I just a few weeks ago completed my first ever strip of bobbin lace. 36 inches and even though it was a VERY VERY easy pattern, it was my first ever attempt to do a piece without someone watching over me to help.
Absolutely fantastic! Congratulations! It's solving problems *on your own* that teaches you the most in the long run; those solutions -- even if not always "traditional" -- are the ones you're most likely to *remember* :)
I had never had anyone show me how to FINISH a piece since all I'd ever done was practice pieces in classes, so I had to just sortof make the end up once I got there.
Excellent. But you need Bridget Cook's "Practical Skills in Bobbin Lace" (aka "The Cook Book" <g>) to ease the stress of finishing a piece. Different pieces often require a slightly different approach depending on a situation, and her book -- which still fails to include some -- offers 48 of them :) For anyone independently-minded, it's a must-have book...
I was doing a piece with 2 different colors where I wanted one side to be one color, and the rest to be a different color. I didn't have a clue how to do this, so I just played around with the bobbins and adding different crosses and twists until i got the look I wanted, and just did the same thing for the whole length. In the end, it looked just how I had wanted it to look.
Wow! You have discovered, for yourself, the most important "lacemaker's helper" -- the twist :) Extra crosses, yes, they're good too; but "the power of twist" rules supreme :) That's what lets you keep the colours where you want them, and to swap an almost empty worker bobbin for a full, passive one, and, and, and... The magic of the twist is neverending :)
I don't have a clue if I did things the right or wrong was for the part I had to make up, but it worked.
If the visual effect is what you had been aiming at, then it's right; it may not be the "traditional" way of doing something, but, if all we ever did was pray at the altar of tradition, we'd never move a step forward...
I'm just working on simple things and I'm sure working on more complicated pieces and patterns it becomes MUCH more vital to follow precise instructions
But, you see, by the time you get to more complex pieces, your skills and judgement will have developed right along, also :) So you'll never again be learning *everything* "from scratch"; you'll just be adding bits to what you know already. Which will always leave you some room to maneuver, to change the things you imagine differently than what you're *told*...
The piece I just finished was given away as a gift, which I am profoundly thankful for. I can't imagine that in years to come I will want to look at it and go " Oh my GOSH!!! Look at what i did!" and cringe.
I've kept my very first piece... :) Sometimes it gets "buried" deep enough in the general mess so I can't find it when I want to, but it always manages to surface sooner or later; usually when I *need* it, too <g>. It serves a *double* purpose: 1) it tells me never to get too swollen-headed -- nobody's first diaper is all that impressive... and, 2) it tells me not to get too depressed over problems -- I've come a long way since then...
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Tamara P Duvall
Lexington, Virginia, USA. 20degree Farenheit (ca -6C) and dropping. Which, for us, is *cold*
Formerly of Warsaw, Poland (where -6 in January was "nice and crisp")
http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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