Aren't my toys nice

I wondered if I would get to this today. It has gotten to be a busy evening.

At my bobbin lace class today I started a test of pattern 3 from Underwood’s Introducing Traditional Bedfordshire Lace in 20 Lessons. The interesting event of the last couple of days was that all of my bobbins were off the pillow. Though some did have thread on them.

I took this opportunity to photograph the various groups of bobbins.

When I first started this class in the summer of 2008 the friend who invited me (one of my sons' Godmother) had made some skewer based bobbins. I know my oldest son still has some of these and hopefully I will find them and present them here.

My first set of “real” bobbins was an anniversary gift from my wife back in 2008; six dozen Lacis 4” hardwood bobbins. I like them but they are too big to fit my Mattson Mora winder. These old hands do not like winding too many bobbins.

I made an order for supplies in September of 2009 and added a dozen of the SMP Traditional Middland bobbins and thought I was set up. But before February of 2010 I decided to go through Underwoods’s Introducing Traditional Bedfordshire Lace in 20 Lessons and knew I would need more bobbins.

In July of 2010 I ordered 200 bobbins from SMP in England. This order included 50 of the Traditional Midlands and 50 of the Fancy Midlands. The remaining 100 are Honiton, but that’s another book and another dream. These turned into another wonderful anniversary (August 21) present.

It took a bit too finally get the 100 midlands spangled, and there were times I thought I might be a bit whelmed. But before Christmas 2010 I found myself in spangling withdrawal and ordered a dozen of the polished beech East Midlands from van Sciver, my favorite supplier.

So that’s 72 Lacis, 62 Traditional Midlands, 50 Fancy Midlands, and 12 Beech East Midlands for a total of 196 bobbins, or 98 pairs.

Ok I also have two commemorative bobbins. One from Hilary Davies' class last November the other was a prize.

Last Christmas season the Lace Guild in England had this fun Advent Calendar where you got hints indicating the location of a particular style of lace, and if you were able to identify the style of lace associated with each and every hint you were entered in a drawing. Two were selected and I have a second commemorative bobbin, Two Turtle Doves.

They are beautiful aren’t they? At some point I started using primarily semiprecious stone beads. And I found that I had more fun if I made two matching spangles at a time as this requires half the thought.

At this point I guess it is time to seriously think about moving up to the next level of bobbins, we have a wonderful local maker, but that is not really a consideration at this time as I might have enough bobbins for my immediate plans.

Pattern3 only takes 18 pairs, and even if I start this Torchon piece I want to do I have more than enough. Its was March of 2009 when I finished my last Torchon piece and I want to make sure I remember the technique plus I have a beautiful Gold Velveteen Roller Pillow by Van-Dieren I received last July. Not only have I not used it I have not shown it to my lace friends. I’ll get into pattern 3 and then start looking at the Torchon.