A Kitty weekend

What I was going to tell you about last time  - until it snowed - was the lace-making course at the weekend!  The Peebles Lacemakers and some from the Edinburgh Lace Club joined together for a weekend with lacemaking tutor, Kitty.  She’s a great teacher, and very dedicated.  Her preferred types of lace are the  family of continental  laces, Bruges, Flanders, Paris, Binche, Valencienne, Brussels, to name but a few!  Bet you didn’t know there were so many styles of lace, and that doesn’t include the English laces –  Buckinghamshire Point, Bedfordshire, Honiton, and the geometric lace most of us cut our teeth on, Torchon.  They all have their own distinctive designs, but I have to say I don’t know the differences between a lot of them.  I recognise the English laces, and one or two of the Continental laces, for example Bruges flower lace, which lends itself very well to pictures.

That’s what Alwyn is doing here.  She’s using the techniques to work a picture of a tree branch with leaves and flowers with a nest and a couple of birds. This type of lace is worked in pieces and eventually joined together by a background pattern.  The dark edges are the pins that have been pushed down into the “pillow” to hold the pieces in place, and will ultimately be removed, and all the threads will be finished off.

Liz on the other hand has completed a couple of   beautiful pieces of Binche. Now that’s a continuous lace and is pretty complicated!   I have to tell you she didn’t do these in a weekend.

 

 

 

 

Here’s a close-up!  A bit stunning, aren’t they?!

The next piece is stunning too.

 

Catherine made this, again not in a weekend, despite its tiny size.  That’s a pencil sharpener next to it in case you didn’t recognise it. Love those tiny snowflakes!

 

I was hoping to get started on a piece of Buckinghamshire Point lace (right), but hit a few problems with the pattern on paper, so Kitty and I talked over potential problems it might throw up once I get it started, so that I can work on it  myself.  I’ll probably start it when I go to Knoydart in the summer.  So instead I did some tentative pattern-designing instead.  I haven’t really come up with anything brilliant, but I’ll keep trying. 

The rest of the group worked on their various pieces, interspersed with breaks for cups of tea or lunch, and Kitty moved round everyone in turn, helping and demonstrating, drawing diagrams to explain techniques, etc.    It was a very enjoyable weekend.  I’m just sorry I didn’t get started on my lace, as I know I’ll not get any done now till the Knoydart week.  

Talk again soon.