Done and Started

The morning was chock full of shcooling, a doctor's appointment, and the resulting errands. Of course it's always good when the kids' doctor solves one of their issues with a trip to the grocery store instead of a prescription. It was just a yearly check up, but the oldest child was also having some digestive issues. Anyway, it was well after lunch when I got time to sit and work.

Finally I pulled this piece off the board. It's not quite like I had hoped, but it was mostly done correctly. You can tell that I kind of got the gimp thread in the wrong place a few times. I kept resisting the urge to just weave the thing through the finished lace with a needle. I really, really wanted to just do that and honestly I think that could have totally been done.

After I finished this I almost went straight on to the next section in the book, but then I remembered that I was going to make myself tat something. At first I tried to exercise my design muscles, but they wouldn't respond to prodding. It was about this point that I had a bit of a financial scare as my credit card alerted me to a charge by the city finance office of over $500 instead of the $41 that my business license renewal actually costs. So while on the phone to fix that crazy mistake I just tatted up a tiny triangle. Not a great, or even interesting piece, but I did get some tatting in, so I'm going to count it.

After that I read through the next section in the book and using larger thread again, I wound my bobbins for the next piece. This one uses a pointed beginning and it did throw me a bit. Honestly I won't really know if I did it right until I get it finished, but it also has new ground to learn, so either way, I guess I will have learned something with this section. I used the larger thread and blew up the pattern just a bit, so I could see the pattern better, let's hope it helps.

The rest of the week is devoid of additional tasks. It's just schooling and lace for me. Of course there's not much week left, so I'll just make do with what I have. Hopefully something interesting happens soon to help me focus back on tatting for a while.

Hello August

Well hello there August. You're going to be good to me right? July was a bit of a cold shoulder. I kept making new things, but July was having none of it. In just a couple of weeks I'll have little time for anything but schooling, so here's hoping August starts off great.

Yesterday after I finished up the custom order, I decided to do a quick giveaway on the Facebook. I tend to do those when I'm feeling a bit down because when people comment to win something, they generally say nice things. It is like a balm to a bruised ego and completely worth the effort. Plus, it often puts me back in the mood to work and work I did.

I mucked around with some more vintage patterns out of what I think must be a German book. When I see these antique and vintage books posted online, I just snag them and then by the time I get around to really looking through them, I've forgotten where I got it, or why. I worked up three different bits over the course of the day. I played with thrown rings, which I hate doing with two needles. I just dislike working with cut thread. I played with an edging I thought might make a neat bracelet, but it's far too unstable as it is. Then I did that rectangular motif in black, mucking with the design a bit so I could get away with not using two needles and that one I liked.

I put two of those together and I think with a little more effort, it could be a new cuff bracelet. I thought it would work out as it was, but as much as I like the negative space in the centers as a design element, it makes it too unstable there to hold up as a wearable piece. So I think I might add another element there and maybe get it listed today. I thought that I could add something to it as is, but the picot placement doesn't lend itself to the idea I'm working on, so I'll likely just have to make it again with a few more adjustments first. More prototypes...oh, joy.

So that's the plan for the first day of August and the beginning of the end of summer. As long as the smoke from a not too nearby fire that's is messing with my eyes and everybody's breathing dissipates soon, it should be a good day.

Something's Missing

As the cold finally let go of my brain completely over the weekend, it because quite clear to me that there are tasks I seriously need to get on, both in the shop and at home. The first came with the realization that Thanksgiving is quite a lot closer than I thought. This year we're playing host to more house guests than we have in the past and though none of them are uptight about a spotless house I'm stressing on getting things as clean as possible. As I'm generally one of those, 'that'll do' sort of cleaners this is more work than I'm used to, so I started tackling some of the tasks over the weekend hoping that maintaining that level of cleanliness is possible with the kids and cats...I guess only time will tell.

After a day or so of playing the victim over my still mostly dead shop, I got back to work on the art project prototype. The entire shape has now been constructed, but I'm not quite settled on the design yet. It needs something more and I'm not sure what that is yet. There are also a few stitch count changes that I will need to make on the final pieces, but that pales compared to the feeling that something is missing. The shape is good, the width of the piece is good, but I think it needs something on the inner edge, a little frill or something. Oh well, I'll work it out. That is what a prototype is for after all. In fact as I'm writing here, starting at the image, I've gotten a couple of ideas to try out later. Man am I glad that cold finally freed my brain.

Other than the art project and the two weeks of cleaning ahead of me, I'm going to buckle down and work on the shop. It's no help to worry about sales, I just need to focus on what I can do. I've already gotten a few more listings changed to offer different colors with the variations tool and I finally posted a processing time on all my listings. I can always get more variation listings worked up and get some more stock made of a few pieces. Now comes the focusing on all this stuff. I think I've already exhausted myself this morning thinking about it all. Of course that could have more to do with the cats waking me up early because they don't 'get' the time change. Whatever it is I definitely have a week to start now. Wish me luck.

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.

Why, What Lovely Wrists You Have

Here they are, the Victorian Lace Cuffs, tatted in black cotton thread. I'm still waiting for my hook and eye closures to come in so I can finish and list them for sale at etsy, but I promised a look, so here you go! I hope you like them.While I'm at it, here are three other brand new designs I came up with that will soon be on their way to a photo shoot. From left to right, we have the Daisy Cuff inspired by my Grand Daisy Choker, The Quadra Cuff, based on my Quadra Tatted Bracelet and the Bib Cuff using a modified version of the Gothic Bib Choker.

I haven't decided whether I'll be listing these as custom pieces in my store since I don't know when they'll be coming home. I think it might be easier to list them as custom pieces so I can offer them in all the thread colors I have available. Let me know what you think!