Early Morning

There is a point every morning where I simply lie awake in bed and think. Usually my thoughts are of no real significance, I solve no great dilemmas, make no amazing plans, but every so often I have a small epiphany. This morning was one of those mornings. The epiphany was relatively small in nature and it contained no actual wisdom. What it did do was potentially create a new tatted mask.

I had set the mask designed after my Art Deco Duo necklace quite a while ago hoping that the answer would come to me and I think it has, so hopefully I shall have something new to show on Monday or I will recount my stunning defeat at the hands of this little tatted mask.

In other news, I have busted out with the yarn again. This time it's just some store bought cotton and the creation has yet to form. It may still be insanely hot in sunny California, but I feel fall in the air and it's inspired me to create a little something to keep you warm. I think it shall be similar to one of those scarflets or collars that have been knit and crocheted everywhere recently. I'm actually trying to model the design off of my cuff patterns, which will be available in the November issue of Bell Armoire, by the way.

I do enjoy working with yarn, as I love the unusual creations I've made with it, but I hate the way it feels on my fingers after the needle thread has been pulled through the tatted countless time. It becomes so rough and unpleasant, luckily that yarn hides harmlessly under the much softer knotted yarn in the final piece.

While I was taking the picture of my yarn project underway I took note of the pile of lace that has been forming on top of my light box. I thought it made an interesting image, so I took a shot to show you. It's just a small section of the pile. This is where the pieces lay in wait for completion. My least favorite part of making tatted jewelry is the jewelry part, or rather adding the clasps and jump rings and whatnot. I have no real skill in this portion of the work, so I tend to wait until the last minute to do it. I've gotten much better at it over the last couple of years, but it is definitely not second nature to me. Sometimes I wish I had a jeweler assistant to do this part for me, but since the only candidate for the job is only four years old, it'll be a wile before I'll be able to outsource.

Happy Mother's Day

I'm at that point in motherhood where my children have very little idea of what it is that I actually do for them. This means that any gift I receive for this holiday is really from my husband, so it's kind of hard for me to really see the holiday as mine yet.

It is however a holiday for my Mom and my Mother-in-law. I spent the last couple of weeks constructing their Mother's day gifts. I really haven't decided whether I will be making more of these for sale, but I wanted to show them off.
This first one here was made with yarn from fearlessfibers. It's a superwash merino hand dyed in a brick house colorway. My mom's favorite color is red, but I didn't want something too bright and this worked perfectly.

The second one was a merino wool nylon blend in an amazing green called Margarita from Jenhintz. This was her first hand dyed sale and since my Mother-in-law has a love of extreme greens, it was the obvious choice for her scarf. Both yarn sellers were great to work with. It's always a bit scary for me to buy hand dyed yarn. I 'm always afraid that my monitor has misrepresented the colors somehow, but these were exactly as described.

I'm still not quite finished with my new scarf design. I hope to knock it out today, so I'll have something to show off for tomorrow.

All this mother's day stuff has also got me thinking a bit about this tightrope I walk between being Mom/Wife and being and individual. I know a lot of people wonder about keeping the balance between etsy and family, but for me it's the balance between me and my family because my tatting and etsy are truly the only things I do during the day that are only for me. I'm certain I've got a whole post worth of things to say on this subject, so I'll save it for another day.

For now, let me just say, I hope all you Mommies had a great day yesterday!

Who Will Beat Me?

Yesterday, LavaJewelry posted a striking treasury of some of the competition for the Spring Beading Challenge. This is the third challenge I have participated in, and even though I have little chance of ever winning, I'm sure it is not the last one either. I am not a bead artist, but I like to try my hand at it every now and again. This one was particularly difficult for me for some reason. I don't know whether it was the colors or my choice of patterns, but it's over now. I'll post the winners when they are decided.

It seems I just got one of those flood moment when it comes to treasuries. I hadn't been in one for a while and now three in a row. I'm hoping that this good juju will spill over into the sales department.




I also promised a quick look at my new tatted scarf design. This one is based on my Art Deco pendant pattern that was originally the center of a vintage place mat pattern. I'm starting out by simply stringing the motifs together. I'm using the same purple wool yarn from NoTwoSnowflakes that I used to design my first tatted scarf. I have no idea how it will turn out as I have a nasty habit of doing the design work while I'm tatting. I really don't know why I'm on a tatted scarf kick just as the weather turns warmer, maybe I'm hoping I get really popular with the Australia crowd.

And I Thought Birthing A Skein Was Hard

A few years back I was an assistant for a local knitting instructor. As she explained to the class how to start a pull skein she warned about the giant yarn fetus that occasionally comes out of the center of the skein instead of the just the end of the yarn. She referred to this occurrence as 'birthing a skein'. We've all had this happen more times than not and you must spend the extra time untangling the yarn baby before you can begin rolling it into a ball.

I've been a knitter most of my life, a really cheap knitter. I had never considered purchasing hand dyed yarn. It was pricey and I'm a solid color kind of gal anyway. I do however love to trade with other sellers. So when I was offered a trade by a yarn seller, I thought, this is my opportunity to get some of this popular yarn and try it out. It was beautiful and purple and wrapped in a neat little twist that I assume is standard practice. Then I attempted to undo said neat twist...disaster. I spent the better part of a evening untangling and winding it into a ball.

I used it to tat up the most beautiful tatted scarf. I enjoyed making the scarf so much that I offered to make it in any sock yarn a buyer could find on etsy. Very quickly someone took me up on the offer, so I bought another skein of hand dyed yarn. It too arrived quickly and lovingly wrapped in that neat twist. Maybe I had just been too hasty the last time. I carefully uncoiled the twist and proceeded to make the exact same mistakes I had previously made. This led to very long afternoon of untangling and winding.
I did manage to tat a gorgeous orange scarf from the yarn, so I'll let my offer stand.

I assume that there is a trick to this skein stuff. I know I just should have just asked first, but I had to get started. I'm hoping at this point that I'm not alone, that I'm not the only one perplexed by a skein of yarn. I'm not...right?

quick update: I have been educated in the way of the skein, thanks so much!

	twentypoundtabby says:
	When you undo the twist there's going to be two hopefully obvious ends that form the loop of the skein (the one end went through the other to hold the twist). Put your fingers in the ends and untwist, BEFORE untying any little pieces of yarn securing the skein. Once it's untwisted, put it on your swift (or spouse or inverted chair legs), put the cat outside, and unwind.

Have You Ever Seen A Scarf Like That?

What will three days, a half a ball of hand dyed yarn, a really big tatting needle and a crazy idea get you? Well, in my case, it got me a really interesting scarf.

How did this scarf come about, you ask? Okay, I'm pretty sure no one asked, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. It all started with a ball of merino yarn that I got in a trade. It was beautiful, but I don't really feel like busting out the knitting needles yet, so I turn to my giant tatting needles.

I started with my Grand Daisy pattern and chained 18 of them together. The rest I made up as I went and I feel like it turned out very well.

Then I spent what seemed like hours searching for something remotely similar to base a price on. I even checked my very first sold items from 2 years ago. I came away from that search without any idea of what to charge, but confident that my creations sure have come a long way since then. I'll be listing the scarf soon and I hope people will take to it.

Here's a question for you...If I said that I would make this scarf for you with the hand dyed yarn of your choice from another etsy seller for no additional charge, would that make this a more appealing design? Would you wait a couple of weeks for it to arrive? And of course the most telling question: How much would be too much to charge for this?

The Tatted Scarf

Like many other crafters and artisans, I have a virtual list of projects dancing around in my brain. This list is long and filled with highly improbable ideas. Occasionally I actually get around to something on this invisible list. Case in point, this tatted scarf. I've tatted simple scarves before, but I've never fell in love with one.

This design uses my "grand daisy" pattern. It's one of those designs that I'm pretty sure no one likes nearly as much as I do, but that's okay. I just started it yesterday & I still don't have the whole pattern worked out yet. I think I'll add a simple edging around the daises for the sake of good structure. The best part is, I've got enough of this lovely yarn from NoTwoSnowflakes to make one to sell and one to keep. Now for pricing....

In other news, I Finally sold my Goth Wedding choker. It was the first fancy piece I ever made. I used silk thread and crystal drop beads for the first time. It made it to the cover of Belle Armoire Jewelry and I feared it would never find a home. Now it's safely nestled in it's bubble envelope on it way across the country!