One Done

Let's see, I finished the novel I was reading early in the morning and ordered book three in the series. It won't be here until Saturday, so I read comic books much of the day. I think I knocked out at least twenty of them in a quest to finish a whole short box full of them. Oh, and yes I did get some tatting done as well.

I decided to avoid the mistakes of the previous day, I would do the ankle corsets one at a time. I did finish one of them and it looks great. Unfortunately, it's a bit bigger than I anticipated. Not too big really, just too big for me to wear properly. I do have really small ankles, so I figure that they'll probably fit other people better than my other ones do. Only problem is, I am my only model currently. I mean, give my oldest daughter a couple more years and she'd be perfect, but not quite yet. So today while I work on this one's twin, I'll also be trying to figure out the best way to wear them so that they photograph well.

If I do finish this, then it will probably be onto the other pieces I mentioned yesterday. A label pin, hair pin, maybe a pendant. Man, I really do hope that these are well received, because this is a lot of effort if they turn out to be unloved. Why am I just now thinking about this? Oh well, the only way out is through.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Things were going so good yesterday. I was hard at work tatting up the pieces for the matching ankle corsets. I had decided due to fog, that I wouldn't even bother dong the finishing work on the necklace. Anyway, I'm doing both pieces at the same time. Well really I'm doing one center motif, then the other followed by the smaller motifs around each one. See all that progress there.

Then as I started the second rounds of the smaller motifs, my mistake showed itself. I had attached every single one of the smaller motifs in the wrong orientation. At first I thought, well maybe it won't make that big a difference and I'll just  make some small adjustments. So I went ahead and did the second round on a couple of them to see. Turns out I was really wrong, the difference was significant and the results would have been an entirely different looking piece.

Since I'm making these to match the necklace, that wouldn't do at all, so out came the scissors and I clipped them down to the center motif. The sense of defeat kept me from picking them back up and starting over. Instead I just read my novel, which is incredibly near the end, and ignored the lace for the rest of the day. Thankfully the day was already close to over, so I didn't lose too much time.

Today I'll start fresh, pay more attention and hopefully get these made up. No sun is really expected today either though, so it will still be a while before I finish up the necklace and get it in the shop. I also thought perhaps the motif might make an appearance as a new lapel pin or hair pin. I also have yet to just make it up as a plain pendant. Maybe I'll just get all these pieces made up and photograph them at the same time. Then I can put them all in the store and pretend it's a 'collection'. That sounds fancy, right? Who knows, I do have to get them all made first and that should take a while so I can decide all that later.

That's Done

Yesterday was a packed school day for the kids, last day of the semester and all that. I seem to remember it always being more of a busy work and movies sort of day, but then again that's one of the biggest differences with the homeschooling. Almost all their work is worth doing and then they have the rest of the day for nonsense. They had a bunch of tests, I read, and after that I got back to work.

Yes, I was again trapped beneath a cat on the couch with a book on my lap, holding my tatting above it all. The best part is, I did get the necklace finished, save for the findings, and pressing it. That was definitely the bulk of my day, so I didn't get around to starting anything else at all.

School is out for the rest of the week for 'administrative days', so today, I have more time to work, theoretically. I need to press and finish this and ensure that it's wearable once that's done. I was checking it while working on the prototype, but since I left that one incomplete, I don't have the final data. Once that's complete, if there's sun, I'll take photos, if not, I'll just move onto the ankle corsets. Of course I'd be glad to be distracted by an order or two. I'm just putting that out there for the Universe. Otherwise I'm sure the ankle corsets won't be even close to finished today. They each will be smaller than the necklace, but the necklace took two full days and there are two of them needed, so it should be a while before they're done. Alright, off to it then. I'm crossing my fingers for a productive day off.

Trapped

We had a long day of schooling, like I knew we would. It was well after lunch when I sat down to do some tatting. I got my blanket and my book and before I'd tatted stitch one, ninja lap cat was upon me. I spent literally hours like this. I read over the cat while I tatted the final version of the new necklace. There have been a few minor alterations on the new piece, but for the most part, it's going faster since I know where it's going this time around.

There's a good chance that I'll actually get the necklace finished today, especially if today plays out like yesterday. I still probably won't get it in the shop today though. There's just so little sun around here lately for proper pictures. I'll likely just move on to making the matching ankle corsets and get photos whenever the sun decides to make an appearance. Or I could remake the last mask that sold in the shop, I don't need any findings to remake those. Either way, I have plenty to of things to tat, more to read, and quite likely a cat waiting for my lap.

Nothing New

On Friday I got the custom sized bracelet made for the order I got on Thursday. Then Saturday morning while I was packing up the pieces, I realized that the necklace in the order was also supposed to a different size than the one I had on hand. I'd forgotten that I had made the size an option in the listing since I don't think this particular necklace had ever sold before. So I spent Saturday morning speed tatting the right length so I could get it in the post that day as I had promised. Luckily  had just two more of the clasps I needed on hand. I really am getting dangerously close to absolutely needing to order finding supplies. I'm likely going to continue to put it off until I actually do start cannibalizing older pieces for them, because I am loathe to spend the money right now.

It seems I really have developed a taste for having the weekends off from anything of consequence. The rest of the weekend was fairly tatting free. While I did finally start making the final version of the newest necklace last on Sunday, I only got to the second round on the first motif. Not exactly what I'd call progress. I didn't even read my novel all weekend. I just binge read a couple of comic book titles to catch up a bit. The family went to see a movie and then spent some lazy time watching TV.

This week is going to be a weird one. The kids have only two days of school, but they are days full of tests. Then they're off the rest of the week. I suppose that should give me enough time to get the necklace made, read some more, and even rest a bit. Of course not until after these two days of tests, so yeah, it's going to be a weird week. Here's hoping that it tries to be weird and good.

Last Bit

I didn't sit down to do any tatting until well after lunch. Sure there was schooling, but I also finished knitting up my boot cuffs and did some more reading. Besides the enormous novel sequel I'm reading, I'm also trying to catch up on comic book series that I am woefully behind on. It's going to be quite some time before I can say that I have caught up with them though.

Back to the tatting, I do believe that I have solved the last design bit on the piece. I even managed to work directly on the mistake ridden prototype without flinching. I thought of a few different ways to do the ends, but really a modified version of the existing motif does it just fine. I didn't start on a final version of it yet though.

Just as I was finishing this, I got an order in my shop complete with a custom sized piece that needs making. You have no idea how happy that made me. Seriously, I put down everything and got straight to work. Of course I didn't get very far as it was almost dinner time, but I should get it done today. The order also contained two other decent sized pieces that I really ought to remake for the shop, presuming that I have the findings on hand to finish one of them. If nothing else I have tatting tasks for the weekend. Oh, and I'm pretty sure you can expect this new necklace to also make an appearance as a new pair of ankle corsets in the future. The size is perfect for it and it's been a long time since I did a new pair of those.

Oops

I sat down after schooling yesterday and I picked up the scrap of lace that is slowly becoming a necklace. My plan was to contemplate the final step and work it up on the side that's already done and then set it aside to work on a final version. That's when I finally saw my mistake. Can you spot it? Yep, the motifs on the new section are facing the wrong way. The photo is actually the backside and the two newest motifs  added to it, including the one at the top of the photo are wrong. This wouldn't have been a problem with the first version of the motif, but these have joins between the larger rings and lock those small ones to one side.

 Even though I had already decided that this was going to be a prototype piece, finding this mistake made me so annoyed with myself that I couldn't concentrate on the new part. All I could see was the mistake and if I kept looking at it, I was going to waste time ripping it apart and starting that whole last section over. So, instead I put it down and decided to distract myself with some knitting and just come back to it tomorrow, which is today, so hopefully I suppress my instinct to destroy and create now that I've better accepted my error.

The knitting went well though and I managed some reading and some catching up on recorded television shows. I'm making another pair of boot cuffs because I have more leftover yarn from the family's glove projects. They make a nice distraction and they knit up fairly quickly so even with getting back to the tatting, I should be able to knit up the second cuff today. I finished the first one while I cooked dinner last night. For some reason this faux cable pattern I found on raverly makes me happy. Sometimes it's the little things.

So here's hoping that today's tatting time is more productive. I suppose that it couldn't be any less productive than getting nothing done, so there's that.

Progress

We're nearing the end of the semester for the kids schooling and that means semester reviews and long tests. Add in my normal household nonsense like dishes and laundry and what I'm left with is precious little time for anything else. I managed maybe a chapter of reading while they worked, but I got only a couple of interrupted hours to work on any tatting. I did get another design problem solved though. The top edge there holds the pieces together nicely and it sits on my neck well, so far. I still have to do this on the second side of the piece before I will know for certain though.

After that I have one more design challenge and that's the end of the piece. I don't think there's enough room to do another full motif on either side, but it's all too short as it is, so I need to design something else to finish the piece. It's always easier with small necklaces that I can just slap a Josephine chain on, but this is a bit of a beast in size. I haven't come up with any ideas yet, so if I get any tatting time today, it might all be just thinking about what might work. Even if I do figure it out and get it made, I will likely make a second piece before I try to put it up in the shop. I've worked on this off and on for so long I've lost the perspective I need for pricing. I need to know how long it takes to make when I'm not dragging my heels and working on designing elements. At least it's starting to feel like a real necklace, so I'm calling yesterday progress.

Bigger

We adventured just a bit yesterday like I thought we would, we also caught up with some television and movie watching, so I did indeed get some time to work on the necklace. I do feel kind of silly calling it that though. It still seems so far from being something real at this point. I'm fairly certain that it will be huge when I do finish it though.

This go round I worked out the sides just a bit more. I still want to add a small bit connecting the newest section to the center. I think I know what I'm going to try, I'm just not sure that it will work. The shape is harder to control when the pieces are this big.

We're back to schooling again today, so once we're done with that I'll play some more with this. I also really need to get back to remaking sold pieces. I haven't done it in a while, not that there have been a ton of them, but still. I've been hesitant because I'm running out of some supplies. With so very few sales coming in still, I'm afraid to order anything. I'll probably start cannibalizing findings off pieces that aren't selling before I break down to order more. Well, at least it'll keep me busy.

Sigh

I got to start off this morning one of my least favorite ways, cancelling a large order in my etsy shop because it came from Italy. Oh, how I wish that I etsy had a tool to exclude a single country from purchasing from our shops. I'm certain that I've mentioned this before, but Italy has extremely restrictive customs regulations protecting its native industries. So if Italy is known for making something, you cannot ship that thing made somewhere else into the country, this of course includes lace, but also shoes, hats, leather goods...it's madness. Anyway, I occasionally will get an order from someone there who did not read my policies stating I can't ship to Italy, so then I spent twenty minutes, refunding, cancelling and explaining their own country's restrictions. Oh well, there's really nothing for it.

I didn't do much of anything over the weekend. Well I did finish the cowl I was knitting and then I knit up some boot cuffs, because I can no longer not be knitting apparently. Oh, and I did get one thing sussed out on the new tatting project. The little section I was trying to fill between the motifs got filled. I tried so hard to work something up separately from the piece, but in the end I just had to work right on it to find the right flow. I think I know what's coming next on it, but I won't know for sure until I get another motif tatted up and they are not quick little pieces.

It's a school and work holiday in our house, so I'm not sure I'll get round to much tatting. When everyone is home and bored, we tend to go adventuring, but if I get anything at all done, you'll hear about it tomorrow. Here's hoping I get a nice order in the shop today to make up for the one I had to turn away this morning. Either way I should be back to lace making tomorrow.

Sigh

I was really bad yesterday, I didn't pick up my tatting needle at all. I'm going to go ahead and just blame the kids though. Well, not them exactly, but we did have a school outing to go bowling and it did take up a rather large chunk of the afternoon. Since the morning already belongs to them for schooling, I figure it's safe to lay the blame there.

Of course that's mostly bull, I found myself enough time to finish the book I've been reading. I even went to download the next one in the series, but discovered it was half the cost to just buy the paperback, so I ordered that instead. I probably needed a bit of a break from reading anyway so waiting a couple of days for it to arrive sounded liked a good plan. I also found some time to knit. The yarn I'm using is really thin, so there is a lot more of it than I anticipated left in the skein. I really have no idea when I'll run out, so I could be knitting this for another week or so. At least I know I'll have something cozy for my neck when it's done.

With my book finished I should be able to tat a little without too many excuses. Though I did make a mistake yesterday that is playing on my confidence. Someone linked me to something tatted they saw on pintrest, likely just amazed they'd run across something like that. My mistake was to continue browsing though the pins of tatting. I feel like a complete designing failure compared to so many of those creations. I am just lazy, uninteresting, and plain unskilled. I'm not certain what I'm going to do with these new found inadequacies, but I expect me to be more maudlin than usual, at least for a while. My apologies in advance.

Nope

I was far more focused on reading yesterday than anything else. I feel I must've gotten to the meat of the story because I find myself reading at really odd times, a page or two here and there along with the more sustained periods throughout the day. The side effect of this is that I'm giving myself very little time to do anything else. I am trying to knit while I read, which is fine on the knit rows, not so much on the pattern rows where I need to pay attention and count. Doesn't mean I'm not still trying to do it though. I feel like I have to keep productive when I'm reading.

I did carve out a few minutes to try out a new bit for the tatted necklace. Honestly, I hate it. Not at all what I was going for in the end. I mean I started out okay, trying to maintain the motif for the new bit, but the shape is ridiculous. I was so frustrated with my utter miscalculation, that I just put it down and picked up my book again. I need to come at it from a new direction, so that's the plan for today. I'll think harder on the shape I'm trying to create and hopefully I won't get too distracted by reading or knitting to actually come up with something useful. I won't put any money on it though.

A Little More

I sort of feel like starting out this post with, second verse, same as the first. What I really mean is that yesterday was an awful lot like the day that preceded it. Both kids are reading more in their lessons, so I've had time to read while they do. This has sucked me further into the book I'm reading, so I keep going back to it rather than doing other things. I'm still rather scattered though and managed some knitting and just a bit of tatting as well.

I finished up the main section of the necklace and was gratified that the pieces fit together like I had hoped. I think I'm getting some rough ideas for the connecting pieces, but I haven't put anything into thread yet. Normally I would just work straight on the existing pieces, but I think I might try some prototyping first this time. It'll save me cutting out different versions as I try to get the shape and density right. I guess that's the plan for my tatting time today. I'll try to get a little design work in between my obsessive reading sessions. One small step at a time, I'll turn this into something wearable, I swear.

Necklace

I spent another scattered day yesterday. There was more knitting, more reading and yes, there was some more tatting. This new motif of mine is a frustratingly slow to tat piece though. This go around I made a few small modifications to the basic design as well. Originally the rings stacked in layers all by themselves. Okay, so I nudged the small ones in front, but it was a simple process. This time I added a joining picot to lock them in place making it much more fiddly to create. I figure it may be hard to make, but it should make for a sturdier finished product.

This is the backside of the necklace as it's growing. Clearly I still have tons of work left to do and this just represents the large center section. I still haven't even attempted to work out the connecting sections. I feel like I'm going to have to design a few smaller, complimentary motifs for it, but that part hasn't come to me yet. I think allowing myself time to mindlessly knit and time to read and escape into a story should keep me from burning out on what is clearly going to be a longer project than I anticipated. Stretching it out a bit also gives me more small developments to share as they occur, so I don't lapse into the 'nothing to share today' blog posts. I guess it's a win win...as long as it works.

One Thing Done

I got so very lazy over the weekend. Maybe I had pushed myself too much on my first week after vacation. I don't know, but I had the creativity level of a brick. On Friday I did manage to finish the new version of the bracelet. It's a much more manageable size than the original one and thankfully, it looks just about the same on my wrist. Of course I do have to hook further into the lace to make this version fit me, but as I'm sure I've said before, I have twig wrists. It's in the shop now and I named it Floral Mandala because the first motif elicited a comparison to a mandala on twitter when I first posted it.

Other than that achievement on Friday, I did no more tatting over the weekend. I knitted on my newest project, hopefully a nice cowl scarf. I say hopefully, because instead of using a pattern for a cowl, I'm just using a lace stitch and working it in a big round. I get to hope that it will be big enough when I take it off the circular needles because I can't really tell for certain now. I'm just using up the rest of the skein of yarn that I used for my arm warmers/fingerless gloves, so I guess it'll be done when the yarn is gone.

I've also been spending more time reading than I have in quite some time. I just finished War of the Worlds, partly because the oldest child will be reading it in school soon and reading it makes me much more useful to her. Before that I read some free Kindle First book called, The Fire Seekers and now I'm onto a book recommended by a friend called The Darkness that Comes Before. This one has been an infinitely tougher read. It's full of hard to pronounce and harder to remember names. I wasn't certain I was going to get through it at all in the beginning, but a few chapters in, I'm getting comfortable with the rhythm and the plot is beginning to coalesce.

I guess when I write this all out, I think I seem less lazy and more scattered, like I just can't focus on one thing. Well hopefully, the set schedule of the school week will keep me on track to at least try to come up with the next Mandala design. If not at least I know I have plenty of other tasks to keep me busy.

Almost There

I managed to make the morning of schooling seem even longer by ending it with an errand to the post office to mail more work samples. I'd like to feel relieved that it's done, but in just another couple of weeks we'll be scrambling around to collect more and then they'll be testing and other nonsense that fills up the back semester of school. It's about as much fun as it sounds. It's a good thing it's worth it.

I sold a cat ear headband yesterday, so I opted to get another of those made before I started to work on my motif. I thought I would at least get the new bracelet idea made, but I just didn't have enough time. Of course I might have had enough time had I not tatted while reading. It does slow me down, but it's the only time I can read uninterrupted and my brain needs the stimulation.

It might look like it's done in the photo, but  the farther motif is just lying under the center one to show you what it will look like once I get that last motif made and attached. At the very least it will be a bit longer than my last try and it should look the same from the front, so it should make it into the shop...once it's done of course.

So it's finishing this bracelet today and if I'm granted any more free time today or over the weekend, I'll work on the necklace idea. I think I need to develop some more pieces for it before it becomes what I want it too though. Hopefully, I've got some reserve creativity waiting to work that all out. Only time and thread will tell.

Oops

Schooling continues to suck up more time from the day than it once did. I suppose it makes sense that as the year wears on, the work is harder and takes longer. It doesn't help that the youngest is reading a novel now, so that just simply takes more time to get through. I will simply have to adjust my expectations of available tatting time accordingly.

I got an order in the afternoon, so I used said tatting time to remake the piece that sold rather than play with the new motif even though I have a couple of ideas burning a hole in my brain. I kept getting distracted by things while working though, so I made a big mistake halfway through and had to pull out the scissors. I like to document a few complete failures now and then so I can remind myself that I still have to focus a little while working. I occasionally forget that and the results are often worse than a small piece of snipped up lace. This time I was trying to read two different books and pay attention to whatever nonsense the kids were up to. That's just too much multitasking.

So today's task is to get back to the new motif and try out at least one of those burning ideas. I will try to do so with fewer distractions so I don't have to cut that up as well. I also need to do the year end books for my shop. I may be stalling on that one for a while longer, but just writing down as a reminder is a good first step, right?

Maybe

Schooling yesterday took quite a bit longer than usual as we were trying to get some more work samples put together that forced both kids to do some serious writing. Both of them are creative enough, but lack the desire or confidence to write whatever comes out of their heads, so I have to cajole and encourage through the whole process to keep it moving forward. I assume one day they'll just write whatever comes out like I seem to do everyday. It certainly isn't literature, but it gets my point across.

I did manage to eek out a little time for tatting. I decided to try the bracelet idea and for the first go, I simply attached two of the larger motifs together with a hook on one side. It fit me just fine, but it won't fit a larger wrist at all. The other disadvantage to this version is that the hook has to be on the side of the wrist in order to get the motif centered. It doesn't bother me, but I can imaging it's not the best selling point, so maybe I just made this one for me, or I'll give it away maybe. I think today I'm going to try it with the two smaller motifs on the sides. I'll have to modify them a bit so the size isn't too big, but I think I have it worked out in theory.

After that I really do want to try making it into a bit, noisy necklace. I haven't made anything very large scale since the jellyfish and since only one of those found a home, aside from the two I gifted, it doesn't feel like it was a very successful enterprise. I know I shouldn't judge design success by sales, but it's hard not to. So, I guess that's the plan for today, more playing with the new motif until I can coax it into something useful.

I'm Designing Again

Everything went pretty much as expected for the first day back to everything normal. The kids complained a bit at their schooling, but not so much that it was difficult to get through it in a reasonable amount of time. Then once I was ready to have a nice sit, I got a tiny bit of inspiration. I was tempted at first to get out some paper and draw it out, but instead went with my usual, 'tat it and hope for the best' method. I did have a couple of false starts before I hit on the formula to create the look I was going for. This was the first bit that worked. It was done in one over crowed round so that I could sit the smaller rings just in front of the larger ones creating a layered look.

I wasn't done yet though. I went onto a second round, though this is usually where I ruin what was interesting about the first round. This time I was uncharacteristically proud of my work. I actually think that the second round enhanced what was interesting and gave it a beautiful shape. I know, I'm not often this complimentary to my own creations, but I really liked it.

I wanted to try a third round, but by this point I was absolutely terrified that I would just ruin it. So I started from the beginning
again so I could see the two different pieces side by side. Surprisingly once I made up a third layer, I was still happy with the results. I'm really hoping it feels new and interesting to other people as well though.

I'm not certain what's next for these. I'm thinking of perhaps joining some 2 and 3 round ones together to create a large statement necklace with maybe a few other elements. Or maybe just two 3 round ones for a doily style bracelet. Whatever I do manage to make, at least I'm designing again and it feel pretty good to be back at it.

Normality Restored

Here we are, back at normality. The kids are back to schooling and the husband is back to work. I anticipate lots of grumbling as the day progresses, but I am quite happy to be back to a schedule. It will hopefully allow me to get me rear in gear and see if I still have a design or two hiding in my brain.

Let's see, weekend recap. There was a little tatting as I've been quite lucky to start the year with a few sales. That gave me a few things that needed tatting. We also managed to watch a few more movies with the kids and they played video games so much I've got player select music suck in my head. We had my sister and her kids over to play for quite a few hours on Saturday as well. She requested a pair of the same fingerless gloves I made for the kids, so that gave me an quick knitting project for the rest of the weekend. I finished it last night though, so still looking for a new one. My hair got freshly dyed and my oldest daughter decided that she was ready to get her ears pierced, so we got that done as well. It was a pretty packed weekend.

The last thing we did was take down Christmas and put the school table back out yesterday afternoon. The children were not happy about this at all, and it was an exhausting task, but it feels so nice to have everything back to normal. Here's to the week and the year ahead continuing to be productive and successful.

Day One

I tried to start the year out productively at least. I finished my arm warmers first off. Good thing too, it's been getting pretty cold around these parts and they are comfy and warm. Okay, it's not North nor Midwest cold, but cold for central California anyway. Once that was wrapped, I read one of my Christmas gifts, the graphic novel, The Wrenchies. It was definitely an odd way to start the year as it was quite a dense read, but beautiful...in a disturbing way. After that it was tea and tatting.

I got a couple of pieces remade for the shop and then I did the most cliched thing of the day, I cleaned and organized my desk and surrounding area. I'm always surprised that I don't find buried treasure under the pile of receipts I let build up. Then it was back to the couch for a little more tatting. I have plenty of leftover yarn from my knitting project, so I'm also looking out for another back up knitting project. I was quite happy and a little relieved, to receive a couple of orders yesterday in the shop, but it would be foolish of me to assume that things would actually continue to pick up in January. A back up project will definitely be needed and I'm hoping by next week my creativity will have rested enough to start designing a bit again.

Have a Good One

Happy 2015 my friends! While I'm not certain it was the right way to spend the last day of the year, I spent 12 hours glued to the television. We watched all three extended versions of The Lord of the Rings movies. Yes, even the kids sat through them all. I also managed to almost finish the other wrist warmer because that was a hell of a lot of sitting time. I feel like I should stand a lot to make up for it today, but I really have no plans to do so.

I did get one more sale yesterday in the shop using my coupon code that expires today. So this is your last chance to use it as well. It would be wonderful to both end last year and start this one with a sale in my etsy shop. The code is 'YEAREND' and it's good for 25% off any purchase over $10 in my store. I do have a couple of small things to tat up for that order, but they'll have to wait to get mailed until tomorrow since it's a postal holiday. So I guess I have a little knitting, a little tatting and plenty of time to spend with the family on this first day of the year. Here's hoping that it's the start of a good one!