bobbin lace – The Crochet Architect

May 2, 2022May 2, 2022

Crochet Sightings and Vacation Highlights

Last month, my husband and I took a 3 ½ week trip in our motorhome from Arizona to Texas and back. We met up with some good friends, Dan and Janine, for the first part of the trip and had a great time! We did lots of sightseeing, ate delicious food, did some walking and hiking, met up with an old friend, Kathy, and her husband, Randy, did lots of driving (my husband drives the motorhome while I crochet) and all around had a great experience! I even saw some crochet and other crafts on our trip!

Since we moved into our new home 7 months ago, we’ve been doing a lot of renovations (painting, decorating, etc). It was nice to get away from all the work, relax and see God’s creation!

Here are the places we went and things we saw on our trip:

Benson, AZ – saw/toured Kartchner Caverns

Tombstone, AZ and Bisbee, AZ – walked around and saw the sights

Kerrville & Fredericksburg, TX – did some sightseeing and shopping

San Antonio, TX – did some sightseeing, went on a riverboat/gondola ride, toured the Alamo, ate dinner at the Chart House restaurant that revolves at the top of Tower of the Americas (a tower that was built for the 1968 World’s Fair)

Houston, TX – went to the Space Center Houston and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

Galveston, TX – toured the Bishop’s Palace (the 1892 Josephine and Walter Gresham house)

McDade, TX – stayed at Hummers Homestead Alpacas (a Harvest Host)

Austin, TX and Moody, TX – stayed and hiked at 2 Texas State Parks

Waco, TX – went to Mammoth National Monument and Magnolia Farms (Chip & Joanna Gaines from Fixer Upper HGTV show fame have a very nice area in Waco for shopping, relaxing, eating and playing outdoor games)

Here are the crochet/crafting highlights of the trip:

These are some cute crochet baskets that were at Magnolia Farms in Waco, TX. I think the same baskets that are on display on shelves are hung on the walls. Basically, from what I can see, the baskets are crocheted with rope and include a handle. I think they’re very cute (and stylish)! I’ve got some yarn that might work really well to crochet some of these beauties for my new home!!!

Crocheted rope baskets at Magnolia Farms in Waco, TX

More crocheted rope baskets at Magnolia Farms

Crochet rope baskets on wall at Magnolia Farms

This was a display at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. This was a free museum filled with crafts that are made from reclaimed/recycled materials. The display was called “Nothing Goes to Waste”. I thought this display, made with film slides, was absolutely awesome! So creative!!!

Close up of slides used in artistic piece at museum

Close up of mannequin covered in film slides at museum

Here’s a hyperbolic crochet piece on display at that museum. I’ve never done hyperbolic crochet before, but this is what it says online about it: “To crochet a hyperbolic structure you simply increase stitches at a regular rate in every row. The more often you increase, the more quickly the model will ruffle up.”

This piece of art was crocheted with 8mm film strips! Wow!

Art piece crocheted from 8mm film strips

Close up of film strips used to crochet piece at museum

Here are a crochet popcorn bedspread and a quilted bedspread that I saw in the Bishop’s Palace in Galveston, TX, along with the beds that these bedspreads were on.

Crocheted bedspread at Bishop’s Palace in Galveston, TX

Here is a crochet piece that was on the ornate dresser at the Bishop’s Palace, along with the dresser that it was on.

This is an embroidered piece with a bobbin lace edging that I saw at the Bishop’s Palace.

And this is the front of the Bishop’s Palace. It was an awesome place with lots of wood in the interior and lots of history!

These are some of the alpacas that we saw at Hummers Homestead Alpacas in McDade, TX.

Alpacas at Hummers Homestead Alpacas in McDade, TX

And this was the inside of their alpaca products store. They’re part of Harvest Hosts, which is a membership group where you reserve a spot at a participating host to stay in your RV for a night or two. In exchange for a spot to stay, you patronize their establishment. I bought 5 ounces of alpaca roving to spin on my Electric Eel Wheel spinning wheel (once I work up the courage to spin alpaca fiber)!

Alpaca roving from Hummers Homestead Alpacas
to spin into yarn

Here are a few other highlights (not craft-related):

While we were in Texas, we saw lots of bluebonnets blooming. They were everywhere and we loved them! In case you didn’t know, they’re the Texas state flower (and snakes like to hide in them).

This forest photo was taken at McKinney Falls State Park. This was our favorite place where we stayed during the whole trip!

Hiking at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, TX

It was really nice to get away, but it’s nice to be back home, too!

I hope you enjoyed this look at our trip and all the crafts I saw while on our trip.

Happy crocheting, crafting and traveling,

Susan

June 6, 2018June 5, 2018

The Ireland Portion of our Anniversary Trip

This blog post is a continuation of yesterday’s blog post about our 40th Anniversary trip to England and Ireland. If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, please check it out here!

After seeing some of London, we went to Ireland for a week. We saw the Cliffs of Moher on a good weather day! Wow! What a sight that was! The cliffs are very high and beautiful!

We toured a tower castle called Dysert O’Dea in County Clare. There’s a circular staircase in one corner of the castle that takes you to each floor and room of the castle. That was fascinating!

One of the highlights of Ireland for me was visiting the remains of the Ballyheigue Castle that is in my family ancestry! The castle was built in 1295 by Timothy de Cantelupe and held by his descendants, a line of Barons de Ballyheigue, until 1690. Many of my ancestors were born in Ireland and some of them emigrated to Canada in the 1840’s, around the time of the potato famine. What a thrill it was to be there where my ancestors lived many generations ago!

What’s a trip to Ireland without seeing the Ring of Kerry? There were so many pretty views there! I got to hold a lamb for the first time in my 60 years of life! What a thrill that was! The lamb was so soft!

I also visited a lace shop in Kenmare called the Kenmare Lace & Design Centre. It was on the 2nd floor near the Heritage Centre. I met Nora Finnegan there, the lady who runs the Lace Centre. She showed me how Kenmare Lace is made. And I bought a few souvenirs from the Lace Centre, too! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take photos inside. But take my word for it, the lace was exquisite! Kenmare lace is a needle lace and the quality of the pieces there was amazing!!!

My husband and I toured the Muckross House, a Victorian house built from 1839 to 1843 in Killarney National Park, and walked through the gardens. We also had lunch at their cafeteria. The house and gardens were gorgeous! I LOVE old houses and various types of architecture! The most fascinating story about the house is that the owners, Mr and Mrs Herbert, spent a lot of money to fix up the house and gardens for Queen Victoria’s visit in 1861. The queen only stayed 2 nights in the house! The expense almost bankrupted the Herberts!

There was a wool shop in County Kerry called Kerry Woollen Mills. I stopped in there and brought home a few souvenirs from that shop! The shop had lots of beautiful finished knit items to buy, but I just bought a hank of wool yarn and a cute sheep!

Another old house that we toured was the Fota House. That was an amazing house with gorgeous architectural details inside! The gardens were amazing, too! We had our own tour guide, Brian, who showed us many fascinating things in the house! What a fun tour that was!!!

We stayed at Air BnB’s in Ennis, Killarney, Cork, Waterford and Wexford. The BnB in Killarney was exceptional! The host, Adah, was so sweet and helpful! She even put an anniversary card and a box of chocolates in our room! Now that’s a great host!

Most of the Bed and Breakfasts met our expectations and most included breakfast, which was wonderful!

All in all, it was a fabulous trip! The weather in Ireland was sunny 4 out of 7 days! I guess that’s about average for there. If Arizona got that much rain, I bet we’d have as much green as Ireland! But then Arizona wouldn’t be a desert, would it?

Driving on the other side of the road was quite different! My husband drove and I was the co-pilot! Besides being the navigator using Google maps on my hubby’s phone, I got to say things like “you’re getting too close to the curb” or “there’s a rock wall coming up”! Sometimes I just felt like closing my eyes because it’s a little scary on that side of the car, especially when it’s your first time driving (or being the passenger) on the left-hand side of the road! But all in all, my hubby drove great and we survived the other side of the road! By the way, if you didn’t already know, some of the roads in Ireland are only wide enough for 1 car, not 2! Those are the really “thrilling” roads!!!

There are fields of sheep everywhere in Ireland and England! Some of the sheep are even colored so if they get out of the field, they can be identified by their color(s) and returned to the proper field.

We had such a good time in both England and Ireland. It was a trip we’ll remember with fond memories for many years! I’m so glad that we took the time and spent the money to go on this 40th Anniversary trip! Both countries are beautiful and have so much history to them! And it was wonderful to see both countries where some of my ancestors lived!

Until next time.

Happy crocheting,

Susan

June 5, 2018

What a Fun Vacation!!!

It’s been over a month since I’ve written a blog post and for good reason. From April 29 through May 17, my husband and I took a 40th anniversary trip to England and Ireland! Where does the time go? It seems like it was yesterday when we got married! Now it’s 40 years later!!!

Wow! What a trip we had! In today’s and tomorrow’s blog posts, I’d like to share the highlights of the trip with you (England today and Ireland tomorrow). Here are the highlights of the England portion of our trip:

At the beginning of our trip, we spent 3 days in London and saw some fabulous sights! We went up to the top of the Shard, which overlooks London. The sights were gorgeous from 70 stories up! Here are a few photos of us at the top:

We also toured Westminster Abbey and took a river boat cruise along the Thames.

Tower Bridge in London as seen from Thames River boat cruise

I was able to squeeze in a trip to a London yarn shop called Loop. What a nice place to see lots of gorgeous yarn and crochet thread! Some crochet thread by Scheepjes spoke to me in the shop, so I came home with 10 balls of thread! I look forward to designing something with these gorgeous colors after I’m all done with the 3 crochet contracts I’m working on right now!

Crochet thread from Loop London yarn shop

We saw a lot more than this in London, but for the sake of this blog post not being WAY too long, I’ll stop with these places.

We went to Ireland after London, then back to the southwest part of England, known as Devon and Cornwall. We rented a car during this portion of our England vacation (we didn’t dare drive in London, but took lots of public transportation there, which was fabulous).

One of the highlights of this part of the trip was visiting Port Isaac, where the British show, Doc Martin, is filmed. If you haven’t seen Doc Martin, you’re in for a treat! It’s a wonderful show that we’ve enjoyed for quite a while now. We could almost envision Martin and Louisa there! Port Isaac was a really nice, beautiful place! Here are a few photos from Port Isaac:

We toured an old house in England called Cotehele House & Gardens. It was a fabulous tour! This house had tour guides in each room to tell about the specific rooms!

We went to the All Hallows Museum in Honiton to see some Honiton Lace. Wow! The lace there was AMAZING! They had large drawers with huge pieces of lace that were exquisite! Each large piece took thousands of hours of work!!! Now that’s dedication to a craft! Lace making, and Honiton Lace in particular, was a cottage industry in the Devon area in the 16th and 17th centuries. Making lace provided an income for many families for several hundred years. Unfortunately, the invention of machine made lace made hand made lace virtually obsolete.

Since I learned to do bobbin lace this past January, I bought some souvenirs at the museum to help further my bobbin lace knowledge and skills!

The England portion of our trip was so much fun, just as the Ireland portion was also lots of fun! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog post about Ireland!

Happy crocheting,

Susan

February 22, 2018

Learning New Things!

Last month, I learned something new. It’s called “Bobbin Lace” and I LOVE it! Bobbin Lace is made with dozens of wooden bobbins. The thread is wound on the bobbins, then the bobbins are crossed and twisted to make the pattern. Of course, there’s much more to it than that, but that’s the basic idea of how to make bobbin lace.

I’ve been wanting to learn bobbin lace for many years. When the class was offered at my local yarn shop, Fiber Creek in Prescott, AZ at the beginning of January, I jumped at the chance to learn it! The Bobbin Lace teacher, Verla, was very good and encouraging! She supplied everything we needed to use in the class.

Here’s a photo of me learning bobbin lace in the class last month:

Bobbin Lace takes a very long time to make. The bookmark that I made in class took about 4 1/2 hours to make! Here’s a photo of my finished bookmark:

It’s not perfect, but I learned a TON making it!

There are many styles of Bobbin Lace. Two of my favorites are Russian and Brugge (or Bruges) Bobbin Lace. If the words “Brugge” or “Bruges” look familiar, it’s because it’s the original bobbin lace from Belgium that inspired the Crochet Bruges Lace technique that I’ve taught and designed in for a number of years! Here are a few photos from my Bobbin Lace teacher’s board in the class I took from her:

Both of these styles of Bobbin Lace are made with “tapes”, just the same as Crochet Bruges Lace. Here is a photo of a crocheted Bruges Lace piece that I designed in the last 10 years:

Can you see the similarities between the Bobbin Lace and the crochet Bruges Lace? They’re both made with tapes. Of course, the crochet method is much faster than the bobbin lace method, but I love them both the same!

In case you’re wondering, this crochet Bruges Lace doily is published in the book/leaflet called “Crochet Beyond the Basics” by Rita Weiss and yours truly in 2014. This book is still available for purchase in print or as a digital download through Leisure Arts, the publisher, here or in print through Amazon here. I designed another crochet Bruges Lace piece for this book. Here’s that piece:

If you’d like to learn how to do Crochet Bruges Lace, I’m teaching it at 2 places this year:

At the Interweave Yarn Fest in Loveland, Colorado in April and at the CGOA Conference in Portland, Oregon in July. You can read about the Interweave Yarn fest here and register for my Yarn Fest class here. You can read a little about the CGOA Conference and find out who’s teaching classes here, but the class listings won’t be publicized until around the middle of March.

Back to Bobbin Lace! Here’s a photo of the first Russian Bobbin Lace doily that I made a few weeks ago:

And here’s a photo of my 2nd Russian Bobbin Lace doily in progress:

What do you think? Have you ever wanted to learn to do Bobbin Lace? Or do you already know how to make bobbin lace? Do you want to learn to do Crochet Bruges Lace? I’d love to have you in my Bruges Lace classes in Colorado or Portland this year! And I’d love to hear what you think about bobbin lace and/or crochet Bruges Lace!

Happy crocheting, knitting, tatting and bobbin lace making!

Susan