Insomnia

 

Could not get to sleep last night and in the end gave up trying for a while and decided to distract myself by working on the bobbin lace bookmark on my pillow.

It isn't 'pretty' but it's done.  It could use a good pressing, although there are a few issues with tension (I'm out of practice) and the yarn is slippery and thicker than 'usual' (it was a practice piece).  But overall, I figured it out, even though it took a few runs at it.

This style of lace is called Torchon and is about the simplest of the bobbin laces.  Since I hadn't touched bobbins for at least 5 years, I was actually surprised that I remembered (or my hands did) what to do.  Mostly.

It was also a good reminder to pay attention to the pattern (pricking) instead of just assuming!  

Once that was done I stripped the bobbins from this and the previous project (a dud, but good practice to get me going).  In the bag with the bookmark pillow there was a package of bobbins already wound with yarn, so next I'll see about doing a project with that.  It's 2/20 mercerized cotton and I used to use that a lot for lace making.  It's thicker than sewing thread, but still thin enough that it makes good bookmarks and such.  And I need more practice before I do my lace 'taster' sessions.

Since I no longer have a photocopy machine I'll have to scan and print out the prickings to work from, but I think I can 'size' them by pasting into Word, then enlarging the 'picture'.  Something to try later.

In the meantime, I did manage a few hours of sleep (eventually) so I'm going to go weave on the loom.  I think I can finish the navy 2/16 today, then cut off and re-tie.  

Once the navy cotton is done, I'll switch to some of the linen I 'discovered' in November.  But that linen is thicker than 2/16 cotton, so I'll weave a header, check what the yarn wants to beaten in at, then decide on a treadling and generate the length.  Since the linen is heavier, I will be using a finer linen (limited in quantity) to weave the hems, so I have to program the treadling to warn me when I need to switch to the hem weft, then weave in a cut line (which I can do by changing the tie up, OR inserting a contrasting colour).  There is probably more than enough of the linen to finish this warp, so the rest of it will get used up on the next warp.  And then one more yarn will be used up.  

I won't use the heavier linen for bobbin lace because it is a singles, but the finer linen thread could be used for lace as it is plied.  I will see what is left at the end.

Another grey dreary day.  It is raining.  In January.  The roads are sheets of ice.  The snowpack is melting away - and there was too little to begin with.  It seems the current drought conditions are going to continue in the 'north' for the coming year.

Things, they are a-changing...