Simple

Well, we had a long holiday weekend around here, not that we got up to too much. We had a birthday party to attend and some errands to run and we watched a lot of movies at home. You'd think that would mean I got a lot of lace making done, but it doesn't. I did get a little done yesterday as we binge watched shows on Netflix. I had just finished the cord portion of the gray one here and the turquoise seems to have actually let its color be captured fairly accurately this time. I think I'm going to do one in black and then list them as a nice simple, inexpensive necklace.

We actually have a family adventure closing in soon for us, so I'm likely to be a bit distracted this week with planning for that. I'll also be taking everything that isn't a pattern out of my etsy shop in the next couple of days in anticipation of not being able to ship anything for a week. So I probably won't get these new necklaces listed until after the adventure either. I'd put the shop in vacation mode, but there's no need to hide the patterns. I will probably start on that tomorrow, so I guess if you wanted to buys something in the next couple of weeks, today's the day.

More Scrolls

So the new choker got listed yesterday right after schooling which did go much smoother on day two. I suppose it just takes her a bit to get back into the swing of things. The choker was not nearly as well received as the necklaces that preceded it. Add that to the complete lack of sales lately and I was pretty bummed after that. Though honestly I'm not 100% in love with some of my choices on the pieces either. It will probably end up being a one off with the next version slightly different particularly at the top edge.

Once I finished sulking I had other ideas though and I got to work on a bracelet idea for the design. It too took a little extra work to make happen. I mostly used the choker as a base, but the center scrolling had to be longer and I added the same motif I used on the sides of the choker to the center top. I wasn't sure until the very end whether it was going to be a slave bracelet or not, but if definitely looks better like that. The sun was already nearly gone by the time I finished this one, so it's still waiting for it's shop debut.

As one piece seems to inspire another, so did the slave bracelet get tried on my foot to see if it could become a barefoot sandal. Guess what? It can. Again there were some adjustments to be made to the design, but honestly the fewest between pieces. The main body was already large enough and I mostly had to shorten the bracelets length and add the crochet chain ties. I only got one done yesterday and it was really late by this point. Mind you my really late is much earlier than yours likely is, but still it was the last thing I did for the day. All the new stuff still needs to be pressed and worn around a bit to make sure it's all battle ready, but I should be able to finish the other sandal and get both those and the bracelet listed today.

Last bit for today is an announcement and a question. Friday will be my 1000th blog post here and after some goading yesterday my blog follower numbers just hit 500. Yes, I know that means I have babbled quite a lot in the last few years. The point is I'd like to do something to mark the occasion and a giveaway usually does the trick. So now for the question: What would you like to win? Be honest now, what would make you take the time to leave a comment to enter? I will seriously consider all suggestions and the giveaway will go up on Friday with a winner pulled on Monday.

The Countess Was Victorious

So, I had intended on making this piece's debut here today, but I got antsy and listed the necklace at etsy yesterday. I would still love to share with you the evolution of it though. It all started when I saw this booklet on sale at etsy. The seller, ButtonEmpire, posted a few pics from the booklet and when I saw this collar I audibly shrieked. It was perfect and I couldn't wait to make it. Of course I had to wait...a whole week for the book to arrive from Canada complete with another little booklet of doily patterns for another day.

The first step was following the pattern as written and making a prototype piece so I could see what needed to be changed. I actually needed to make a couple of changes along the way as the pattern has the whole top edge of the collar tatted together and that clearly wasn't going to work. The whole piece needed to be pressed as well before success was clear. Then I lay out the piece and work out any changes that are needed, in this case I added a small ring on the top center as well as changed some stitch and picot counts so it would lay better. You might have noticed that the fill-in motif is exactly the same as the one in my Portrait necklaces. That made construction a snap for me, though the clover clusters take a bit more time to tat up.

The final step was working out where to embellish the piece and load on the beads. I decided that I wanted this piece to be very familiar so I went with the same basic beads as the Portrait necklace though I did add some seed beads this time. Next was the name, this took me forever. I wanted to make sure that the name was based on the original patterns name, Victory, but I also wanted it to fit in with the Portrait name as well. I settled on The Countess Was Victorious and took some quick photos. I hope that you like it!
This is certainly not my last piece from this booklet and I'll be sure to share them as they evolve from their original forms into Neo-Victorian tatted goodness.