Something New

This weekend I spent it trying something new. A while back I discovered Erba's blog (if you don't know it, check it out her work is beautiful). She has instructions for needle lace earrings (link). I've been wanting to try needle lace for a long while and this was the perfect project for it.

I bought the smallest perle cotton I could find in the stores near me. The first one is a No 80 DMC tatting cotton in pink and a No 60 Cordonnet Special in white.

The main "stitch" is the buttonhole stitch, which is easy but fiddly. You don't want the stitches going over each other or too crowded. As you can see in my first attempt using the No 80 thread, my first layer has some stitches that are not nicely laid. I also hit a snag, I realized at the second layer that my thread was too thin. I could have technically just added more buttonhole stitches than the pattern suggests, but I was already not enjoying how it looks. So I decided to stop and start a new one.

Take 1 using DMC No 80 tatting cotton

My second try came out much nicer. It could be better in certain places but it's okay for a first try. I made it to the third row and had to stop because I'm running out of thread. I'll have to decide if I want to stop here and just start a new one (third time's the charm) or try to figure out how to anchor a new thread to finish it.

Take 2 using DMC No 60 cordonnet special

My one complaint is that I hate the color. The white looks dirty and I wish I could have found a different color. An ecru or cream would have been enough. Anyone from the Laval or Montreal area who knows of a good shop to buy DMC perle cotton, please let me know.

I also managed to put in some time on Tree of Hope. Here is my tree with the outer leaves all stitched. I think I'll move onto the flower for a little change.