I started to make bobbin lace in 1970. Nena Lovesey started me off with a simple pillow, some Belgian bobbins, and excellent basic instruction! I loved it! When she thought I was able enough, she introduced me to the Swedish Knipplerscan books. There were two paperback books of patterns, starting with the simplest and gradually increasing the complexity. As I remember, there were few instructions, just the pattern and a picture of the finished lace.
I had no more formal instruction from Nena, and I just worked these Torchon patterns for quite a while. Then I found the Maidment book, Mincoff and Marriage, Doreen Wright’s book and then Pam Nottingham’s. And the rest is history - for me at least - my favourite occupation. Nena believed that the two wars had split families up, and moved them apart, so that grandparents were no longer able to pass on craft skills to grandchildren. So she instigated the opening of a craft centre, and collected as many crafts people as she could to pass on their skills to another generation. This included “male” crafts as well as “female” ones. I think she had a big influence on lace, in this area of the UK at least, where she taught and encouraged so many lace makers. The 1970’s saw lace classes start, and therefore the production of pillows, bobbins, pins etc. when there was a market for them - and then of course lace days, the Lace Guild, the Lace Society, and the realisation that there was a large lacemaking community in the UK as well as in Europe. Kathleen In a wet and chilly Berkshire UK Sent from my iPad - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
