Another Tatted Scarf

Well, I may not have accomplished anything new and interesting yesterday, but at least I have pictures of the newest scarf to show you. I think I already mentioned that this one is just a simple, completely unaltered vintage edging. Well unaltered except for the use of yarn to create it I suppose. When I posted the pattern for one of my other tatted scarves, I think I pointed out that any symmetric edging makes a good scarf and if it's not symmetric, just double it upon itself and there you have it. This one worked up nice and quick, it took a couple of days. Well, that's quick given the sheer amount of length it needed. In fact if you were so inclined, working this one up with an even larger yarn would be really nice and fast.

I can't remember right now which book I snagged the pattern from and I'm far too lazy to get up and dig through them right now to see, but the pattern is just rings of 3-3-3-3 that join at the center and chains of 6-6. After the fourth ring you turn and do the opposite ring before beginning the next chain which joins to the opposite chain from the last cluster. See, easy and fast....you know you wanna make a scarf.

Other than that, yesterday was a mighty failure. I tried to replicate some of the inspiring designs I've recently come across, but nothing clicked. I tried three different designs and none of them wanted to emerge. I know it's too soon to completely give up on the ideas, but I suppose I was just lacking the proper amount of muse yesterday. I don't have much faith in things changing today either. I'm feeling a bit directionless right now. I mean, I want to focus, but it's just not happening. I know it has a lot to do with the recent lack of sales. It's hard to even get in production mode when those numbers are hardly moving. It's like pouring more lemonade into the pitcher when no one is buying any...it just overflows and spills all over the table and make a big mess. No wants to have to clean that up. It might be time to make a list of what I want to get made so I can force myself to focus regardless of outside stimuli. Yeah, we'll see how that goes...or maybe I just need a long weekend.

Scarf And Crest

Well, there are no new injuries to report in the household, so there's a plus for the day. The Husband did stay home from work to keep his foot up and it seems likely that he'll be taking another sick day today which is fine, I'd rather he heal up than re injure himself.

It looks like I won't be getting my thread order in until Wednesday or Thursday which leaves me with some free time. No, I didn't work on masks like I should have. Instead once schooling was over for the day, I rolled up another skein of hand dyed sock yarn and started on a scarf. I looked back and I've sold more scarves than I thought, so I suppose it isn't a waste of time to make them. This one is just a simple vintage edging. I didn't feel like working up any of my previous designs as most of them require a lot of cutting and hiding ends and I wanted something that worked up with less thought and effort.

I got about halfway through the scarf when I saw I tweet that gave me another idea. It was someone pointing out that as October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, they were making pink jewelry in September. I actually had my awareness ribbon bracelet out on the table to measure it for a customer a few days ago and thought it would be neat to make something new with the split ring ribbon motif. At first I tried a heart, the first was wasn't quite right so I switched gears. I'm certain I could have made the heart work and I might still go back to it, but Instead I used the clover motifs from the bracelet to make what I'm calling a ribbon crest.

I made it up in black first and once I was sure it was going to work, I made this one here with a medium pink ribbon. I finished it late, so I didn't show it around yet, but I will today and see what the general consensus is about the design. It could either be a simple pendant hung from the center or I could add chain to the top side clovers to make a more finished necklace. I guess I'll figure that all out today as my shop totally went back to sleep. I'm also not sure whether I should just list it now or save it until October. Who am I kidding I have no patience for waiting, it'll likely be up as soon as I suss out the chain situation. I guess it will be another wide open day as far as projects are concerned. Nothing on the plate, so I'll probably work on the scarf for a wile and once that's done, I'll list both it and the chainmaille one. It may be ridiculously hot here, but I hear tale that fall is coming. Maybe I'll make a red ribbon crest as well. See, I don't have a clue how the day will play, so I guess we'll just go with the flow.

Chainmaille Complete

Yep, I did exactly what I thought I would do yesterday. I schooled, I cleaned a little and when I tatted it was ring after ring of the chainmaille scarf. I kept going until that ball of yarn was so small I couldn't get another ring out of it. I did end up adding a single ring to each end to give it more of a finished look and it ended up being about 3' when laid out and almost 4' when hanging stretched. The rings have a lot of give and movement, but tugging on the outside rings pulls it right back. I still haven't decided whether I should put it in the shop or not. I probably wouldn't wear it, so I suppose I will. I'll ask twitter and facebook about it today and see if anyone has an opinion. Please leave your too, if you have one.

Speaking of the shop, I tried out the idea of a flash sale yesterday. I put my four charm necklaces on sale for five hours. I tweeted, I facebooked and I got nothing out of the deal. There was a little increased traffic yesterday, but I think that most of that came from this Russian blog where my mask Instructable is translated. I just discovered that one a few days ago in my stats for my etsy shop ans it's been steadily sending eyes to the shop.

Just as I was getting ready for bed last night, one of those custom order inquiries turned into an order for three large pieces all in a sapphire blue. So today's task is set before me. I need to pick the best blue to match the request and immediately order more of it since I only have one ball of most shades and I'm fairly certain that it will not stand up to all three of these pieces or if it does there will be none left at the end. I should be tatting this order for a few days at the very least. All the other custom order inquiries I've been receiving lately are for multiple pieces as well, so if any of them actually do come back and make orders in the next couple of days expect me to start acting all overwhelmed. Of course that scenario is still better than the sleeping shop. Well, off to it then.

Not Nearly As Good As Yesterday

I did spend much of Monday with my efforts directed elsewhere. Made beaded bracelets with the girls and I got some newly acquired supplies integrated into their boxes. While I was in there though, I took to piecing together something from some bits and chains and I kept coming back to it throughout the day until I had this. Yes, I know it's a bit odd and contains very little actually tatting, but I for some reason I can't quite put my finger on I decided I liked it. I will likely get some real pictures today and get it listed.

Then toward the late afternoon I was trying to decide what to do next. There is actually quite a list of things I need to make up again in brown, but my thread is almost depleted and I am waiting until I get an order of it in. I know, weird that I ordered brown thread, but I found such a deal online and my local JoAnns is pathetic in it's supplies, but I digress. I decided to make a scarf. Yes, I am aware that it is August, but I haven't made one in a while and I thought it might be nice to try another pattern for one.

I grabbed the basic pattern from one of the vintage pattern books and adjusted it for my purposes. It's a fairly common clover zigzag pattern and will make a very skinny scarf. This means that I will have to compensate for the width, by making it ridiculously long. This also means that this will be the fall back project. You know the one you work on when you have nothing better to do. I'm making it with a sock weight hand dyed wool yarn that was actually gifted to me by a lovely etsy seller when I was making my first few scarves. It's a large skin, but it has a break in middle which is likely why it's mine.

Also, isn't it funny how bad my in progress pictures are as opposed to my listing one. Well, that's because these are taken at, what is it...5 in the morning with no natural light next to my computer screen. Oh and I also wrapped up my latest giveaway on facebook with a promise to do another when I reach 1000 fans. Right now, I'm thinking it might be a mask, but we'll see how busy or distracted I am when the time rolls around. I have no idea what I'll be working on today, but hopefully I'll at least have better pictures of these to show you.

One Week

One week...just one week left until the turkey drops. In between frantic creations, this is all I can think about. One week to clean the house, though I can't really start until a couple of days before as my children are expert destroyers and it would be more work to keep clean for the extra days. One week to prep for the "Black Friday/Cyber Monday" onslaught. Though in all honestly I don't really plan on doing much of anything except free shipping. I'll leave deep discounting to those of greater means and hope that customers will look past that to the high quality handmade gift. See, now I'm mental obsessing again. I've got a week.

Yesterday was a wonderful mail day, though I still don't have the supplies that I really need, I got several other things that perked the day right up. Most important of those was the black bamboo/cotton yarn I needed to complete my new Art Deco 2 scarf. The 2 is because I did have to change the edging to accommodate the size of the yarn. I think it still has the same basic look though. My photographing assistant was napping, so the pictures are all my fault this time. The scarf already has a home. In truth, I think it always did. I may relist this one as a custom order as well, but I though I had ordered a second skein of the yarn and I had only ordered one...so again I must order more yarn to have on hand before I relist this one.

I just received a mask order, so that will be on the agenda today. I did try out a new pattern yesterday out of a 1972 tatting book. I did not like how that one turned out, but I hadn't seen the book in a while with the move and all and now I think I shall try to get something else out of it. I also signed up for a Christmas exchange on the tatting forum that I need to get something put together for. I think I might actually have something perfect lying in my expired listing pile, though I still might make something a little more Christmasy...we'll see. Of course I won't be able to share that until after the pieces have been received by my mystery partner. I would hate to spoil the surprise just in case they read the blog.

Speaking of tatters though, I have noticed that I get an inordinate amount of traffic here from people looking for all sorts of needle tatting help. While, I do have a lot of information here, it is scattered around. So in the coming weeks, I plan on creating some helpful tatting links in the sidebar both within my blog and externally to help them find their way. I haven't collected a lot of tatting blog addresses as I usually visit via other blogs, so if you got any great lists, go ahead and share. Thanks and see you tomorrow.

Strike That, Reverse It

I can not believe that I started out the day with that whole, 'no sales, no motivation'. No, wait, i can believe that, what I can not believe is how the day turned out. First I get the scarf photos. Nice right? Then I decide to hold off listing it until the afternoon so that the facebook page had a proper preview. It was listed and then sold in just a few hours...I was in shock, happy, but in shock. Should I start another straight away? No, I decided to work on something smaller.

I got out the hand dyed gray thread and decided to make a quadra bracelet with swarovski rounds in black. I was really happy with the way this one turned out. I mean, it's a very familiar pattern, simple, basic, but change up the thread and it really looked amazing. I listed it, tweeted it and just a few minutes later, it was sold...damn.

I was already working on the opposite bracelet in black with gray rounds, so I finished that one and started on another gray one. I really wanted to keep it listed. Nice, isn't it? That's not all either. I heard in the afternoon that etsy is no longer going to refund fees from returned orders. This isn't huge, except that I just agreed to a return of two expensive, for me anyway, pieces. I was a bit annoyed and I changed my return policy to reflect the change. This really just means that I needed a real return policy, so I have one now.

Then in the evening, I had an inquiry regarding a piece that didn't have made and for once the inquiry turned into a sale. A sale full of custom pieces. See, now I have all the motivation that I need. I guess it's a 'be careful what you wish for' sort of situation. I am sure not complaining, but I am now getting back to work.

My Other Life

And the scarf tats on. I was quite busy yesterday with the business of life rather than needle and thread. I had the first quarter face to face conference with my home schooled daughters teacher. We were to turn in work samples and demonstrate that she has in fact been learning. While I was nervous going in, it was mostly due to ignorance. I simply had no idea what to expect. It was a breeze and of course my daughter is right on track, so we'll just keep doing what we're doing.

Then there was an impromptu trip to get new tires on the car. And since I have the most awesome of in-laws, it was a free trip to get new tires on the car. This took us all the way up to nap time, which I spent tatting and staring at twitter. During that interlude I spied a gorgeous top on the etsy and after all of 15 minutes of conversation, I had purchased it. I was also cajoled to model the top when it arrives for the creator. So, I will share that when it happens, though it is a made to order piece, so it could be a while...you'll probably forget I ever said anything.

Then the evening was another unplanned trip to visit the children's cousins so that they might play like crazy people for a couple of hours. I brought my tatting, but never did it get out of the bag. So, it was one of those days when it was a good thing that I haven't had an order to fill in a bit, because I would have needed to ignore it anyway.

To Make Scarf

Sometimes we ignore what we planned on doing in favor of something more interesting. Sometimes that's what we thought we were doing, but they it turned out that we were so very wrong. I thought that rather than work on more of the same, I would instead work on a tatted scarf. I even went so far as to try out a new ides. The new new idea did not pan out, so instead, I ended up starting an Art Deco scarf. It's one of my older designs that I have not made in quite some time as summer scarfs don't really sell.

So far, I'm sure this doesn't sound like it was a bad idea, but it was fraught with...um, let's say setbacks. First I couldn't find the proper needle. I checked my little supply jugs and when I didn't locate it there, I went about the house, tearing through boxes and whatnot searching for it. I was about to give up when I found it...wait for it...in the very first place I had looked. Undeterred I began to make the small center motifs for the design. After a couple of them the yarn began to have breaks in it. Tears over and over again in random spots meaning several motifs were discarded as the breaks were discovered. I didn't put two and two together until one of my cats snatched the ball right out of the bag. Wonderful...this ball has fallen victim to the teeth of a cat at some point. I continued my work hoping that after the top layer was worked through the breaks would stop.

The other reason I haven't worked on a scarf in a while is I am one of instant gratification. I like a pieces to be started and if not fully finished at least to resemble the finished product in a day. What do I have upon waking this morning? A pile of small nondescript motifs. Even with a mask, it is mask shaped by the end of the first day...not so the scarf. So, you have already guessed what I shall be doing today. Well that and the first real face to face conference with the homeschooling teacher.

The one thing that made all the tedious motif creation tolerable yesterday was a new twitter activity...unfollowing. Yep, I finally got sick of all those random people I automatically followed back in the beginning. Like most people, I was obsessed with growing my numbers and didn't care who I was following. Then I sat down and got rid of each extraneous person as they tweeted. It was quite liberating. I had a few friends worry that they were going to be discarded, but this was about getting rid of people I have nothing in common with and there are way too many of those. Sure, they'll start to unfollow me as they realize they've been dumped, but was there any value if following each other in the first place. They probably care as little abut my tatting, etsy, mommy, strange talk as I care about their random stuff. I was going to pick a topic there and they decided that might end up being too specific, so yeah, random crap. So today, I will keep unfollowing until I get a list full of people I actually enjoy listening to. It really is liberating.

Murphy's Law

Yesterday continued to be a fairly productive day. Flower after flower, I tatted my bamboo scarf at quite a clip. The children, though a bit sick were awfully well behaved and calm. I even came back to a couple of sales after lunch. While the kids slept I kept tatting, completing the flowers with my first skein and moving onto the edging. Then apparently I got a bit too comfortable with all the gifts karma had bestowed upon me, for he tagged in Murphy.

As I rounded the corner of the edging and moved onto the second side one thing became painfully clear. The skein of yarn fell apart and became a small pile, I was going to run out of yarn. I took a break and ordered another skein hoping that their quick shipping last time was not a fluke. I did finish up the skein about a fourth of the way down the second side. If the yarn arrives on Friday, I could have it done and shipped by Saturday. On the up side, it is definitely going to be a gorgeous piece. It is heavier than the wool, soft and the sheen is lovely.

I also woke up this morning to find that I had sold the first pair of In Bloom ankle corsets. They had received way more than their fair share of attention and hearts, but I was beginning to think that it was going to be a while before they found someone who actually wanted to wear them. I've got a bunch of thing to remake today while the scarf is on hold and I picked up some shimmery brown embroidery thread last weekend that I'm using to make some pieces for the upcoming Maker Faire. I hope that I have seen the last of Murphy for a while so I can get all this done before the new yarn arrives.

Good Karma

What a karma-riffic day I had yesterday. It started with getting weekend orders in the mail, which despite the effort involved, is a wonderful way to start the week. Then I started working like a madwoman to get a Portrait necklace done before the mailman came because I was crossing my fingers that he would be bringing me my bamboo yarn for my custom scarf. Just a half an hour after I finished the necklace, the yarn arrived along with an etsy purchase. Then right before I turned off my computer for the night, I got informed that I had won some hand dyed silk thread from Ladyshuttlemaker. So Huzzah for things going just as I hoped and then some.

Let me now back up for a minute to that bamboo yarn. I had initially ordered from another store which had said it was in stock, then it wasn't and it was going to take another week to get. Annoyed, I ordered from another store on Friday and that is what arrived yesterday afternoon. The yarn was for a Grand Daisy scarf that was ordered during my anniversary sale, so I was extra anxious to get working on it. In my listing I state that I will make the scarf in any appropriately sized yarn the customer wants, she chose this specific bamboo yarn. I had never worked with it before and since I live in a town with no real yarn shop, I'd never even held the yarn before. I had no idea what I was in for, tatting with this stuff. To say that it has a light twist would be a severe understatement. Really it is more like a dozen or so threads held together through the sheer will of the manufacturer. It has a lovely sheen and it is very soft, but my needle keeps separating the yarn and it my tension is just a bit too tight pulling the yarn through is quite difficult.

I am so used to tatting the same designs with the same thread that I barely have to pay attention and I still get the same consistent work, but not with this stuff. I need to work very deliberately to get good results with the bamboo. I am about halfway through the core flower strip of the scarf and I should at the very least get flowers done today. Of course my other issue it that I literally have no idea how much yardage I need for this design, so I am crossing my fingers that I bought enough yarn to finish it as well. At least I know where to get it quickly now if I need more and I can add bamboo tatting to my list of achievements.

Doctor Mom

The chaos at my house has grown considerably in the last day as the second child gets sick and the first has developed an earache that she doesn't understand. Taking care of sick children is so very all encompassing and exhausting. The guilt over not being able to make it all just go away is the worst of all. I feel like I should have some sort of magic parent wand that fixes everything, but alas there is no such wand and all the reassurance in the world does not take the pain away. I suppose I should stop beating myself up over it, but since the kids are so young I know that this is just the beginning of many more things I can't fix and I feel a little helpless.

I did finish my most recent custom order yesterday. It was the second scarf tatted in my Art Deco pattern. This time around it worked up much faster since I knew where I was going with it when I started. The yarn was a hand dyed merino wool from knitmommy.etsy.com. It's a much richer brown than my pictures reveal. I really like giving people the option of picking their own yarn to make the scarfs with. Plus, it means I'm not spending days making a scarf in colors than may or may not appeal to anyone but me.

I got a few more ideas for projects by looking at my google analytics for the blog yesterday. Every time a search brings people to the blog, I get to see what it was they were searching for and it has certainly given me some interesting ideas over the last few months. Of course, I'm otherwise occupied with sick children so it may be a while before any of them come to fruition, but it's nice to add more things to that imaginary project list. Back to the kids now, I hope they feel better soon!

Happy Halloween!

So much to do, so little time to do it in. Halloween is not only a festive event for my family, it is also my Mother's birthday and tomorrow is my brothers birthday, so Happy Birthday Mom, happy Birthday Matt. Of course, I don't think either of them reads my blog, but I still feel it's only right to say it. The kids will want to dress up most of the day and we will visit Daddy's work for a little pre-trick or treating. It's a good thing too because here in central California, it is supposed to rain all day and I don't know whether will get to go out tonight at all. I just can't justify taking a 1 and 4 year old out into the rain to get free candy. Hopefully they are still young enough to get over the disappointment.

I don't yet have any costume pictures for you so I thought I would post a picture of me and the girls from last Halloween morning. So much has changed in the space of a year, the baby is a toddler, the toddler is a 'big' kid, not to mention my drastic hair makeover. I promise that I will have pictures of my tatted costume for you on Monday.

I'm just finishing up a pair of tatted cuffs right now. I realized after I got my copy of Belle Armoire with the cuff pattern, that I didn't have any currently listed and that looked a little off. I still don't know what my next new project is going to be. Should I keep playing with the wool yarn and hope people are in a scarf wearing mood or is it time for a new choker pattern. I'm sure I'll figure it out. Oh, speaking of tatted scarfs, the pattern I listed has been viewed literally hundreds of times. I hope all you free tatted pattern folk share the results with me. Seriously, I would love to do a post of random pieces made with my pattern, so do share!

Happy Halloween, Samhain, All Hallows Eve and since I won't be back until Monday, Day of the Dead, All Souls Day and All Saints Day and any other harvest or fall holiday I may have missed!

Free Tatted Scarf Pattern

I've been toying with the idea of offering up tatting patterns here for quite a while. I was always a little afraid that I would alienate my non tatting friends and since my skills at pattern writing are negligible, I assumed my experienced tatting friends would be completely uninterested as well. As I was finishing up a new scarf yesterday, I decided that it was the piece to cut my pattern offering teeth on. It's a very simple pattern, so all those just starting out or returning to tatting after a time will have something interesting to try out. The beauty of this piece is that even though it is simple, the finished project looks like much more complicated design.

First off a little yarn choosing information. I like to use hand dyed super wash merino sock yarn. If you search for that on etsy, you will find every possible color combination imaginable. Other comparable choices include, sport weight or baby yarn. You can certainly choose thinner or thicker yarns, but that will change the dimensions of the scarf. I'd also like to point out that I am a needle tatter and though I'm certain that shuttle tatting with yarn is possible, I have no expertise in that field as what kind of shuttle to use. For your needle, you want to pick the smallest needle that you can easily thread your yarn choice through.

Now the pattern, the scarf consists of two mirrored rows of a pattern I call 'simple vine'. While I came up with this pattern myself some time ago, it occurs to me that as simple as it is, it existed long before I 'designed' it, I just haven't run across it yet. I'm going to write this longhand just in case my shorthand version only makes sense to me.

Row 1:

Ring 6 double stitches, 1 picot, 6 double stitches, close and reverse work.
Ring 6 double stitches, 1 picot, 6 double stitches, close and reverse work.
Chain 6 double stitches, 1 picot, 6 double stitches, close and reverse work.
*Ring 6 double stitches, join to last ring, 6 double stitches, close reverse work.
Ring 6 double stitches, 1 picot, 6 double stitches, close and reverse work.
Chain 6 double stitches, 1 picot, 6 double stitches, close and reverse work.
Repeat from * to whatever length you desire ending with 2nd ring of pattern

The second row mirrors the first and joins at matching picots. The pictures should give you a good idea of where the joins are.

That's all there is to this one, I hope that all made sense. Just a few more bits of, well, let's call it wisdom. It you're not ready for yarn tatting yet, you can use this same pattern with size 10 thread to make yourself a bracelet or choker. Simply change the length to whatever you need. The reverse holds true as well. If you've got a nice symmetrical bookmark pattern the length can be altered to make a bracelet or choker and if you change to yarn it will probably make a great scarf. The whole reason I've been able to come up with interesting pieces is that I look beyond what a pattern is written for to what it could be and anyone can do that.

Please feel free to use this pattern for your own use and share the results with me. If you wish to make pieces to sell, please contact me first.

I hope this wasn't too boring to all those non-tatters out there. Maybe I have even inspired a few of you to take up tatting too.

The scarf will be on sale in my etsy store just as soon I finish here. The yarn used for this scarf was from Onecrazystitch.etsy.com

Formulating A Response

I am not famous. I think you probably already knew that, but it was the best way I could think to begin this morning, so back to it. I am not famous, however I have unwittingly become a public figure. This is not the first time in my life that I have looked back and realized that I was living at least part of my life on a stage. The first time, that statement was literal. In my school days I was a drama geek with a very small circle of friends. I was taken aback as I was recognized by people I did not know on a regular basis. Somehow it did not occur to me that acting in all the shows and having my picture in the paper monthly would make me a public figure.

I was just thinking about this yesterday as I was watching my twitter feed on my tweetdeck. I thought how crazy it was that I was essentially eavesdropping on dozens of conversations. I think we sometimes forget how many people can and do see and read our words. We are becoming increasingly public with our lives. The reason I bring this up is one of the many side effects of this phenomenon. I am dealing with an increasing amount of correspondence from strangers. These range from simple compliment and trade requests, to bizarre opinions and tatting questions.

This is forcing me to formulate responses to very unexpected questions, to gracefully accept compliments without coming off as conceited and the hardest one, refusing trades without sounding mean. I actually like to trade, but I find myself asked by people who either make things I can make or quite honestly make things I don't like. Now, I am generally a bluntly honest person, but it just isn't a good idea to tell someone you don't want to trade because you dislike their stuff. How do you let someone down nicely without sounding patronizing and without lying. I know scads of other etsians get asked more bothersome questions, like how they make something or where they get their supplies and luckily I don't get those questions. I assume it's because people either don't tat or assume it would be too hard to try to copy me.

But I digress, the point I was trying make was living life on a stage, even if it is a small one next to a million others means I have an audience. I may not have the paparazzi following me about, but I guess that people are beginning to recognize me and that means I've got to get better at communicating.

In tatting news, I'm afraid I've just been recreating sold pieces and have had little time for the fine art of design. I have started on a new scarf design, but it sits neglected on the table right now as I try to finish yet another mask. I still have another mask design I want to try out too, but right now I'm trying to decide if I should make tatted snowflakes to sell this year. I noticed that some new sellers are offering them at really low prices, so perhaps I should just let them have it this time around. I might make some black ones just because I've done it the last two years and I'd feel a little weird about letting a holiday go by without a set in the store.