Last Jellyfish

I don't know if I was distracted or just finally over the creation of jellyfish, but I felt like this last one took 12 hours just yesterday, on top of all day the day before. I kept getting inadvertent knots in the thread as I was doing the hyperbolic sections and there were a couple of times when I came close to just cutting and starting new thread.

I did finish it though. One last tatted jellyfish for the shop, for now. I should get it listed later this morning. It's done in black, charcoal gray and a lighter, slightly thinner gray thread that I received through a Christmas exchange one year.

After I get this listed, I really am not sure what I'll get up to. I want to keep working, but sales have dried up again and I think I need a break from the hyperbolic. I'm sure I'll come up with something. Hopefully it's something interesting.

Black and Gray

Yesterday I decided that while there are still a few weeks before my kids start back to school, we better start reacclimating to it now. So they were forced to practice handwriting and to read for a spell and then we read some comics together in the morning after yoga. I figured that I need to get used to the lost time as well. I mean, I know it's not actually lost time, but I have filled up that morning time with all kinds of things and that's not going to fly when the schooling starts again.

Once that was wrapped I did get back to some tatting. I got a snowflakes done first off because I had decided to go ahead and do the next jellyfish and once I start those it's non-stop tatting for a couple of days. The black and charcoal gray bell portion is done, but I barely started on the medium gray hyperbolic sections.

There is plenty left for me to work on today before this one is done. I might get it finished, but definitely not all the way to listed today. I think this is probably the last jellyfish for the shop, at least for now. I had imagined a whole bunch of them when the thrill of selling the first once was fresh, but now that it's been some time, I know they are not likely to continue flying off the shelf. Besides, I'm sure if someone wants another color, they'll just ask and I can do it custom. What I'll get up to next, I haven't decided that yet either.

Purple Jellyfish

So let's see, Friday I finished the purple jellyfish and it got listed on Saturday. It is absolutely my favorite so far. Well, maybe the big one is my favorite, but this is my favorite color combination. I used Lizbeth dark purple and dark iris purple for the bell and mystery lavender for the center. I wish I could say that I am getting faster at them, but it's not true. I am making subtle adjustments with each one though making them each even more unique than just color.

I've been having problems finding headbands for my kitty ears again. I used to just get them on Amazon in multi-color packs and paint the ones that weren't black, but all they had this time around were pastels, they were add-on items, and I was getting scared that they were going to stop carrying them at all. That is until I checked the hair aisle at Target. For the first time since I started making those, they had several black multi-packs. I got so excited that I bought them all, went home and started making more of them. I didn't have any on order, but I had so many headbands that needed ears and it just seemed like the thing to do.

So as you might have guessed I didn't start another jellyfish nor anything else interesting. I just made cat ears the rest of the weekend. I don't have any orders in queue right now either, so I may start another jellyfish, I'm itching to make one in black and grays, or I might do something else entirely. I guess we'll just have to see how the day goes.

Purples

Yesterday went as planned, just as the day before had. I exercised, I got lazy, then I followed that with finishing the piece that needed remaking and a snowflake. I know I shouldn't get too used to the routine because schooling with change it in a few weeks, but it's working for now and I'm feeling pretty productive.

After lunch I was able to get to the next jellyfish. I opted to go with purple as it's my favorite color after black of course and at least one other person suggested it. This is Lizbeth, dark purple and I followed it up with dark iris purple...I think. The bell dried overnight and I'll be able to get back to it today.

The bell is actually becoming faster to tat up, like most pieces with repetitive patterns, once it settles in your mind, you get to pay a little less attention and let the muscle memory do its thing. The hyperbolic tatting however, continues to take forever to accomplish. It's just so long that it tangles the with the working thread and I spend just as much time carefully avoid that as I do untangling when it happens anyway. I still have two more hyperbolic sections, the tentacles, and the light cozy left to make before I can put it all together. Still, baring any other distractions, I should finish it today and get it listed over the weekend. That is unless I get lazy and save if until Monday. I am already thinking about the next piece after this.

New Blue Jellyfish

I've been trying to engage in more exercise in the mornings. First I do yoga with the kids which is both amusing and relaxing. Then I go walk on the treadmill for awhile. That has had precisely two effects so far, sweat and exhaustion. I assume that once I really make it part of my routine, it won't be so bad, but for now the exhaustion part has caused me to stall in the mornings and not start tatting when I know that I really ought to.

I very nearly forgot that I had the new jellyfish to get photographed and listed. I did manage to get it in the shop
though. Even better, while sharing it on the Facebook page, the only owner of one, so far, shared that it had arrived safely and it sounds like she is pleased with it. This is a huge relief. It is honestly terrifying to send off particularly large pieces into the unknown.

Aside from getting the jellyfish listed, I also managed to follow the rest of my day plan despite the early morning, exercise induced, laziness. I remade a mask for the shop and got one snowflake made up. The only thing I did not get round to was starting a new jellyfish. I did ask over on the Facebook for color suggestions and I got many. That, unfortunately did not narrow down my choices, but made them more diverse instead.

Today I have one more piece from the shop to remake and then the requisite daily snowflake. So it seems that unless something else comes up I should be able to at least start another jellyfish today. That is, if I can decide on a color scheme after being given so many options. My summer vacation from homeschooling is quickly coming to an end so I really must take advantage of the time while I can.

The Biggest Jellyfish

Yesterday was a sort of a wash of a day and mostly that was my own fault. While my husband is our 'computer guy', I tend to be the one that fixes things that don't have circuits. So yesterday morning I sucked it up and went to fix something that I had been avoiding, broken drawers in the kitchen. You see the geniuses who built the kitchen stapled in the brackets for the drawer slides and since they're cheap ones, they keep breaking. So first I have to pull out the staples, injuring myself, then I have to install new brackets which means crawling inside cabinet spaces that are not quite big enough. The screws don't like to bite the laminated wood in there, so more injuries as I try to get the screws in. So suffice it to say, the morning started out poorly and painfully.

Of course following the fixing of two drawers achievement, I got the new Sea Nettle jellyfish listed. It was a bit harder to get photographs because it was larger and barely fit in front of the coffee table where this was taken. It still took me some time to settle on a price and I'm pretty sure because of that price it is going to stay in the shop for a very, very long time. I'm pretty proud of it though, so that's okay.

After this was was up in the shop and I took a few moment to absorb the letdown of listing it, I went back to work on a small blue one. I started it on Sunday, so it should get finished sometime today. After that I'm thinking maybe a purple or a green one. I'm just trying to keep busy with these while I can I guess. Finishing them gives me a sense of artistic accomplishment that remaking old designs does not, at least for now.

Done!

I finished the prototype! Yes, it will remain a prototype mostly because I failed to see that the brush I used to apply the stiffening agent had something purple on it that was transferred to the lace. Of course from a distance it looks fine, so I suppose it's more that this one is mine than it's a box destined prototype.

I'm really proud of this one which is why you get the big picture, well that and I'm fairly certain that no one is counting stitches from it. Hopefully I don't have to tell you that it is a jelly fish, because if you can't tell then I really did fail miserably. It is, in particular, a Sea Nettle Jelly Fish. I have a picture of one taken a few years back at the Monterey Bay Aquarium as my phone's unlock screen. After this year's trip I suppose the combination of ocean inspiration and slow sales inspired me to create something different and decidedly unwearable.

I know it's hard to tell scale here, but it's about a foot long I think.(I'll have to go measure it later and update that with the proper length.) The center, or oral arms, are the hyperbolic tatting I've been experimenting with. The outside, or bell, the motif I've been working on. The tentacles, also know as lappets are crochet chains with tatted rings. Please, please tell me what you think of it!

I don't know yet whether a final version of this will end up in the shop. It is certainly a time consuming piece, so the cost would be rather high I imagine. Whether it does or not, I will certainly make more. I want to play with colors at the very least. The oldest child wants one in black already. So my free time, for a while at least, will be given over to the sea.