Romanian Point Lace Flower Motif

I finished couching the braid today, and did all my joins. I joined the petals of the flower, the leaf to the flower and the stem to itself and the flower.

I think I will do the braids first, and I'll have to read a bit before I get started. We did a small braid in the workshop, but I need to refresh my memory.

Romanian Point Lace - New Project

I've started another RPL project, a flower motif from Sylvia Murariu's book for beginners. I liked the flower in Project #5, but wanted a smaller size. I traced the flower, one leaf and some of the stems. The project in the book is 6x6 1/2" and mine is about 4" square.

When I got back from the RPL workshop, I started making braid, using a ball of #20 ecru Cebelia. Now that I have enough for this project, I've started couching the braid to the pattern. My braid isn't perfect but I wanted to start another project. I'm couching it down and hoping for the best.

Romanian Point Lace Workshop

I'm back from my workshop, and I must say I had a great time! I rode with a friend from the WMLG, and we left early Thursday morning. We stopped at a yarn and fabric shop in DeWitt, a resale shop, and a couple of antique shops. I don't ususally shop like that, and it was fun! D dragged me around, and I loved looking for lace and linens. I found a beautiful skein of lace weight yarn, a bobbin lace doily and some lace booklets and thread at the resale shop.

Friday we braved the crazy roads of Midland and found the church where the Mid Michigan Lace Makers held their spring workshop. It was a beautiful church; we were in basement classrooms with comfortable tables and chairs and good lighting.

The Romanian Point Lace class was small, 4 students on Friday, with another one coming on Saturday. LW had previously taught individuals to make the RPL braid, but this was her first time teaching a class. She said she was nervous, but she did a great job.

We paid $25 for a kit, which was in a nice canvas bag. We got a notebook, and ring binder which contained the pattern on muslin, a picture of the finished doily, pictures and instructions for making the braid and the needle lace stitches. There was a ziplock bag with bobbins of thread, tapestry and sewing needles, sewing thread for couching, and a needle threader. LW made all the cord we needed, and most of it was couched for us. She left just enough undone for us to get a taste of how to couch the braid.

LW taught us to make the braid first. We started with a large crochet hook and nylon rope. We could clearly see the stitches, they popped out at us. Next we used a 0 (zero) hook and some nylon thread, about the size of #10. Again, the nylon made the loops firm and easy to identify. She said the thread was for mending tents, and my DH said it reminded him of some thread he had to sew leather. Finally we went to #11 hooks and #10 thread. Not so easy for me, and I switched to my #10 with more success.

Next we learned to couch the cord, then we learned how to add in pieces and make joins. Before lunch we were ready to start on our first needle lace stitch, a pink basketweave stitch. We spent the rest of the workshop working on the fillings and learned 5 stitches in all. Mine is not even close to being finished, there's lots of opportunity to practice what I learned. The doily is based on a square, so there are 4 or 8 repeats of each stitch.

I had a great time at the workshop, and came home happy but exhausted. I feel like my brain has been stuffed with new techniques and ideas. The MMLM are wonderful gals, friendly and easy to talk to. They worked hard to give us this workshop, and I enjoyed every minute.

Tatted Edging and more

I am fighting a sinus infection left over from the flu. It just won't go away; I feel good enough to tat and drink tea. I'm getting tired of tea and making mistakes in my tatting.
This is #80 thread, ecru and what I had hoped would be a doily for a fair entry this year. This is my first mistake, and fortunately I have only 1 1/2 rings to unpick. The ring opened up nicely and I hope the little ring is just as cooperative.
I have no pattern for this doily, I'm just making it up as I go along. I think my next round will be some 6 (or 8) petal daisies, and I'll wind two shuttles and do them with split rings. I'm not sure how I'll get them to fit. I will probably guess and cut it off when I'm wrong.


This little variegated edging is about 12" long; about 1/4 done. It looks a bit wiggly, but will settle nicely around a hanky. Another possible fair entry, and a gift for my mom when I get it back. There are 3 sizes of rings, the smallest is 6p6, the medium is 4p4p4p4, and the largest is 4, 7p sep by 2, 4, joined by the first and last ps.

Needles and Hooks

I'm going to a workshop in April, taking a class in Romanian Point Lace. I needed a way to carry crochet hooks and scissors, plus I'm very prone to losing my needles. I thought about it and made a little case to carry everything I need for the class. The case is about 3x5" when closed. I tatted a flower fragment from Mary Konior's book, and used that for a closure. It's not very convenient to open once I get it closed. I think it will be mostly decoration.
Here it's open, you can see there is a pocket for crochet hooks, and another for my little scissors. The pocket at the top holds a little needle book, just big enough to keep them from straying.