Second Large Bedfordshire Collar

The starting point for this piece of lace was a photocopy of an antique piece from around 1910, in the collection of a friend. It is a large piece of Bedfordshire lace .




















I drafted the pattern from the photocopy and then started the work on it, on 25th December 2007. It was put away for sometime while I completed my BA (for the final year of it) but I finally finished it on 29th December 2009. Just in time for a new year and new project!
I changed the traditional nine pin edge of the original design and tidied up some of the areas, and omitted the gimped areas in the leaves. It was a much more challenging piece of lace than the first big collar I drafted and worked, with overlaid leaves on the half stitch areas - quite tricky in places to keep the number of pairs to fill the space but not to overfill them.
An enjoyable piece, taking around 5 reels of thread. (900 metres on each so a lot of bobbin winding!)