A friend found a book at the library called “Renaissance Patterns for Lace, Embroidery and Needlepoint” by Federico Vinciolo and Apparently the patterns are reprints from books originally printed in 1587 and 1606. Of course I had to try one! It is magical to think that I can work the same pattern that a lace maker used over  four hundred years ago!This is my first piece of filet lace. I made the mesh and did a cloth stitch to fill in all the solid squares. I do need to finish the edge still. I took this picture while the lace was still on the frame.

The thread I used was linen, and I only have the one size so I had to pass through each square four times rather than two to fill in completely. That took awhile. The linen thread is not even so the lace does not look perfect, but I actually do love the imperfections in this piece. This lace reminded me of a pattern that Isolde might have made…if she made lace!