Bobbin Lace Book Worm

Yesterday I went to a bobbin lace class at the Fiber and Folk Festival in Crysal Lake. Sylvie Nugyen is a very good teacher. We made bookworms and I came home and finished mine. You can see it in the picture. I am not sure if I will start another lace project very soon but I enjoyed learning how to make bobbin lace and the bookworm is cute. I looked at all of the vendor booths and did a little bit of shopping but not too much.

On the way home I bought the new Harry Potter book for my son. He is busy reading. My daughter decided to start reading the books from the beginning. She is more than half way through the first one.

Sumptuous Surfaces

I have been thinking about a design for the first piece in the Sumptuous Surfaces class. I have brainstormed ideas, looked at pictures, studied the landscape and thought about different things that have meaning to me. Since I signed up for this course to experiment with using different fibers, objects and stitches to develop complex textures and surfaces, I finally decided that I needed to find a fairly simple design. My favorite is based on my favorite coffee cup

I developed 3 sketches:

I think that I like this one the best. I have ideas for stitches and threads to u

se on

it as well. The monochrome, neutral colors that I pulled from my stash should work well.

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Before I started sketching, I brainstormed a mind map with cup of coffee at the center and came up with quite a few words and associations:

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Cup of Coffee:

Morning -- wake up! rise and shine! fresh start, peaceful moment on my own, start the day with a cup; friendship -- neighborhood coffee, church coffee hour, lets get together for coffee; warm/comforting -- wrap my hands around cup when cold, comforting smell, soothing taste, Mike making me coffee makes me feel cared for; many types of cups -- delicate porcelain, Grammy Baugh's demitasse cups, substantial mug; Percolator/drip coffee maker -- grumbles and gurgles; Grinder -- whirr/whirr; Diner waitress -- "can I refill your cup, hon?"; coffee with newspaper or crossword puzzle on Sunday morning; coffee in the car on the way to work; Mom and Dad drinking coffee; Starbucks everywhere

Knitting

We were on vacation this past week so there have been no posts and not much stitching or reading but there has been some knitting. Here is my progress on m first sock. I used a koigu yarn and am using a pattern from one of Sally Mellville's books. I am ready to turn the heel and start on the foot.

Also, after much ripping out and starting over, I got my sea cell shawl started. I am adapting a scarf pattern from Interweave Knitter's magazine. When I counted correctly doubling the width of the scarf worked and you can see the lace effect and some of the color changes.

Ready for class

After participating in Sharon B's Take A Stitch Tuesday challenge, I decided to sign up for her on-line class Sumptuous Surfaces offered through Joggles. I have been collecting materials for the past week. You can see them in the picture.

I have collected different neutral colors in threads and ribbons made of cotton, linen, rayon, and silk. There are some seed beads, bugles and some natural stone beads. I think that they will be fun to play with. I should get the first class lesson tomorrow.