After my first design, I wanted to do something bigger. My daughter is a budding entomologist and participated in a Bee Survey through the Arapahoe County Extension office, so maybe that is why I had bees on the brain. I found a line drawing of a bee on Pinterest that I liked, and began designing with the drawing as a guide.

One of the recent topics in the bobbin lace design class was using the density of stitches to create tone. Pierre Fouché (the instructor) did a study in the light and dark appearance of stitches based on the number of pairs of bobbins required for the stitch. With this information, I digitally designed a bee bobbin lace pattern in Adobe Illustrator.

I used standardized bobbin lace pattern color codes and lines indicating specific stitches to create a design any lacemaker could work. The project requires 172 bobbins.

I have really enjoyed working this pattern and sharing my progress via TikTok. It is amazing to get so many views, likes, comments, and questions about lacemaking. All of the encouragement has spurred me to work on the project everyday, which means I speeding through this design. I have never worked such a large project in such a short amount of time.