The Treasure Trove

 I've wanted to learn how to make Bobbin Lace since I was 16 years old.

 

Every year during the Lost Arts Festival we hosted at Watkins Woolen Mill, a very sweet elderly couple would take over the guest bedroom in the house (the only time of the year we ever opened the shutters in that room!), setting up their display of all of their Bobbin Lace.  It was amazing!  I absolutely loved watching them deftly manipulating the bobbins, which would click and clack softly in their hands.  I could have spent hours in that room with them.

 

But I never got any further than buying a book - a book which taunted me for YEARS - a book which I gave away shortly after Gillian was born when I realized I was going to have to pick and chose among my crafts, focusing only on what I liked best.

 

Then last fall Gillian fell in love with Bobbin Lace, too.  She walked into a large display at the Kids' Craft Fair in Arrowrock, and fell head over heels in love.  It  was perhaps inevitable.  Bobbin Lace was literally the only craft at the festival that she hadn't had any exposure to.  The fact that there were several generations of one family doing the demonstrations, with a young boy just a few years older than she providing the bulk of the narrative, made it even more appealing.

 

What to do....what to do....

 

Bobbin Lace is, unfortunately, a rather expensive hobby to take up, which is part of why I had never gone any farther than to purchase that book.  It's also fairly difficult to find teachers.  I wanted to let Gillian experiment (and perhaps learn myself) but I wasn't all that sure it would be possible.

 

Until I found a kit online at Lacis.  (Do follow their link...they are amazing!)  Sean and I ordered a kit to give to Gillian for Christmas.  We didn't know if it was something she would want to continue on with (and heaven help our pocketbooks if she did!) but we wanted her to have the opportunity to at least try.  To our delight, she LOVED the kit.  True, it was pretty basic, but between the written instructions and a bunch of incredible YouTube videos we had a great start.

 

Then, before we had a chance to even open the kit, I got a call from my mom.  A good friend of hers had sent a large package for me.

 

What on earth?

 

Mom was bubbling with excitement when she told me, "Jytte has Bobbin Lace supplies, and she thought you might be interested in them!"

 

My, oh my!

 Indeed, it was everything we needed.

 The pillow.

A giant stack of patterns.

And a tackle box FULL of bobbins!

 

Such an incredible, amazing, generous gift!

 

And so serendipitous.  This is, I believe, what happens when the universe says YES.

 

Gillian and I have been using her kit to learn the basics, and I will soon be sharing those efforts with you.  I think I may take a break from knitting for a short time so that we can focus on learning.  I'm so very excited about our new adventure, and I can't wait to share it with you!