Lefkara Lace Table Mat

Back in September last year I had the absolute pleasure of participating in a workshop by Christine P. Bishop. The workshop was on Lefkara lace, something that really got my toes curling and made me weak at the knees. The workshop notes stipulated fabric, fabric size, thread, and even colour. Being the good little student that I am, I complied with the tutors wishes.

Behold my finished piece! It may be similar to the tutor's, but I have changed and added a few things to make it my own.

The piece we were supposed to do only included the end border, on one end only. On the day of the workshop I had already decided that I would do it at both ends. Then as I worked the design, I thought I would put the design all the way around the edge.
So I started counting and thread lining, only to find the design wouldn't fit along the length of the piece of fabric. I was only about 20 threads short. Bugger! So disappointing! If only I hadn't cut the piece of linen to the specified size! Oh well, I just had to re-think.

So re-think I did, and I took only part of the original design and repeated it all along the longer side. Personally I think it worked out OK.

The next thing I did was to change the hem. The instructions said to buttonhole over 3 threads. Everything else in the design was over three threads, so of course the hem was too. From a counting and design point of view I could understand it, but I was thinking of strength and changed it to stitch over four threads. I did little samples on the edges of my fabric to test it out. It looked OK, and I couldn't see how it would effect the needle lace on the edge. So my hem is stitched over four threads.

Then I changed the needle lace at the edge. The original design only had the needle lace along one end, and I wanted it all the way around. I also wanted it different, and I had made up my mind to make it different on the day of the workshop. I had plans of doing something more elaborate than what I actually did, but the best laid plans can always be changed! I settled for simple loops with an added picot. It's still different than the tutor's.

The final change came as all the borders were being finished. I felt that the space in the center of the piece was too big and open, and it needed  'something' to balance it all out. I had placed a row of four sided stitch just inside the borders to 'hold' them together, so I just repeated another row of four sided stitch a little further in, which I think has worked beautifully.

So my Lefkara table mat is finished. Would I do another piece? Maybe one day. I still have the other end of the piece of linen left from this piece. Watch this space!

Finished

My blue scarf is finished, just in time as the weather is wintry today. Cold, showery & windy. I really wanted it a little longer, but when I went back to buy another ball of the same yarn there was none left. I guess it doesn't need to be super long as the ruffles are enough to come up my neck & keep it warm. No need to wrap around, it would be too thick for that, and it's long enough to tuck into a coat neckline.
It rolls into a little ball for storing and I just love the picots along the edge, super easy. This one is made in a cheap acrylic yarn, not something I am particularly fond of, but it is warm & will serve a purpose.

The Knitting Bug

I've been hit by the knitting bug.

I was given some lovely textured yarn a few months back as a gift & it has been sitting there waiting patiently for me to decide what to do with it. I knew I had to add something to it, but first I had to decide what to make and a scarf was the obvious choice. So when my long time friend M... came for a visit from the country, we headed off into the city to Morris & Sons to see what we could find. Well of course there was plenty, & I came home with some 8 ply in two colours & a pattern for a ruffled scarf.

That night I dug out my knitting needles & as the 8 ply required a different size needle to my textured yarn, I chose a needle size halfway between the two. Nothing like a little creative knitting!

After a little play, I decided to go down a size, but found that my lovely needles that I'd had for many years had started to deteriorate. All the coating was starting to come off & the yarn was catching. Bugger! Not to worry, I had another stash that had belonged to my Mum & I found a pair of appropriate size in plastic which got me out of trouble.

So last Saturday I visited my local Lincraft store to stock up on my knitting needle supply. It had been years since I had bought any, I had a great range of sizes. So much variety! Which length to choose? Metal, plastic or bamboo? I am used to knitting with metal needles so kept with those in a long length. Then I spied these lovely wooden ones with turned ends which I can't wait to try.

So what am I knitting? My ruffled scarf of course! I started off with the pattern I bought, then found a similar one elsewhere but with great variations, so I am trying one variation in a cheap yarn to see if I like it or not. It has picots along the edge, something I have not done before. I hadn't knitted ruffles like this before either but they are relatively easy.


Once I finish this one, then I will decide how I can incorporate my lovely textured multi coloured yarn with my plain coloured wool. The weather has turned decidedly chilly with snow falling last week not to far away so scarves will come in very handy.

How many Eyelets?

At long last I can show my table mat, finally finished. It began as something small to take away on holidays last year and grew and changed lots. At first I decided on the border, then the hem. I wanted to do another type of picot hem but didn't have enough fabric so settled on a buttonholed hem. Then when everything was finished it looked to plain so I added the bullion picots. This is the first time I have ever added them to a piece of work and I think they just finished it off nicely. This was also the piece that was supposed to feature some filet work in the center, but instead has a considerable number of eyelets.

Just a closer look at the corner.

My First Bedfordshire Bookmark

One of my personal challenges this year was to start learning Bedfordshire Lace. Anyone who wants to see my progress so far can check out my bobbin lace pages.

The bookmark above is my latest attempt, and my first attempt at designing this type of lace. That is if you call it designing. It is just an edge pattern that has been mirrored with some extra tallies & plaits down the center. I also experimented with some different picots, and some DMC stranded thread. It will be a while before I use either of these elements again. I found the stranded thread a little too soft for bobbin lace, though I would not rule it out altogether as there are some great colours available. As for the picots, these were just simple ones, and I like the twisted ones I did before much better as they hold their shape better.

Anyway, the book mark is finished, and now I can move onto the next piece

Tally Practice

After my last effort with tallies I decided I needed more practice as well as some help. So I tottered off for a lesson with a reputable lace teacher. I wanted to have a lesson on tallies, and not waste precious lesson time on working plaits to get to the tallies, so found another design in another book that was just about all tallies. Yippee! OK, there were two footsides and one plait but I thought that would be easy enough, so I set about making the pricking & setting up the lace ready for my lesson.

Mmm............. how did I start this piece of lace? Back to the book, no help there. OK, so author assumes only experienced lace makers want to use their books. Not so, but I still had a problem & needed to solve it. So I just "had a go" and have no idea what I did. I was OK with the footsides, but it was the tally/plait junction that had me stumped. All of a sudden I discoverd something called "6 pr crossings", now that was new! So were the picots on both sides of the plait. Now did I say this piece of lace was going to be easy?

So, my easy piece of lace that was going to give me lots of practice with tallies, also gave me lessons in other lace techniques as well. My tallies have definately improved, I have learnt that there is more than one way to do a 6 pr crossing, twisted picots on the right are worked different than twisted picots on the left (& yes I need to practice those to get rid of the "rabbit ears", I learnt about "cluny crossings" rather than traditional Bedfordshire crossings, the fact that I need to concentrate when doing footsides on both sides, and that I need to think about the start of a desgin & change it if necessary.

Ah......... so much to think about, but at the ned of the day my tallies did improve, and that was the aim of the exercise. I wonder what I will learn with the next piece.

Bedfordshire Edge 2

I have been continuing on with the samples in Pamela Nottingham's "Bedfordshire Lace Making" as per my challenge 3 for 2009 which I lised here. Pattern No.2 is a continuation of the first, revising the footside, the plaits & the picots, as well as introducing the "leaf" or "petal" shaped tally. It has been quite some years since I have worked tallies, and then only a few of the square ones, so these leaf shaped ones are new to me. I was brave, and had a go all by myself. All I can say is that they definately take practice, practice, practice & still more practice. I wasn't too happy with them on the pillow, but now the lace is off the pillow I feel much happier with them, and they definately got better the more I did.

The pic above is the beginning of the sample, where I had absolutely no idea as to what I was doing. Girls on one of my on-line lace groups have given encouraging comments such as "all leaves are different in nature" & " it takes about 1000 tallies to get them right". One lady asked if my tallies looked like silverfish........................ ah, yes, at least the first couple do. I soon learnt to widen them.

This next pic is the center section of the sample and they are definately fatter than silverfish.

I read as many books as I could find, and got suggestions from a few people on-line. In the end I worked out my own method and was reasonally happy with what I ended up with. I just had trouble with them twisting. I think this might be a tension thing but I am not sure.

The last pic is the final end of the sample, definately much better than the beginning. I am not sure if I am connecting them correctly to the footside, and the outside edge of the tallies are not as smooth as I would like. So I have booked myself in for a lesson with a reputable lace teacher who only lives five minutes drive from me. So this sample is going to be repeated, maybe in a different thread.

All in all I think I did OK for a first effort by myself. My picots have definately got better as well, that is if I don't miss one. Any comments on how to improve these tallies will be greatfully recieved.

Lace Edge - Attempt 2

I've had another go at the same edge as in the previous post. This time I put the picots in each time, but as the thread was different to the last sample, I changed the number of twists I used. I have learnt the hard way that I used too many twists for my picots, and with help from many on-line lace friends, the next ones will be better.

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More Needlelace Trials

I am still trying to perfect my motifs of needlelace. Above are two more examples I have been expermenting with. The one on the right is sample number 2, where I still used the same thread as sample number one seen here but added in more support. It still proved unstable so then I tried sample number 3, the one on the left above, and added in still more support. I also left out the picots & changed some parts from wrapping to buttonhole stitch & vice versa. I used a different thread with this sample as well which I like much better. I have another two threads that I want to try but as far as design goes it is still back to the drawing board. I still need to add in much more support.

Stitching Sisters Band Sampler

Even though I have been away on holidays it doesn't mean I neglected my stitching. This is for a Counted Band Sampler Round Robin I have joined in with an on-line stitching group for the next 18 months. There are 9 of us in it with two months given to stitch our bands.

I have decided that each band will be of my own design and hopefully stretch me in some way.

This one is my own designs and it is the first time I have done one of the filling stitches. It also gave me a chance to practice my doves eyes that I learnt last year and realize that I need to practice my picots.

The threads are also some of my own hand dyed ones.