Lacework Sunday

What else, but a lovely plant in Maui!

Oh, my. Looooooook at these books on Irish Crochet Lace. Another group of books I really want to add to my collection! Irish Crochet has been a fascination for me for decades. I was first and foremost a crocheter, initially knitting in my 20s for baby bootees for DD! (Which as you can see, has snowballed into out-of-control knitting ADD!)

However, old habits die hard. I have a collection of really neat lace crochet books, some of them vintage. Dover Press (check out the McCain and Obama paper dolls!) has had some fun re-prints of old Irish Crochet patterns, which I added to my library in the late 1980s. (Their books are nice and economical.) Didn't find much else on the Irish-crochet topic for many years, with the exception of random finds in an antique store. Then, in recent years, and much thanks to Ravelry, I have seen many other references that I'm all excited about!!! Not that I really need to acquire more books, mind you. That IS my achilles heel. Acquiring books. I need a room I can devote to library shelves, as currently some of my books are sleeping in plastic bins in the crawlspace!

Here's one of the Dover books I own:

Taken from Mindy's blog, here are some really great links for tatting and lacework:

1. Tatting. There are some neat techniques pages here.



2. Australian Crochet History This is where those history of Irish Crochet books are found.



3. Lace Archives This is a great on-line archive of lacework of all types. Really neat!

Here is a sample page scanned in there, check out this Filet Crochet masterpiece by Mary Card:
click to see it close-up

And, I found a really neat on-line way to get your lace eye-candy. It is the Lacis museum; they have some spectacular slideshows there! You can find any type of lace there--knitted lace, crocheted, whitework, etc...Love it!

Okay. Now my own lace project, the Summer Sampler update--finally finished chart #9. One of the prettiest charts, and not as technically challenging as the 7/5 maneuver in an earlier chart, but somehow it had me by the throat for a couple of weeks. BIG SIGH of RELIEF! Finally started chart #10 today. Only 3 more charts, then the lace edging to go...interesting :)

Now, to deviate entirely from the delicate subject of lace. You have to check out this next website, a compendium of cake-decorating flops! My absolute favorite so far is this one, ha ha haaaaaa!~. What a scream that blog is!


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