packed up my lace threads, which is annoying, because now I can't find them! 

But then, a friend of mine at craft club lost her mother in law, and in going through all her posessions, she came across her mother in law's lace bobbins and some other tools. Catherine is a very good crafter - especially a crocheter - and she wanted to learn how to make lace. She bought a pillow and I took all my stuff to craft club to teach her. In my stuff I found these two books. 

I do remember the basics, and confidently taught Catherine how to make cloth stitch and half stitch in Torchon lace. But I kind of want to go further than that this time around. So I pulled out these books and dipped in and out of them over a few days. They have a bunch of diagrams and prickings which I will use. I want to practise the basics again and get really confident with different threads and so on, as well as with estimating how much thread I will need on each bobbin! I am determined to make notes so that I learn as I go along! 

Both of these books are full of helpful hints, so they're definitely scoring high!