For me, it was the fact that my older, prettier, cleverer etc. cousin could tat. And as a pernickety 14 year old (what an awful age), I thought I could too. I bought the book, shuttle, thread, but couldn't master it, and had to go cap in hand to her to get instructions. And she was so awfully sweet about it! It was a good lesson in life for me.
My cousin moved on to bobbin lacemaking, so I knew I would too one day, but it got put aside for some 40 plus years, until I went visiting a craft shop in a country town with a group of tatters, and the forceful personality owner spotted one of my tatted booties made up as a pincushion and demanded six from me for her bobbin lacemaking friends. We settled on a swap for a pillow with three blocks down the middle and two fixed side pieces, some thread and a set of 20 spangled dowel bobbins. I still think I got a good deal, but I never made a tatted bootee again, after making those six. I hate making things to order. These items stayed in their carry bag (even though I joined Arachne in the meantime) until we semi-retired and moved to Cooma over 7 years ago, where I finally had time to sit in peace and work my way through Rosemary Shepherd's book Introduction to Bobbin Lacemaking. All by myself, no other lacemakers around. And I was totally hooked. I've since joined up with some groups of lacemakers in Canberra (my nearest city). Arachne was always a great help and encouragement, and I still can't get by without my dose of Lace and Lace-Chat on Arachne every day. And over the years, I have developed an ability to write verse about lace. I have no idea where the ability comes from, I can't write about anything else at all, but if I get a germ of an idea, that's enough for the words to flow. But ONLY about lace! And through Arachne, I've been able to share these all over the world. It's great fun. Noelene in Cooma, Australia (just 110 km south of the capital city of Canberra) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nlafferty/ - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
