Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: fabric

  • Leavers Lace… A Vanishing Fabric

    Leavers Lace… A Vanishing Fabric

    A few months ago I watched a fascinating little video about Leavers Lace and why it was so expensive. Amazing!

    So why has this come to mind once again?

    Yesterday I went to my favourite fabric store in Victoria, Gala Fabrics. I only go about once a year and not at all in the last couple of years. Umm, I wonder why? LOL!

    I generally shop the Vintage woolens section, you know the section where all the wools and wool blends are discounted to $10.00 a meter! Such a good deal! And you know that wool fabrics can be over dyed – just like wool yarns! So many options.

    But I digress! Leavers Lace! This is todays topic.

    As I was perusing the woolens with the help of a a wonderful sales person (I am so sorry that I didn’t get her name). She got that I was into vintage stuff and loved fabrics and she happened to mention that a great deal of very expensive beaded lace fabric had just hit the discounted fabric section. Expensive as in it used to start at $149,00 and went up to $200.00 dollars a metre and here it was at $10.00 a metre.

    Not in perfect condition, despite their best efforts to protect the lace (some of it had to be over 40 years old). On some pieces the sequins were discoloured, but still iridescent and in spots the fabric had also discoloured. And it was a little dirty. Time fades us all. It doesn’t matter! Every bead and sequin had been placed by hand, the every piece lace was an intricate designs of holes that was beautiful! The work that goes into creating each piece of fabric was amazing!

    Look at the drape of the fabric!

    We are no longer a society that really dresses up, not with the lace, beads and sequins of the past. Perhaps for weddings or graduation parties and not so much as tastes change. Here on the west coast dress-up now is quite often a pretty dress and nylons (can the nylons – lets just say a pretty dress and sandals)!

    But Oh if we were still that society!

    So I bought a metre and a half of the most beautifully decorated fabric I have ever seen. Machine and handwork combined in a way we don’t see any more, except in theatrical productions and period movies. I am going to make myself a little jacket or little top to wear out and maybe bring back another era if only for a moment.

    On my piece there are some loose beads and detail work that needs to be reattached. I can fix all of that. It is still so beautiful! This is the Leavers Lace.

    Happy Dreaming

    Lynette

  • Working on Serenity

    Working on Serenity

    The title this week is perfect on a number of levels:

    a.) I am finally able to work on the edging of The Serenity Wave Shawl. I have had a back issue for the last few weeks that required pain killers and muscle relaxants. Apparently drugs, knitting lace edging and adding beads to said edging do not work well together! Who knew!? So the shawl edging had been on hold for a couple of weeks. I got back to it this week and I am at about 40% of the edging done. I can hardly wait to finish the knitting and block the shawl.

    b.) I have been working on my own Serenity. Peace of mind in this crazy time has not been easy for any of us. And I had been having a rough time of it lately.

    So I took this last week off. I napped. I rested. I knit. I visited one of my favourite relatives, my Aunty Evie, and really tried to work on looking after myself. It has been a good week.

    My auntie and I share a love of sewing and fabrics. So I had to show her my new purchases from Gala Fabrics – the best fabric store and another reason to visit Victoria. They have this vintage woolens section…. $10 a metre. It was so much fun!

    My back is starting to feel better, my shawl edging is finally under way and my ebook, 7 Hats More is slowing growing.

    I added a new pattern on Tuesday, Diagonal Spin and will be adding another one tomorrow.

    Usually my knitting keeps me sane, but some weeks are more challenging than others. I have been feeling challenged lately.

    Do you have tasks or activities that you indulge in that helps you look after your sanity?

    For me – I knit – first in line. I bake and/or cook – second in line. And I love to walk on the beach or in the woods – third in line. And lately harder to do, harder to make time for, simply harder.

    Perhaps because it means leaving the house – leaving this very safe place and entering a not so safe environment. I use up all my courage heading out the door every weekday morning to go to work! Don’t get me wrong – I love my job, but in these Covid times everytime we step out our doors we are adding a little risk to our lives. I am newly risk adverse. Well not newly – I am not much of a risk taker in any way, but I have never before considered walking out my door risky business.

    Perhaps I am channeling my inner Bilbo.

    “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,” he used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

    Lord of the Rings

    So I am determined to add a walk to every weekend. We will see how I do. The payback is worth the risk.

    Earlier this week, between the rains we went for a short walk at Departure Bay Beach, just down the hill. It was the morning after the big windstorm and there was debris, shells and leaves on the beach. The skies and views were still very grey, so that the colours of the leaves and shells popped!

    I also practiced a little yarn therapy. Never heard of it? I thought not. It is also called retail therapy. I bought some new yarn. Technically I ordered new yarn and it arrived this week.

    Kate Davies is one of my favourite knitting writers and she also creates wonderful yarns. Schiehallion is her new yarn and it is a bouncy, wooly, dk weight yarn that comes in all of my favourite colours (I added a little extra purple as well)! How could I resist?!

    I hope that you manage to find some serenity in your life.

    Be well and knit happy!

    Lynette