Margaret Eaglestone has a love of lace.

The Broadmayne resident took up lace-making in 2005, when she retired as a maths teacher and was given a pillow and some bobbins by a friend.

Since then, she has gone on to make numerous lace creations, including a pot of 3D lace crocuses, lace jewellery and greetings cards with lace designs.

Three years ago she won the Portman trophy at the Dorset Arts and Crafts Association Exhibition for a Four Seasons panorama made of coloured lace.

Margaret, who originally comes from Dorset and retired to the county after teaching in Cheshire, is a member of the Poole Bobbin Circle.

The group regularly gives demonstrations throughout Dorset at craft fairs and open days.

Margaret said: “I think people have the wrong impression of lace.

“They think it’s this white delicate stuff. I want to promote the versatility of lace.

“I feel like I have a responsibility to teach this craft to the young people so it never dies out.

“I wanted to take it up when I retired because I thought that I didn’t want to be bored.

“It’s good when you move to a different area to find crafts and activities you can do outside of your village.

“I find lace-making very relaxing.”

Margaret holds regular classes to teach lace-making to youngsters.

“The children come from different schools and do lace-making as an after-school activity. They’ve made Christmas cards, Valentine’s cards and I’ve even had two sixth-formers who are doing textiles from Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester.

“What they were doing got their mums interested so I held a class where the mums come along,” she said.

Margaret starts off making lace using graph paper with a design on it.

She then uses bobbins and thread and moves the bobbins across the pillow in a sequence to create different designs.

Different varieties of lace are made up by a mixture of combinations of whole stitches and half stitches.

Among the more known varieties are Bruges flower lace, Bedfordshire lace and Bucks point lace.

Margaret has made an oak leaf design scarf in autumnal colours and is currently working on a scarf made out of Celtic knots in preparation for a competition next year.

One of the greatest pleasures of being a lace-maker, she says, is collecting bobbins.

“There are so many nice bobbins out there with different designs. You can spread out the cost by buying a bobbin a month.”

The Poole Bobbin Lace Circle meets every two months and supports a different charity every year and members have designed leaf brooches to sell in support of leukaemia charity Leaf.

l Visit cyberlink.co.uk/pblc/ laceday.htm