No better day to busy myself with this little Irish crochet pin keep ♡
I fell hard for Irish Lace, it’s so beautifully complex looking, with its chain webs, picots, flowers and leaves, the tiny delicate stitches ..oof ♡
I found the pattern for this pincushion here.
(I will warn you, I had some issues with sections of the pattern being a little off (even after checking the errata, so it’s a bit freestyled in areas.)
I used a thicker linen thread than the pattern stated, so I didn’t do as many rnds of the lace background or leaves (p.s the leaves are added after your done!) I made the pad out of a scrap of decorator linen & stuffed it tight with 0000 steel wool (to help keep the pins sharp). The breakdown, basically all the best pincushiony things: Linen thread on linen fabric, stuffed with 0000 steel wool wrapped in wool batting.
Some of my vintage pincushions have a little strawberry attached to them that’s filled with emery sand & you to poke your needles into it to sharpen them, I kind of love that idea ..but don’t know if I really love the idea of dealing with sand ..steel wool scouring pads are relatively cheap, readily available & low mess.
chalklegs.com 