Today was a day of taking a slow tour of some of Dublin's bookshops. In the manner of all crafters I intended spending nothing, but came home with two bags of books. My haul included gems such as Punto Tagliato Lace by Nenia Lovesey, which calls into question what I've learned about 16th century lace making techniques thus far, and Pillow Lace by Elizabeth Mincoff and Margaret S. Marriage, a find which delights me not least because with a publishing date of 1907 the book is over 100 years old! Later on, thanks to the eagle eyes of my companions, The Great Italian Painters From the Gothic to the Renaissance from SCALA and a beautiful hardback of The Black Death by Philip Ziegler became mine. I forsee many happy nights of research ahead of me.
 

And now for a little bit of eye candy. I made up some felt a few weeks ago, attempting to make a pouch. It didn't quite work out, but I ended up with two A5 sized sheets of lovely soft felt. I finished sewing this up last night, finishing the edges with 4 strands of embroidery cotton and plaiting 9 stands to make a closure with a couple of pearlesent buttons. I'm not sure yet if I'll add any more embellishments to this, but it should at least serve its primary purpose, and stop the camera from turning itself on while in my bag.