Welcome to my frog pond

When a knitter says she had to tink her work, I know she undid her work one stitch at a time to get to her mistake. When a knitter frogs her work, she slips it off the needles and unravels it completely. When the yarn gets sent to the frog pond, it sometimes comes back as something totally different.

Tatters can only tink, never frog. Each double stitch has to be undone in two passes, and opening a closed ring can be a huge challenge. My tatting never gets sent to the frog pond. I snip it off and start over if I don't want to tink back to my mistake.

But I don’t know what to say about my bobbin lace. My little bookmark was started in November ’05, to demonstrate bobbin lace in a museum in Kalamazoo. I was talking too much, and my worker pairs got confused. When I got home, I tinked it 3 times before I had to put the pillow away for Christmas dinner.

I ‘ve been tatting for Lisa, and thought a quick bobbin lace bookmark would be a nice change of pace. (I realize as I type that ‘quick bobbin lace’ is an oxymoron, especially when I’m fumbling with the bobbins.)

I tried again on the little bookmark, but nothing worked. I finally grabbed the scissors and snipped my threads off the bobbins. No frog pond here. I can’t use the thread on my bobbins, and there’s nothing to be done with my little scrap of cloth stitch, either.

This is the first bobbin lace project I’ve had to scrap, and I have mixed feelings about it. I feel like I should have given it one more try, but on the other hand, it’s only thread, and I certainly have no shortage in that area. I’ll move forward now. I’ve picked the pattern I want to try, printed it on heavy blue paper, and covered it in clear contact paper. I’ll wind my bobbins tonight, and perhaps I’ll have a successful beginning tomorrow.