Oh, that is a wonderful book. Very satisfied customer, nothing more. Barbar Corbet, Flandrische Spitze/Flanders Lace. At IOLI last year, Holly held it up and told me to buy it. Literally. So I did, and began the house in September. There is a house on the front, and that is the learning piece. It starts simply, and progresses. At the end you're doing Binche snowballs and springslag. The very front has all the instructions, with closeup pictures, a colored diagram and the more traditional black and white thread by thread diagram when needed. German and English. Then there is the sampler, with excellent colored diagrams for each step, as well as a picture of the finished project. I like that sampler much better than little pieces. You get to have something you could actually frame when you are done, which is nice. You get a chance to use different grounds, all well explained in the front and in the diagram. Plus, since the thing is on your pillow, you are much more likely to finish the project and learn more than you would with a series of strips of grounds and figures, or a hankie filled with slugs, which does not progress you very far after the first few motifs. When I was done, I considered myself an intermediate Flanders lacemaker. There is also a set of coasters, in a similar progression, a wedding hankie, and several other things. I did the hankie with little peas, but in a meander down the side of the hankie, much prettier than having them all in a row. Once you're done the house, I don't think there will be many problems at all with the other projects. I started adult life as a 7th grade English teacher, and I know good teaching when I see it. This book is especially good for the American market, where teachers are thin on the ground, and a weekend course barely gets you started. This is something you can do step by little step on your own. Some bits weren't easy, and took some contemplation to figure it out, like what I call false horizontal ring pairs, but the information is all there. The only criticism I have of the book is that I think there needs to be a set of written rules for Flanders, like virtually always 2 pair between pins, count your pairs carefully, you'll find mistakes sooner. Lift the left over gimp, that sort of thing. Flanders is such a regulated lace, so sensible, when you need a pin, you find the hole for it right there to pull against. Except for decreases. Learning rules is ultimately a good thing for lace, and I think a page of such rules would go a long way to help lacemakers who carry on without teachers. But I donât know of any books offhand that have such a thing.
Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA, where itâs supposed to be sunny and a high of 65F 16.5C. Good day for being outside, making lace, drinking tea. -----Original Message----- From: Lorelei Halley Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2012 12:37 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [lace] tensioning Flanders Lyn Tell us about the Barbara Corbet book. That is one I haven't heard of. Lorelei - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
