Customer Reviews

Practical Skills in Bobbin Lace

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my personal lacemaking bible. Especially helpful for those who have little or no access to other lacemakers, it is chock-full of diagrams showing virtually every technique imaginable. There are no patterns in this book; it is purely technique. Still, without it I would have lost my mind on several occasions. If you are learning bobbin lace, this book is one of the best buys you could possibly make.

Bridget Cook's Practical Skills (the Cook Book among fans) is a definite must for lacemakers. This is not a pattern book, nor a beginner book. It is the ultimate companion for bobbin lace makers, providing answers to almost every technical problem that arises when making bobbin lace. More often than not Cook provides several solutions to a problem, so you can choose the solution that suits your lace best. This book has saved my lace (and my sanity) several times and I heartily recommend it.

What a fabulous book. I have been searching for this book for almost two years, since it is out of print. It is the absolute bible of bobbin lacemaking. I have already made extensive use of it. It seems to cover every possible question or problem you might encounter. The explanations and illustrations are fantastic.

While this is a very good book, it can be intimidating to the beginning lace maker.

I received this book and several other books when I decided to teach myself bobbin lace. The sheer overwhelming amount of diagrams, information, and instructions was too much. I put this book aside and used the other, simpler, books to get started on the basics and to make my first projects. I now use Practical Skills as a reference manual for looking up specific stitches or alternate methods, but it should not be the first book a lace maker gets. It contains skill sets but not patterns, so be sure to learn the basics before looking for this book.

If you are serious about the craft of bobbin lace making, this is your encyclopedia. Much like "Principles of Knitting" it is not a book of patterns, but an instructional manual of techniques. It provided detailed, illustrated examples of how to do a specific technique. It is not a book that will be referred to often, but when needed is invaluable. Highly recommended.