Alice wrote:
what set me down the path of printing off small bits of pattern and checking the route of the working threads like you might follow a road map.
When I started lace almost 20 years ago, I didn't actually have a teacher, more of a mentor who had studied with Pat Nottingham some years before. Of course, she recommended Pat's book, _Techniques of Bobbin Lace_, in which the patterns are arranged to increase in complexity. She explains in detail the first time a technique is used, but only mentions it in subsequent patterns, so it is necessary to work all the patterns. The ones I didn't care for only were only worked for a couple of repeats.
So I practically taught myself from the book. However, several lacemakers in our area met weekly to make lace and we helped each other work out problems. A couple of us also drove over the mountain 50 miles to the next city one a month to meet with the group there and our mentor.
One of the things my mentor recommended was to make an enlarged copy of the pricking and "Work the lace with a pencil" drawing lines from dot to dot in the order one would work from pinhole to pinhole.
I still do this sometimes, especially with floral Bucks where there is no "right way" to work it. It is much easier to rub out a pencil line then to retro-lace. I recommend this to beginner lacemakers, especially those who are more pictorial than word oriented.
Louise in Central Virginia [email protected] - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
