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Last night was a 'bad' night (again!) and I finally sat down and tried to distract myself by working on the little 'star' I started a few days ago and hadn't touched since.

It's not perfect, and I'm not entirely happy with it.  I think when I took the photo of the pricking the page wasn't entirely flat and that caused the pricking to be slightly distorted.  But I'm continuing with this star because I'm learning how I need to approach making it.  If I decide to continue, I've learned a number of things that I want to change, plus I'm getting used to working in the 'round', which means a certain amount of fiddling with the cover cloth and making sure the pins are pushed all the way in.

The cover cloth has a hole in the middle and you place the opening over the area you are working.  In the photo, I folded the cloth over so that I could see what I had done.  During the working, you only ever see an area about the size of a tennis ball (if that).  The cover cloth is over most of the pins but you still wind up catching the threads on the pins surrounding the area you are working on.

I'm also getting familiar with the sew-in tool again.  With the braid crossing over itself, you have to attach the upper braid to the lower and you need to 'sew' the workers to the already made lower braid.  It's fiddly, especially when the threads want to catch on everything.  But if I don't do it while making the braid, I'd have to 'sew' it after it's off the pillow.  

I don't want to work the lace in the centre of the star, but when I was out the other day I stopped at the Dollar Store (now the $2 store - inflation!) and found a packet of several sizes of glass 'pearls', some of them large enough I could hang one in the middle of the star.  So I'll try doing that as part of the 'practice' I'm doing making this first one.

I have collected several other designs that would be appropriate for a Christmas tree, so I will have several different motifs I can make.  Since they have to be ready by the end of October, I have a deadline, so I'm going to have to get cracking.  The goal is to have 40 bobbin lace ornaments to hang on the tree.  Most of them are fairly small, so I'm not expecting any trouble making that goal in plenty of time.  

If I keep going and stop procrastinating!