Almost Time

I'm almost ready. I got the pattern completed and ready for listing tomorrow morning. I got a few more pendants made and ready to be photographed. I'll have that part done just after schooling today. Then I'll get that ready to list in the shop as well. So tomorrow morning as soon as I get up in the morning I'll have both my International Tatting Day offerings available in the shop. Just a reminder that both the pattern and the pendant will be offered for a one day only discount, so the price goes up on the 2nd. I'm a little embarrassed that I don't have a free pattern to offer as well. I guess there's a minuscule chance that I'll come up with something today, but it's unlikely. Of course I am also celebrating my 10th anniversary on Etsy in a couple of weeks, so perhaps something free for that event. Time will tell.

In Armenian lace tablecloth news, another day, another round. I'm only making it a third of the way around with any one length of thread, well, except on this last round since it was just the larger loops. I'm also attempting to pull them in tight to get rid of the ripple. I think that it's working, but I really won't know until I get much further along. The waiting while working under the assumption that it will turn out, is the hardest part.

So, today I have a few things to finish for tomorrow. Then I might tackle some house cleaning for this weekend. All other free time will be given, as usual, to knotting.

This and That

I did manage to remember to get a little tatting done. I only made the one necklace though. I really ought to have made some pendants for Friday, but I just wasn't feeling it. I've probably tatted this necklace and the others using the same motif more times than anything else. Funny thing is, I have to make these necklaces with one more flower than I used to, because my tension has increased so much over the years that my pieces have shrunk.

I did also get some knotting in. Again, I finished one round and started the next and that was as far as I got in the day. I fear these last few rounds are not flattening out the ripple much. I think it's going to take a few more repeats of the basket stitch without increasing loop sizes at all to get it back to flat. So that means a really long time at this rate.

I really have to get back to the stuff for Friday today. Hopefully I can pull myself together and get everything ready to go for the event. I am just having the worst time focusing on things I should do lately. I blame the sunny skies and the blooming flowers.

Back To Normal

Ah, back to what passes for normal around here. School took up the morning and we discovered that a pair of nesting mourning doves on our fence had laid an egg. Their position on the fence is perfect for us to watch them from inside the house without disturbing them at all. Of course I did have to get this picture from outside when the mother bird had gone off the nest for a short time in the morning. I sure hope this little egg makes it to baby bird.

After schooling I meant to get to tatting, but I just didn't. Each round of the Armenian lace is nearly 7 feet long now and I can barely finish one round in a day. Of course that's partly because I went smaller for the sake of density. I'd be flying around at the size the loops were before I shrunk them. I finished round two of the basket stitch and started in on round three. I want to keep going, but I know I need to get back to some tatting. I've got a necklace to remake and I really ought to make more of the pendant for Friday, so I can list it properly. There's also some cleaning I need to get done because this weekend is my youngest child's birthday and the family will be gathering. I've got the rest of the week to get to that though and you know I'm going to procrastinate as long as I can.

Weekend Recap

Well our weekend went off in an odd direction. I started Friday by finishing the revision of the new
tatting pattern that will go on sale on Friday the 1st. I was pretty proud of myself for actually getting around to it, but that was the extent of my plan for the day. Then on Saturday morning we went to a plant sale at the college across the street and that kicked off two days of yard work that wasn't strictly planned.

The husband destroyed the weeds that were masquerading as lawn while I planted three trees. Then there was some re-potting of house plants, and one more for outside. Then I had to repair the drip system that hasn't run since last Fall and add the new trees to it. Basically we were outside much of the weekend. The picture is just one of the new trees in the middle. I suppose that's a fine way to celebrate Oestre, you know with the renewal of life, and Spring awakening and all. Oh, and there was chocolate because that's how we roll.

By Sunday evening I could finally sit down and knot for a spell. The progress is slow, I've just now reached 26" across, but I like the pattern that formed with the really small loops. This is starting the first round of basket stitch. I managed to get this round finished and I'm on the second round now. I should get that done today even though we are back to schooling this morning. I have a necklace that needs remaking for the shop as well. I also now need to remind myself to go out and check on the new plants everyday so they make it to that all important 'established' stage. I think I might need a vacation after the last two days of my vacation.

Small Loops

I had a nice, long day. I started with the Armenian lace, but quickly decided that I really ought to take a break from it and get that tatted eye patch finished and listed in the shop. Of course that really didn't take that long to accomplish since I was only covering the wire, so I was right back to knotting.

I did change to the really small loops, so I got very little accomplished with it. Well, I mean I tied countless knots, but they were so small that I only managed to get around the doily, maybe twice during the day. And since they were so small, they added no real size to the piece and to top it all off, they are causing a definite ripple on the piece. That means I'll have to do more rounds of them, carefully not increasing their size in order to flatten out the piece before I can switch to the next patterned stitch. It's going to be a while I think.

I also managed to get out and do a little weeding in the yard again. This time it was the front yard and it was only an hour. I also followed it with a nice walk with the kids though the massive weeds around our bike path. I think the city has some weeding that needs doing as well. Anyway, I think the walk was the ticket to preventing weeding-induced soreness, because I feel right as rain this morning.

It's the last day of our Spring break and I've accomplished very little of what I set out to. Of course I did actually relax a bit and isn't that what a vacation is actually for?

Empty Spool

I did get to pass the milestone I was waiting for yesterday, but it took most of that day. I guess the tail end of the thread lasted longer than I thought it would.

So, this is what a ball of size 20 DMC Cebelia thread looks like all used up in Armenian knotted lace form. That's the empty plastic spool there in the center next to the ball of thread I plan on depleting next. I really did work on this all day long trying to get to this point. It's taken me just about a month to get here as I started this project on February 22. I don't really have an accurate count of days though since some days I worked more on it than others and some days I didn't touch it at all, but a month and a ball of thread seems like a good assessment. The piece measures just over 25 inches across at this point.

I just started a really small loops round to try and get the piece a little denser. That way I can start another section of basket stitch without it being too loose. If I want this to be a good sized tablecloth, I'm only halfway there. If I had continued with the loops growing at this rate, I'd have holes big enough to put a hand through soon enough. Of course these really small loop rounds are going to take forever and grow the piece much slower, but clearly this project is a marathon, not a sprint.

2 Feet

I was ridiculously sore all day yesterday. I actually had to set my phone to remind me to get up and stretch every 30 minutes just to force myself to move and stretch. Ah, Spring yard work, you are truly evil. That being said, I did get some sitting down things done. I worked up a pendant for International Tatting Day, though I won't show that to you. It's not terribly impressive, but it's cute, small, and will be perfect as the surprise, inexpensive pendant for the day. I did not, however, work on the pattern. I know, you're not shocked by that admission at all.

I spent most of the day with a book in my lap, well a kindle anyway, and the Armenian lace in my hands. In fact I had a milestone day with it. This picture represents the moment I hit 2 whole feet across. It was the last round of the diamond pattern. After this I switched back to plain loops. I actually got a few more rounds done after this and ended the day with another half inch added to the diameter. That means each round is almost 6 and a half feet long. The ball of thread is ebbing quickly though and is likely to give up the ghost today. It'll be another milestone, but I'm not stopping there. I'm halfway to a decent sized table cloth, it would be a shame to stop now.

Sold

Again, I did not get done during the day what I had planned to get done. This time it was wholly my fault though. I looked outside at the cool morning and thought, 'I'm going to go out there and finish weeding the border.' Then I actually went and did it. I assumed I'd pull weeds for an hour or so. I walked in the house 4 hours later having completely filled the green waste can and finished the entire border. I took 2 Advil and sat down knowing full well that my body was going to make me regret my actions. It did, and I do.

The rest of the day I spent on the couch. I caught up with television, did a little reading and a whole lot of knotting. The doily has now reached 22 inches across, but I still have one more round before the diamond section is done so there's really nothing new there to share.

I did get another order in my shop though. This time it was for my tatted eye patch. It is, admittingly, one of my odder creations, but I like making it. It's always a challenge to get it joined just right to the wire. I've still not finished remaking it. I still have to cover the wire, which is probably the most time consuming part of this, or any of my masks.

I imagine that I'll spend most of today glued to the couch apologizing to my arms and legs for what I put them through yesterday. Luckily my hands are fine, so I can still put them to work. I might even get to rewriting that pattern today. More likely I will get this eye patch finished and then go back to knotting and reading. You know, vacation stuff.

Weekend Recap

All the best laid plans are put aside when Netflix releases the new season of a favorite show. Thus my weekend was much less about finishing the tatting pattern and much more about binge watching. Other than being glued to the couch watching Daredevil, we had a birthday gathering for my niece and nephew, and we ran a few quick errands. The couch was pretty much my weekend though.

I did get an order in the shop. Actually there were a few orders. All save one were patterns though. The one piece I sold, I took the time to remake for the shop. It was nice getting some tatting done. It was even nicer getting paid for it honestly. I'm crossing my fingers for more.

The rest of my binge-watching weekend was full of knotting. While I couldn't work on the pattern because it would have taken my eyes away from the television, I could knot on the Armenian lace the entire time without missing a thing. I've reached approximately 22.5 inches across. That's nearing 6 feet around. I think I'm almost done with the current pattern round as well. I think maybe one more square to reach four diagonally and then it'll be back to a few rounds of plain small loops. The loops on these last few rounds are getting big and a little too floppy for my liking. I want to tighten up the design a bit soon. Of course after that I've no idea what I'm going to do. I'll figure it out though.

The kids are off of school this week which means I should have the time I need to get the pattern rewritten and ready to sell. I also need to get the pendant made and ready to sell. Though if recent years are any indication I won't sell many of them. I still need to make a few anyway. It may not be a real tradition, but I've done it for a few years and I'm not ready to give up on it yet. Hopefully this year will surprise me.

Step 3 Done

Yep, it was a really long day. There was the customary mad dash to collect the oldest child's work samples and get them all ready to turn in. Of course we'd been working on them for weeks, but no matter how much time we have to do them, there's always something left to the last minute. After we returned from turning her portfolio in, the youngest child still had a live online class she was required to attend. I used that time to start compiling the photos and pattern into something usable.

It took my most of the afternoon because I conveniently forgot how to do half the things I've done before with the layout. Worst part is, now that I've remembered and gotten this one done, I will immediately forget again and next time will again be a struggle. I managed to get it done and sent off to a generous volunteer test tatter. She has already done it and sent back notes this morning for revising, including changes for shuttle tatters, so I may add those to the end of the pattern as well. I don't want to put them in the body, because I do like to write for needle tatters first as it's my skill set.

In the evening I got back to knotting. I haven't sold any physical items from my etsy shop in 10 days and it was 10 days before that that I sold anything I needed to make, so this Armenian lace doily is keeping me sane. It's now at over 21 inches or 54cm across. It's also fun to note that every time I complete a round I'm knotting something longer than my own height.

The weekend will include rewriting the pattern with the revisions, knotting the doily/tablecloth, crossing my fingers for some sales in my etsy shop, and hosting my niece and nephew's birthday get together. It should be a long weekend and it's followed by the kids' Spring break, so I'm looking forward to getting some things done.

Step 2

I had a nice long day of schooling followed by a nice long day of actually doing what I planned to do. I worked on the sample piece for the pattern's step-by-step photos. I chose pinks because I hadn't done that colorway yet. Of course I haven't sold any of the necklaces yet, so that doesn't really matter. I got all the photos taken, so today's task is to start getting them into the layout for the pattern. This part always takes me a whole lot longer than I wish it would.

 The rest of my day was back to knotting. The doily is
now about 20.75 inches across. That's 66 inches around. It even sounds bigger when I put it into feet, 5.5 feet around. The pattern on the outer edge is definitely coming along, but I will keep at it for a long time I think for a nice wide section.

So pattern writing and more knotting is my day today, along with helping the oldest child put together her work sample portfolio. So there might be far less pattern writing and knotting than usual. It might be a very long day.

Back and Forth

I started knotting first thing in the morning because I knew I was going to put it aside later in the day to work on the tatting pattern. At this point I was still quite worried that the pattern I had done math to start was not going to work out. I could see it trying to be a pattern, but I was going to have to be patient.

I did have to put this down early as we headed out to the book fair/science fair after schooling. The kids weren't presenting a project, but I figured they could do with some observing before the oldest child did one later this year. After that it was a quick errand and then back home.

I pulled out the Black Star motif and accomplished the first step of getting a pattern ready, writing it out. Every time I do this, I am reminded how much work preparing a pattern to share or sell is. Next up I have to tat it up in pieces so that I can get in progress photos of the piece. I suppose I could learn how to diagram, but that's not likely to happen as I don't even know where to start. After that it's onto doing the layout in one program. Then there's repeatedly checking for errors and finally converting to the final PDF. All this will take me many days and that's not counting getting someone to test tat and check for additional errors. All of this is one big reason why I share and sell so few of them. It's also why I get bit frustrated when people ask for patterns the same day I design them or wonder why I can't just write them up to share on the fly.

Anyway, I did get back to knotting in the evening and the pattern is starting to emerge. Again, it's not exactly what I was hoping for, but it's pretty close and I can work with that. I will be continuing this pattern for some time to really solidify the design. The only real challenge is keeping those large loops the right size so that the circle can grow properly. I'm hoping to do some more knotting this morning so that I can take some measurements and see a little progress from the last ones at least. Then the afternoon belongs to pattern creation.

Slowly

The doily grew and I did some reading. Not much else happened. I'll happily blame some of my lack of motivation on the time change. It seems a likely culprit and I don't have the energy to think of something more clever.

The pattern rounds are just now starting to take shape. Of course that shape isn't quite what I intended, but I'll keep at it for a while and see what emerges after a few repeats of the design. I didn't do a measurement yesterday, so I'm not certain how large this has become, but I've moved to the dining table to take the photo, so it's no longer small. Each length of thread is now getting me, maybe two-thirds of the way around, so it's definitely slow going.

We have a book fair/science fair to attend this afternoon after schooling, so I'll have even less time to work than usual. I might actually pull out the Black Star pieces and start writing the patterns out instead of knotting. Maybe. It could happen. I guess we'll just have to see how the day goes.

Weekend Recap

Well we has a nice long weekend. Friday I ended up watching one of my nieces much of the day. She was out of school with a freshly fractured arm. So I didn't get too much done on the Armenian lace doily. I did manage to finish three rounds of the fancy side knot, then it was onto a new round. There was counting and factoring and figuring out which pattern would work before I finally started knotting again.

Saturday we went to San Fransisco to finally redeem a lovely family Christmas gift, a membership to the Exploratorium. It was quite a rainy day, but we were running out of time and it was an otherwise unplanned weekend, so off we went. It was a fun, but wet day. After the museum we hoofed it down to Pier 39 to watch the sea lions, eat and generally be tourists for a spell. By the time we were home it was time to head to bed. Well not really, but with the time change upon us it seemed like a good idea to knock off early.

Sunday I got a haircut. Now, my mother asked why I was doing such a thing. Mostly it's because I simply thought it would look neat and I can. Partly it's because I loved Thomas Jane's hair on The Expanse and have contemplated doing the same thing to my hair since I first saw it. It you need to blame something blame him, or more likely the production staff. So you get a rare selfie of me with newly shaved hair, though I really need to redye it soon as well.

Once the cut was complete I had some time to knot again. I manged to get to the second round of what I hope will be a successful patterned round of small loops. It's really too early to tell if my calculations were correct or not, but other that drawing it all out, doing it is the only was to tell. You know, I'm not taking the time to draw something out when it can just be done.

We have a busy week of schooling things, but hopefully I'll get some time to write up the pattern for next month and do some knotting as well. Right not I just want to go back to sleep, because time changes are painful.

Thank You

So the drought killed our lawn and then El Niño came and watered the barren land creating a weed covered wasteland in our backyard. Somehow we managed to keep the front yard grass, but the backyard didn't have a prayer. While the yard itself will require some kind of chemical intervention to restore, I took it upon myself to use the last sunny day before more rain to pull weeds in the borders so the poor plants there could thrive in peace. I only managed to get about halfway around the perimeter before I was completely physically spent. This morning I am a mess of sore muscles. Luckily my current regimen of too much allergy medication mostly held up under the pollen onslaught. Too bad I have much more work after this next bout of rainstorms passes.

While inside, after the weed pulling nonsense, I did just barely finish that third round of  fancy side stitches. This brought me to 19 inches or 48 centimeters across. That's over 59 inches or 301 centimeters per round. I knew I would feel better about my progress when I switched to the metric system. I'm going to try another small loop pattern section next, but there will be more math before I can proceed.

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to comment yesterday. I guess I really needed to hear a few voices out there to remind me that I wasn't just talking into the void. The plan I've decided on is that I will write up the pattern for the Black Star pendant as the sale pattern released that day. Sometime between now and then I will either come up with a new small pendant design to sell that day or pick one in the shop to reduce the price on. If I do design a new one, I might also release that pattern free either here or on Instructables. That last bit is very contingent on me getting a burst of inspiration or at the very least, a workable idea. It might not be the most solid of plans, but at least I have one now. Here's hoping it all comes together.

Marathon

I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do for Tatting day. I tried asking over on the Facebook page, but I didn't get a whole lot of responses or 'likes' and half of the comments I got weren't exactly helpful. I've gotten no suggestions here, which all leaves me figuring it all out myself. I suppose that's how it usually is, but it also leaves me thinking there is far less enthusiasm for the idea than in past years. Maybe I just won't stress or focus on it then. If something comes to me, great, if not, no big loss.

I did switch gears on the Armenian lace yesterday. I had managed 10 rounds of the small lops, so it
was time for a change. I'm now on the second round of fancy side loops. I remember hating these on my first doily as getting them even in size is quite fiddly. I'm better at it now, but I still don't love them. I'm thinking three rounds for the sake of design and then I'll be off to something else. Perhaps another small loops pattern round, maybe zig-zags. Who know if I'll even finish the three round of this today. Since this stitch is more complex, I mange only about a quarter of a round with a single length of thread. It's slow going, but this is a marathon project, not a sprint. I sure would like an order in the shop for a quick pit stop of tatting though. Man, did I take that metaphor further than intended, sorry.

Same, But Different

Yep, yesterday was a lot like the day before it, except that I did laundry and a lot more work on our taxes and
actually finished them. I also managed to clean my desk in the process. Of course that might have been because my desk was merely covered with a layer of receipts that needed filing for taxes and one task simply required the other, but what matters is that both are done.

I only managed a few rounds on the Armenian lace piece, hardly a measurable amount at all, but if I state it in centimeters it sounds better. It is currently about 45 cm across. If I've done my math correctly that gives it a circumference of approximately 139.09 cm. So that sounds like it was a lot more work. Even if I switch back to inches it makes each round over 55 inches long. Wow, I feel much more like I accomplished actual work yesterday.

With the taxes out of the way the next task I need to focus on is writing up a pattern for International Tatting Day and deciding what small piece to sell at my now almost traditional price of $5. If you have any suggestions for either the pattern or sale piece, I would love to hear them! I leaning toward the Black Star pattern as the sale one, but I might have to design something new for the free one. I don't know. Maybe I already have one people want. I guess I have more thinking to do before I get to work on this one.

Slow

I fear recapping my progress on the doily/tablecloth is going to be a bit of a bore today. I made progress, but it was slight and I did the same stitch all day long. I would recap what I did with the rest of my day, but I did the first half of my taxes, so that's no fun either.

At least I took a couple of photos so this isn't a complete waste of time. This was my morning before schooling. I watch the news, drink some coffee and work on the pile of lace in my lap. Then I take the lace up with me to do schooling, but I can't work too much on it as my focus is on the kids.

After schooling I did the taxes, or as much of them as I could deal with for the day. Then it was just back to the knotting, and reading. The piece now measures about 17 inches across which isn't much progress from yesterday. I think I might start calculating the circumference rather than the diameter. The bigger number might make me feel better about my progress. Of course if I just want bigger numbers I could just switch to metric and use centimeters. Yeah, so don't be surprised if I do that tomorrow. It will probably be the only different thing I do today.

Weekend Recap

The weekend certainly got better as it went along, not least of all because I finally managed to get my allergies under control. I'm sure I can thank the weather for that though. The rain has come back to our valley with a bit of a vengeance, but at least it knocked all that pollen out of the air. We also caught a movie and took a nice family walk when the rain took a break.

The progress on the Armenian lace doily has ground to a halt. Well, not really. it just feel like that since I can only make it around once with a length of thread and since I've switched back to small loops for a while it's denser and grows more slowly. I thought I'd illustrate how unwieldy it is getting to work with by taking a photo with my laptop whilst schooling on Friday. I don't usually hold this piece quite this high while working on it, but you can see it better like this.

The weekend progress is mostly here in this picture. It's actually getting more difficult to snap these as it grows. I will one day run out of flat couch space to set it out on. Right now it's at just over 16.5 inches across. The outer rounds are rippling a bit, but I'm going to keep up with the small loops for a nice thick section, so it should flatten out on its own. The ball of thread is definitely getting smaller now as well. While I will certainly make a point of sharing when this one runs out, I think I shall need more balls of thread to get all the way to tablecloth like I planned. I may also need many months.

I do need to switch focus for a while though. There are taxes to do and I need to start prepping for International Tatting Day, not to mention the kids birthdays are fast approaching as well as all the other nonsense that goes with the last semester of the school year. Okay, I'm going to stop listing this stuff out right now, it's going to cause stress if I'm not careful. You know I'll keep knotting this piece regardless. It definitely has a calming effect.

Oops

It happened. I made a bad design choice and went with it for a while. Then of course I realized what a horrible mistake I had made and the scissors came out. Snip, snip. It took a good half an hour to then pick out all the now freed knots and remove the error. I know I could have pretended that this had not occurred and perpetuated the myth that I actually know what I'm doing here, but that seemed disingenuous. I can make quality mistakes on a regular basis. In fact, I'm quite shocked that it took this long to get to one with this piece.

I didn't stop there though. I was was tempted to call it a day because either the allergies or the medication I'm taking to combat them had wholly sapped my energy, but I had to give it another go. I rethought my approach to the next round and kept it going. It's reached about 15.5 inches at this point and it actually getting a little unwieldy to carry about with me. I'm using a large loop design that is honestly much better suited for the center of a piece than out on the edge like this. Keeping the loops large enough requires that I lay the piece out on my lap and gently close each loop while it's on a surface to make sure it's not snugged too close.




As the evening wore on, I changed tactics again and
now I'm going back to small loops, though I think it'll be straight onto something like fancy side loops. I don't really know at this point. I'm just determined to keep it up. It already larger than any Armenian lace piece I've done, but I've still tatted larger pieces, so I guess I'm trying to outdo myself at least.

Spiral

Well I may have escaped the family cold, but I was not able to run from the massive onslaught of seasonal allergies. One spectacular effect of our weather friend El Niño is the fast and productive Spring we're have here in the center of California. The weeds are sprouting everywhere that the drought before it killed the grass. It's a lot of weeds full of flowering bits and pollen, pollen, everywhere. Of course I should have known this was coming and started with the allergy medicine weeks ago, but I can't go back, I just have to wait for the medication to catch up and stomp down the myriad of symptoms attacking my face.

Of course all of that did not stop me from knotting the Armenian lace doily. This is the early afternoon update when the piece is about 13.5 inches across. I still had a couple more rows in what I'm calling the spiral section before I decided to move on to something else.

It wasn't until evening that I decided to call it on the spiral and move on. Honestly, I'm not entirely
certain what I'm doing with these new rows yet. I just knew I wanted a separation from the small loops, so I did a round of large ones. I don't want to go back to basket stitch quite yet, so I think I'll just be making something up. Here's hoping it works out okay. By this point I think I was just over 14 inches. It's still quite a way from here to a table cloth, but the ball of thread is still pretty full and my shop shop is pretty quiet so I'll keep at it.

Slowly

Yesterday was quite a bit busier than the day that preceded it. After schooling we had to run some
errands and then when we got back, it was an afternoon of cleaning. It was mostly just the kitchen, but I had been ignoring a few things like the floors that were getting pretty bad. Of course it was just because we were having the in-laws over for taco Tuesday, that I had a reason to clean.

It wasn't all cleaning though. I've been getting pretty good at knotting while I'm teaching the kids in the morning or reading in the afternoon. The progress is definitely slowing down though. My after schooling picture is showing only a half an inch over the day before, though you can start to see the design I tried out here after actually taking the time to count loops and do some math.

After a full days progress, not counting time cleaning, cooking, and eating, I only managed another half inch. So this last photo is at about 13 inches. A single manageable length of thread is now just taking me around the piece once with maybe a little overlap. You can however, see the new design better here. I'm not certain how many more rounds I need to do with this to really create the design I want. I'm thinking another five or so. Then I'll have to some up with something new to try. Of course it might be another day before that's an issue. Honestly I'm hoping for some tatting soon, so I can put down the tiny needle take a bit of a knotting break. Here's hoping.

A Foot

The husband is out of town for a conference, so I spent the day in the laziest way possible. After schooling all I did was read and knot lace. That was it, well I did feed the kids and take care of the animals, but I didn't clean anything or run any errands. Of course that has left me with a ton of stuff that I need to do today, but it seemed worth it at the time.

As for the Armenian lace doily, I finished up the three rounds of basket stitch. The last one was getting a bit tricky as it was getting a bit bigger than is easy to keep consistently sized. After this point I started back in with the plain loops. Of course doing them over the large loops and keeping them consistent is a challenge here too. After a few rounds I think I am going to attempt to make a pattern in the small loops, what exactly I don't know. I imagine there will need to be some counting before I begin and probably some math. I'm always warning people how much hidden math is in lace making. Speaking of math, it is about 12 inches across now and I haven't even made a dent in the ball of thread I'm using. This project will definitely be around awhile.