Gentle Spiders,
While I'm not yet *quite* ready to disconnect from my life-support (Arachne), it won't be long, and I don't expect to be doing much (if any) posting either tomorrow or Sunday (and will be in the air Monday, landing in Warsaw, via Frankfurt, on Tuesday)...
With "days remaining" being ticked off on the calendar at an alarming speed, I've been watching the mailbox (snail-mail) with the zeal of a most dedicated spy :) Got my IOLI reminder today, so, at least, *that* can be sent before I leave (along with the checks for UNESCO, for the Better-Kerry-Than-Nothing campaign, and for Doctors Without Borders)... Doubtless, my Visa bill, my Lace subscription reminder, and my application for the Ithaca workshop will all arrive the day after I've left, with the appropriate "penance" for late reading/reacting attached to all :)
But, *some* relevant mail *has* been coming in, even if I only had time enough to take a quick peek, and it seems that spring is, indeed, the "time of creation"... :)
First, I got Michelle Chase's Master Thesis on American (as in: US) Lacemaking; thanks, Michelle (sorry, I didn't have your e-address in my addressbook, so couldn't send a private message). Michelle has done a great job of pulling it all together, especially when one considers how little *truly American* lace there has been made in the short time US has been US.
Then I got #2/'04 OIDFA Bulletin, which told me: "when you receive this Bulletin, there will be only a few months left before the... Congress". Thanks, I needed that moment of a belly-laugh.
The cream-cake of all lace-related mail was Sally Barry's Vol.II of Luton Lace Treasury... Another 50 patterns: all Geometric Bucks as before and, as before, in the same format: pricking, black-and-white diagram, a few words of clarification as needed per specific pattern, and a few extra diagrams where the gimp path might be a bit confusing, with the patterns arranged in order from the smallest to the largest number of pairs needed to execute each. *Not*, necessarily, in the easiest to hardest order, mind you <g>; this is *not* a Bucks Point teaching manual; it's your "exercise book", to practice what you already know, and spread your wings a bit in the technique.
In Volume I, the introductory "icing" of the cake was the history of the Luton's "Lace Dealer's Pattern Book". In this one, it's the use (with some illutrrations) to which the lace can be put.
Volume II also has the "cherry on top" -- the pattern that wasn't... :) The oddity -- a single, machine-made, piece of lace (which Sally had not been able to reproduce by using bobbins), is shown in an enlarged photo, and discussed briefly.
As in any compilation that big, it's hard to decide which pattern to make first; there are many appealing. But, because of Arachne, I think I'll toss my vote for the "Spider Dance"... :)
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) Healthy US through The No-CARB Diet: no C-heney, no A-shcroft, no R-umsfeld, no B-ush.
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