Book excerpt: To create her stunning coloured bobbin lace designs, award-winning lacemaker Sandi Woods often takes inspiration from the letters of the alphabet, shaping, manipulating and combining them to form organic, sinuous shapes. She likens the process to the game 'Chinese Whispers' – a pattern starts as a simple letter, but is developed further, often until the original form is barely recognizable. Sandi's painterly use of coloured thread to suggest shape and form adds further beauty to her work. This fully illustrated book contains instructions for the exquisite 'Leafy Glade Alphabet'. Each letter has one basic template but two alternative designs, one using simple bobbin lace stitches, the other using more complex Milanese braids. Though each letter is worked in a different set of colours, all the colourways are interchangeable, and, of course, they can be worked in white. The book then goes on to include 24 more abstract designs, such as 'Chinese Seedling' and 'Blackthorn Sprig', all of which were originally developed from the letters of the alphabet. Comprehensive instructions are given for each pattern, including prickings, linear outlines, pin reference charts and full pin-by-pin directions.