Monday, March 19, 2012

Other ventures

So, I've been going on and on about needle lace (don't ask me what kind, because I take techniques from different styles)... but, what ever happened to bobbin lace?

Bum bum ba-da!!!!! I present to you: Camile -->
She is my lace-making pillow. I made her myself, stuffing her with tow (some of it cut up, some not) and two socks filled with rice.
For instructions on making your own lace pillow... try to touch that face's nose:  ^_^

Anywho... the sticks with the rubber bands around them are my makeshift bobbins. They're actually dowels that I got for like ___ at this Mexican wannabe version of Micheal's called Parisina.They're really supposed to look something along the lines of this, or this depending on what type of lace you're making (click here for a brief summary of what "depending on what type of lice you're making" means)

As you can see... they don't exactly match up, which, my dear readers, is why I got a little OCD and decided to take matters into my own hands... mwahaha.

<-- Here left, I give you the results of my boredom (and a little bit of hardheadedness).
The first stick, is obviously the original dowel. At about six and a half inches long, it was a little clunky to say the least.

Stick #2, stage 1 of production: I chopped off the end at 4 1/2 inches and carved out the area that held the string.

Stick 3.0 --> Here's where I discovered that I have a problem: I can never let it go. It was just nagging, and nagging and nagging at me that the freaking bobbin looked too plain. Of course, I thought long and hard about my sore thumbs, potential calluses and possible future arthritis... but then decided to screw it. I wanted my bobbins to look nice--even if it took me two years to whittle out a decent sized set.

I think it turned out pretty nifty if I do say so myself =D I've decided on a schedule: I will only work on these things during the weekend, and I will only make two--and I mean two--at a time. This being a measure to make sure I keep my hands young (0.0) and to make sure I can retain enough feeling in them to type up my notes for school =D




Tuesday, March 13, 2012

First genuine attempt

Okay, so this time I actually just made something to make it, and to try to get a little fancier. I think it turned out pretty good, and I have to say that it took an insanely long time to make it, what with school and all. Counting only pure labor it took like... somewhere upwards of 15 hours to make (that's a loose estimate) give or take three or four hours--But all together it was somewhere like maybe three weeks or so.

 So, let's see what we have:

The solid areas area a very closely packed whipped buttonhole stitch. The netting is a point d'espagne (single twisted buttonhole stitch) and the edges are just your typical single brussels stitch, except just on the outside of the lace instead of the inside.

The edging was one of two new things that I tried. The second was the thin bars connecting the little loopy things in the middle of the design. Those are called Sorrento bars --> which I will soon post pictures of (really, I already have some sample stitches ready).

All in all, I think it turned out okay. Any comments?



Saturday, March 10, 2012

just an fyi... I have changed the URL of the [now] lace workshop!
In retrospect, perhaps "lace adventures" wasn't the wisest pairing of words around...