Tatted Eye Patch

I sold a tatted rose eye patch yesterday, so I spent some time tatting up a new one to put in my etsy shop, which I have been woefully neglectful of as of late, because of, well life. I've also been keeping busy with a new activity in my life. Actually it's a really old activity that I used to spend all of my time doing, but I haven't been doing so in over twenty years. I'm doing theater again. My daughter started over the summer and once I was back in a theater, I couldn't stay away. I'm in rehearsals now for my first show since college. Yikes, right? It's called Men on Boats and it opens in January for a two weekend run. So yep, still tatting and crocheting, but also writing and acting, and look I even found the motivation to write here, so yay! Maybe it'll stick this time...don't make any bets on it though.

So Weird

So these just came in the mail. I ordered just a couple of copies of my book so I could have them. As weird as it was to see the listing on Amazon, it was orders of magnitude weirder to see it in print. Thanks to everyone who has picked up a digital copy, all ten or so of you. I have no illusions that this is going to sell many copies. It was mostly about the writing and the actually putting it out in the world for me. I've got more projects in various stages of creation and now that the bandage has been pulled off the self-publishing wound...wow, that was a labored metaphor. The point is, the first time has to be the hardest, right? So here are the links again, it you're interested.

Hidden Gods Paperback

Hidden Gods e-book

A Book That I Wrote

So, again I disappeared into the real world and left this space lonely. If it weren't for the collection of patterns I've posted here over the years, I might have even entertained the thought of just deleting the whole thing. No worries about that though, there's really no good reason to not let it linger, but that's not why I'm here today. Today I'm here because after I wrote a novel, and then sat on it for quite sometime while I edited off and on with the help of my daughter, I actually pulled the trigger and self published in on Amazon.

I know, right? Scary. Anyway, it is available now as both an ebook, which is free to read if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, and paperback. Fair warning, it has literally nothing to do with lace or any other fiber art. It's a urban fantasy sort of story with gods and monsters, a little danger and weirdness. It's the sort of thing that I would read, because why write something if you wouldn't want to read the story yourself.

Hidden Gods 

If you do read it and actually enjoy it, please do leave a review on Amazon...so you know, I can pretend I'm a real writer. No worries if it's not your kind of thing, but I'd love you to share if you know anyone who might like it. There's no point in telling a story if no one hears it. Either way thanks!

Done and Done

 I've spent much of the last week working on this doily piece. I liked quite a few of the rounds to be the end of the piece because the shaping was so different and interesting on many of them, but I was looking for a particular end size so I kept on going.

 At some points it had this nice snowflake feel and at others I got an almost straight-line hexagon. I was ultimately hoping for round and that's mostly what I ended up with.

 This is the final piece done in the vintage or crappy size 10 thread. It's loose and a bit floppy, but that's why it's a prototype. The end size was about 15 inches across which was my goal. I also quite like the negative spaces as well as the repeated motif themes I managed to hold onto.







Once that was done, I worked it up in size 20 DMC Cébélia thread in ecru. It was immediately firmer because of the better thread, but also more delicate. The end size came to about 12 inches which is also what I was hoping for with it. I don't know how I managed to guess that, maybe I've been working with thread for too long or something.

Now that I've managed to recreate it and it still lays well, I'm going to work on writing up the pattern. I kind of want to do it for sale, but I'm not sure what kind of demand there is for a doily pattern. I'll take any opinions you have on that subject. Regardless, I'm pretty happy with how the project turned out. Maybe I'll do another one after I finish writing this one up, the finished product is rather satisfying to look at.

Centerpiece

So I was going to write earlier this morning, but my youngest daughter's computer had a heart attack just as she was starting her schooling. I had to sacrifice my laptop to her because let's face it school is far more important than me rambling on about thread projects.

Speaking of thread projects, I actually have one. My shop has gone quiet again, but that's not terribly unusual for this time of the year. I was starting to get a bit antsy when I was asked to create something for the center of a table. I poked around my collection of antique and vintage pattern books and PDF's picking out a few possibilities when I inexplicably found my self inspired to design my own doily.

The first bit was a piece I found in a German book from 1921. I added the flower in the center and then built it out from there as I went. I don't really have a plan going forward other than to make it large enough to serve the purpose as a center piece on a square table. I don't ultimately know if this piece will be the one I remake for the table project, but either way I've gotten to stretch my designing muscles again.

I other news I did finally list the choker I made the other week. The pictures are disappointing partly because I find myself less photogenic as the years go by, but there's nothing for it. At least I managed to get the project across the finish line. So here's that: My Immortal Corsage Necklace.

Ten Days Later

Clearly I've still got a way to go if I'm going for any sort of consistency writing here, but I'll take once a week as a start. I've gotten a couple of orders since I wrote last so I've been keeping busy with making those as well as remaking a few more pieces for my shop. I'm practically forcing myself to make something everyday to get back into the habit. It's a work in progress that involves much stalling, cleaning and occasionally playing video games that serve no purpose.

I sold a immortal corsage bracelet and remade that piece for the first time in a rather long time. Then as I was working on that I recalled that I had made a choker version of it. Of course that was a decade ago so I had so go back through my sold items to figure out how it was that I had done so. Once I found it, I promptly decided to make some changes. The original had flowers with just a single petal round, I added a second. Then I worked on making the structure better between the elements, adding additional joins. I should get it listed in my shop next week, whether permitting, because I'll need new photos to go with the changes.



Other than the tatting, I also did some crochet cording so I could remake an Armenian knotted lace necklace. I had spent much of the last few months crocheting large projects like blanket gifts, so the return to small thread knotting definitely took my fingers some time to get used to again. Thankfully muscle memory is strong and I've been enjoying my return to thread.

Speaking of thread, I had a bit of a panic when I heard that DMC was not going to be importing cébélia thread any longer. I almost exclusively use that thread in size 10 black, so I spent quite some time looking for and then buying boxes of it just in case it becomes too difficult to acquire in the future. I also bought up the entire supply in the only yarn store that carries it near me and they had very little. I'm hoping I'm worried for no reason, but I'll probably buy even more should I run across it. It's not like it goes bad.

Monday

So clearly I'm not going to be back to writing in a scheduled and consistent way. I think I'm just going to have a go at writing when I've got a few pictures to share. For now I imagine they'll just be these sort of in process pictures as I get back to also tatting with a bit more frequency.

I had a couple of pieces that sold during my holiday sale that I wanted to get remade last week. The first one here is my version of the hen and chicks pattern with some Victorian sets instead of regular chains and then repeated on the other side to make a bracelet. The next one is just a simple chain necklace made in a nice curve.

I also had a mask to remake and I got that finished up as well, though I didn't stop for a picture of that one. I think it might take some time before I get back into any sort of good habits with all this, but this is a start. I did get a small order over the weekend that needed making, so I'll get to that today and hopefully that'll give another photo opportunity. I'm also back to homeschooling today after the holiday break and after just a half hour in, we're all already to take another break. It's going to be a long week ahead.

Back to Work

I've been working hard on a mask that was ordered during my sale. It was the only piece that needed to be made before shipping. I just finished working it up despite the best efforts of the cat to distract me, so I should have it in the post to its new owner tomorrow morning.

I have a few cuff bracelets that also sold that I should get tatted up so I can put them back up my shop. I was just waiting for new hook closures to come in the mail before I could start on them and they've just arrived in the mail. I'm going to take a little break this afternoon and then get to work on them as well. Hopefully those will keep me busy and give me some tatting to share here and elsewhere over the next couple of weeks.

Still Alive

Wow, so it's been awhile and I can't imagine there are many people out there that will stumble back into this blog ghost town, but I'm going have a go at writing here again anyhow.

So, let's see, I'm still making lace, though not as often as I once did. My etsy shop's business dried up and with it my motivation to keep creating new pieces. I am still tatting, doing Armenian knotted lace, crochet, painting, and knitting, pretty much anything to keep my hands busy.

I've also been writing fairly regularly, though I've not actually put any of that out into the world yet. There's a finished  urban fantasy novel, a handful of short stories and several WIP's waiting to be finished. I'm hoping to get focused enough to get some of it self-published this year, but it's a scary proposition. It's almost as if writing thousands of words was the easy bit.

In tatting news, I just ran a sale in my shop to hopefully jump start it a bit. It's too soon to tell if it will have any lasting effect, but I needed to do something. I've got some fairly nebulous plans to get some more patterns written up for sale and do an overhaul of my inventory. Again, too soon to tell how all that is going to play out.

This whole past year has been a little creatively unfocused really. I'm going to try and turn that around, but I'm not naive enough to think that a January first proclamation will be enough to keep it going. So, I'm just putting this out into the world. I'm alive, I'm still making things, and I don't plan on stopping.