Amazing Lace in Architecture

Lace is one of the most amazing and lovely ways of using yarns. We know that the structure of lace is not limited to textiles. Here is an example in kind - the ingenious lace screens, fences and balustrades by the Dutch company LaFence. It is well worth visiting their site to see more of their lace / lattice projects! By the way, all their lace patterns are reversible!

Isn't it marvellous that lace actually becomes beautiful because of its empty spaces, the holes in the fabric?
By including virtually nothing we get this intricate gorgeous structure! Looking for and at invisible things seems to sharpen your mind and increase your perception!

Taking this to a philosophical level:  Often it is the very absence that improves one's perception and provides more freedom. And with the lack of seemingly indispensable items of everyday life, we learn to do without and reduce our consumption of the superfluous, realizing how presumptious we have become over the many years, expecting to have recourse to all things and comforts of life to which we have become accumstoned. Reducing those expectations - a liberating concept, indeed.

My last post included a link to an entertaining waltz performed by colorful triangles. It reminded me of a Jane Thornley Mini-KAL that called for the use of triangles - so with a sharp eye and some imagination and vision beyond reality you can see a lot of invisible triangles in my project for the Mini-KAL, in fact there are 16 of them!

This modular Mini-Project can be a bracelet or a choker-type Neck-Lace. The individual squares are interconnected with a very small ring that you can find in bead stores. The material I used here is silk embroidery yarn bought at the Texere Company near Leeds (UK). They have many kits with color or material-coordinated yarns, mostly 1-2 yards in length. In fact, they are an absolute Dream Place for yarn people! Prepare to spend hours going through their huge store or browse the online shop.

How about some more triangle news? A friend just send me a link to this incredible artist Michael Moschen, doing his unbelievably fast fleeting triangles act, inside a huge triangle! 

Maybe someting invisible crosses your path today? Keep your inner eyes and your mind open!

Fragile February Flowers

Winter appears to be the longest season on the northern half of the globe. Those rare sunny days seem to lift our spirits instantly and make us realize just how beautiful the world is with flowers in all colors. Maybe those long winters were one of the reasons for those colorful garments on Scandinavia, such as the Finnish national costumes, to be so bright, the red offset by white and lots of embroidery. With those images in mind I thought of an especially bright and colorful heart to work against winter chills...

I made a couple of Valentine hearts as a cheerful reminder that spring is coming soon! The first one is a crochet heart with whipstitch embroidery. The eggshell colored cotton is 8-ply, while the other cotton yarns are all 2-ply, in the predominant colors of Finnish costumes. Isn't the lace edging of the white handcherkief lovely!

And the second one is crocheted as well, just the thing to send to someone special in a snail-mail letter with your good wishes!

And how about a little dance, waltzing in a triangle to get prepared for those early spring festivals, outdoor cafès, music and light-blue skies ? Here is an unusual pas-de-trois!