I tried my hand at needle lace

 

"Crocus" by Marilee Rockley

The best I can say about it is that the design is original, from a drawing I did of a crocus flower blooming in the snow. I experimented with a few needle lace fillings learned from tutorials posted by Maggie Hensel-Brown - but me being a newbie I just threw them in haphazardly, focusing mainly on the colors. I used size 20 Lizbeth threads, with the shaded green being my own hand dyed.

The idea of finishing with a wooden branch was inspired by the work of  Ágnes Herczeg. I found a fallen twig in my backyard, then cleaned and finished it by following tutorials on YouTube.

It was a good learning experience, and kept my mind distracted from worry. It was very time-consuming so I doubt that I'll do any more of this type of lacemaking, but now I have a better appreciation of it! 

I took only a few in-progress photos, but here they are: