Lacemaking

I received a basic lacemaking set for Christmas and have started playing!

Initially I thought that the plastic bobbins wouldn't be nice to work with but they are fine in your hands even if they're not very good quality.  A little niggle though is the  beads used for "spangling" the bobbins.  They are cheap and nasty plastic and do scratch.  It would have been helpful to have a little more wire to work with as there is very little excess to tie together and then thread in.  My bobbins are not the neatest but they'll do for now.

If you're doing this yourself points to remember are
- plastic bobbins are fine but you may want to file down the spare bits of plastic
- give yourself plenty of wire
- use wire cutters/pliers in bending/threading, it REALLY saves your thumbs
- treat yourself to some slightly nicer beads!!
- remember that the bobbins need to be done in pairs, NOT every one unique.  I laid my bobbins and beads out all nice and logically before starting and still managed to get it wrong and have to re-do half a dozen :(

  

Once you are all set up and get going the actual process of lacemaking isn't too difficult at all.  But before you get there you have to cut the thread and wind it on to the bobbins and put a special knot in to stop it unwinding.  It's quite time consuming and you do have to think while you're doing it.  I persevered with it but could quite easily have given up at this stage (particularly after the problems I had with the bobbins)

The lace I created looked quite nice and I was contemplating using it as a border for a flowery fabric collage picture.  But then the instructions got a bit complicated and I somehow ended up tying it into a not-very-neat circle.  I'm quite disappointed by this and acknowledge that I struggled to follow the instructions but am still pretty sure I did approximately what I was supposed to.


 I've given you a close-up photo to look at the detailing of the lace (now slightly ruched and stretched following the joining process) but I still think it can be used for something!

I'm going to carry on with the kit as there are several other patterns to try and I'm ?guessing, ?hoping all the different pieces will come together in some form of project.

OVERALL IMPRESSION
An OK kit for not a lot of money but some bits could do with upgrading.
Time consuming to set up but then fairly easy to actually carry out
Instructions for finishing off need a major re-haul and I shall be trawling the internet to find out how to do it properly