A Finished Object



Wedding rings motif from 50 New Bobbin Lace Patterns by Claire Burkhard.

If I were going to name this project, it would probably be “mistakes have been made,” because well... they have. But still, not a bad job overall considering how rusty I am with my bobbin lace skills (last project completed prior to 2007) and how much I had reduced this pattern (35% of the original), and therefore how difficult it was to see where I was to place pins, and what stitches to make where.



This is what it looked like soon after I started hanging on bobbins and making lace. I used the same Continental-style bobbins I used to make lace to re-make the family heirloom Christening gown that was destroyed in a fatal fire in December 2004... so I guess that means the last time I made lace was in 2005. Ee-gads - no wonder I felt out of my depth!

I used a spool of cobalt blue Gutermann silk thread that I happened to have in my stash.

Bobbin lace is essentially a weaving process, but I’m creating the loom on the pillow as I work, setting pins in the critical points. The density of the finished piece as made by the number of bobbins, thickness of thread, types of stitches, and number of twists, holds the shape in its finished form. I’m essentially blocking the lace as I go, much as knitted lace is blocked after it is finished.



The pattern was too small for me to easily read without the help of several magnifying lenses.



This is what one of the two motifs looked like right before I removed the pins.



And the two finished motifs with a quarter to show scale. I said it was really tiny, right?



Afterward I fastened it to the bride-furnished garter along with a cluster of silvery glass beads as faux stamens.

This was not an easy task period, and not an easy one to integrate into a very busy summer schedule driven mainly by near-death, death and dying of ones (multiple) near and dear, together with the foolish desire to earn a living wage.

Could I have done better? Probably. But it is done, it was done and in the hands of the bride a week before the blessed event. And I dare say, no one has the eyesight and knowledge to point out my errors. If they do, they, at least, will surely understand and keep their big yappers shut.