International Tatting Day 2016

Those of you you've been reading awhile are probably aware that today is International Tatting Day. To those of you who are new this year, it is, I assure you, a real, albeit unfortunately timed, holiday.  The traditional celebration ritual has been established as tatting some lace and eating some chocolate. Clearly this is a holiday that is easy to celebrate. The previous few sentences may also be familiar because I copy and pasted them from last years post. You can only think of so many ways to say the same thing. I also can not promise that I won't resort to that technique again in this post.

My slightly less traditional personal celebration ritual is to design and sell a pendant at a very low price for this day only and more recently the pattern as well. This year I opted to make them two different pieces, though the pendant is similar to the pattern. As always, I hope that by offering a small bit of lace cheaply, it can fly to new people exposing tatting to more places. I also hope that by offering the pattern, those that already practice our art can create something new to share with others as well.

This year's pendant design is a modification of the center of my Black Star piece with the added
elements of a few beads, and your choice of color surround by a black outline giving it a stained glass look. The pattern for sale is my Black Star necklace. Both listings are up in the shop now. They will continue to be available after today, but the price of the pendant will double and the pattern will go up to $4.75 tomorrow, the 2nd. I will be making the pendants to order, so depending on the number of pendants that sell, it may take up to a week to get them all out. I'm really crossing my fingers that I sell a ton of them, so please pick up one or more if you can!

The pendant listing is here or click on the picture above. The Black Star pattern is here or click on the image to the right. The pattern is written for needle tatting, but a bonus shuttle tatting addendum has been included thanks to my wonderful test tatter. I can't really help any further with that though as you know me and the shuttle have a long standing grudge.

So, that's it for me today then. I really hope that you like the pendant and the pattern. I'm always a bit nervous about new pieces. I'd love it if you would share these links around, or at least share tatting with someone new. Wear some lace around or sit at tat at the mall with some tasty chocolate and try to ignore the the other April holiday.

Step 3 Done

Yep, it was a really long day. There was the customary mad dash to collect the oldest child's work samples and get them all ready to turn in. Of course we'd been working on them for weeks, but no matter how much time we have to do them, there's always something left to the last minute. After we returned from turning her portfolio in, the youngest child still had a live online class she was required to attend. I used that time to start compiling the photos and pattern into something usable.

It took my most of the afternoon because I conveniently forgot how to do half the things I've done before with the layout. Worst part is, now that I've remembered and gotten this one done, I will immediately forget again and next time will again be a struggle. I managed to get it done and sent off to a generous volunteer test tatter. She has already done it and sent back notes this morning for revising, including changes for shuttle tatters, so I may add those to the end of the pattern as well. I don't want to put them in the body, because I do like to write for needle tatters first as it's my skill set.

In the evening I got back to knotting. I haven't sold any physical items from my etsy shop in 10 days and it was 10 days before that that I sold anything I needed to make, so this Armenian lace doily is keeping me sane. It's now at over 21 inches or 54cm across. It's also fun to note that every time I complete a round I'm knotting something longer than my own height.

The weekend will include rewriting the pattern with the revisions, knotting the doily/tablecloth, crossing my fingers for some sales in my etsy shop, and hosting my niece and nephew's birthday get together. It should be a long weekend and it's followed by the kids' Spring break, so I'm looking forward to getting some things done.

Step 2

I had a nice long day of schooling followed by a nice long day of actually doing what I planned to do. I worked on the sample piece for the pattern's step-by-step photos. I chose pinks because I hadn't done that colorway yet. Of course I haven't sold any of the necklaces yet, so that doesn't really matter. I got all the photos taken, so today's task is to start getting them into the layout for the pattern. This part always takes me a whole lot longer than I wish it would.

 The rest of my day was back to knotting. The doily is
now about 20.75 inches across. That's 66 inches around. It even sounds bigger when I put it into feet, 5.5 feet around. The pattern on the outer edge is definitely coming along, but I will keep at it for a long time I think for a nice wide section.

So pattern writing and more knotting is my day today, along with helping the oldest child put together her work sample portfolio. So there might be far less pattern writing and knotting than usual. It might be a very long day.

Back and Forth

I started knotting first thing in the morning because I knew I was going to put it aside later in the day to work on the tatting pattern. At this point I was still quite worried that the pattern I had done math to start was not going to work out. I could see it trying to be a pattern, but I was going to have to be patient.

I did have to put this down early as we headed out to the book fair/science fair after schooling. The kids weren't presenting a project, but I figured they could do with some observing before the oldest child did one later this year. After that it was a quick errand and then back home.

I pulled out the Black Star motif and accomplished the first step of getting a pattern ready, writing it out. Every time I do this, I am reminded how much work preparing a pattern to share or sell is. Next up I have to tat it up in pieces so that I can get in progress photos of the piece. I suppose I could learn how to diagram, but that's not likely to happen as I don't even know where to start. After that it's onto doing the layout in one program. Then there's repeatedly checking for errors and finally converting to the final PDF. All this will take me many days and that's not counting getting someone to test tat and check for additional errors. All of this is one big reason why I share and sell so few of them. It's also why I get bit frustrated when people ask for patterns the same day I design them or wonder why I can't just write them up to share on the fly.

Anyway, I did get back to knotting in the evening and the pattern is starting to emerge. Again, it's not exactly what I was hoping for, but it's pretty close and I can work with that. I will be continuing this pattern for some time to really solidify the design. The only real challenge is keeping those large loops the right size so that the circle can grow properly. I'm hoping to do some more knotting this morning so that I can take some measurements and see a little progress from the last ones at least. Then the afternoon belongs to pattern creation.

Year End Giveaway

I feel almost human this morning. I mean I'm definitely not at 100% or anything yet, but I also no longer feel like a walking virus, so I'm calling it a win. I didn't get round to much knitting yesterday as I decided to just focus on making the pair of barefoot sandals for the shop. Since I was focusing I actually finished the pair as well. It felt really good to be breathing a bit better and tatting all day again. My brain was still a bit foggy though, so I think it will still be a while before my creativity gets back to form though.

I am going ahead with a small end of the year giveaway both here and on my Facebook page. Just leave a comment on this blog post to enter to win this one, a collection of 3 of my tatting patterns currently listed for sale in my etsy shop. I'll email the winner(s) their choice of any 3 PDF's of my patterns. I haven't quite decided how many winners there will be yet though, at least one, but if there are many entries, I'll likely add additional winners based on the number. I'll pick winners early on Friday morning so please pop back to see if you've won. There will be a different giveaway on my Facebook page(later this morning), so feel free to enter both if you'd like, but you'll have to enter that one there.

Knit

I stalled for a really long time yesterday hoping that something would come up, a sale, an idea, something. Of course nothing did and even though I had laundry to do and a few other domestic tasks to attend to I started feeling the dreaded boredom. I tried thinking of something new to tat, but I was coming up blank. Instead I browsed through Ravelry looking for patterns that might fit the yarn I have on hand. I landed on a small triangle shawl shaped scarf.

 I'm nowhere near done with it, which is good. That gives me something to do with my hands while I wait for a sale or an idea. I actually think that if this one turns out good, it might make a nice gift for the one niece that was not feeling the crochet cardigan. Of course I'd buy fresh yarn for her, but first I have to finish this one. It's really hard to tell how it'll look when it's still on the needles because of the weird construction of triangle scarves.

That's all I've got then. I'll knit until something comes up. Oh, thanks to all of you out there who have picked up my new pattern. I know I priced it a bit on the high side, but it was definitely the longest one I've ever written. I hope you feel like it's worth it and I can't wait to see everyone's work from it.

New Pattern Listed!

So I actually can't remember if I got round to doing anything worth while on Friday. Oh wait, that's right I used the time to clean again. This time I tackled the children's ever expanding Lego collection that was being overtaken by dust bunnies courtesy of the cats.

Saturday's projects were many, but let me start with the one might care about. The new tatting pattern was finished being test tatted by the lovely Kersti. After being given several incredible and useful notes with which to improve the pattern, I got it edited and up in the shop. I'm calling it Gothic Doily, though the pattern contains directions for stopping in order to create the pendant and the smaller doily version as well. I've been assured that it can be worked with a shuttle as well and since all the weaving is done with chains, you may not even need a Celtic shuttle to do so. I have already sold a few copies of this, so that's a good sign. It's my longest written pattern yet and I sure hope everyone who picks it up loves making it!

Other Saturday projects included cleaning up half the garage which gave me nightmare juice as well as some high quality allergy attacks. Then by way of relaxing afterwards I made up this cute little crochet pig as a birthday gift for one of my nieces. The pattern is here. The top hat was my addition. Well it was mine after the husband continued to insist that the pig needed a sombrero. I insisted it didn't, repeatedly. Then he changed his tactic to top hat and I finally caved and made one up. I admit, it looks extra cute with a hat.

Sunday was the great winter wardrobe change for the girls. Old outgrown clothes were put boxed up, winter clothes that still fit brought out and summer put away. I also earned more lovely allergy attacks from the boxed clothes. Before you ask yes I had taken allergy medication before both cleaning jobs. The allergens just proved stronger. All this gave me great exhaustion last night and I slept like a log.

 I'm hoping that this week will contain no cleaning and plenty of making. I got another sale in the shop over the weekend, though it was for something that I don't need to remake. That means i am starting this week with no projects in mine. Of course I've been managing to keep myself busy regardless. Here's hoping I don't need to think too hard to do so.

International Tatting Day

Those of you you've been reading awhile are probably aware that today is International Tatting Day. To those of you who are new this year, It is, I assure you, a real, albeit unfortunately timed, holiday. The traditional celebration ritual has been established as tatting some lace and eating some chocolate. Clearly this is a holiday that is easy to celebrate.

What may be slightly less traditional, is my own personal celebration ritual. For that last few years
I've been designing a pendant to sell at a very low price for this day only and more recently the pattern as well. This year I'm adding a second pattern too. I hope that by offering a small bit of lace cheaply, it can fly to new people exposing tatting to more places. I also hope that by offering the pattern, those that already practice our art can create something new to share with others as well.

This years design is a a simple piece that is my own version of a
classic design. The outer rings create a bit of a swirl around the beaded center, so I'm calling it the Swirl Flower. All three listings are up in the shop now. They will continue to be available after today, but the price of the pendant will double and the patterns will go up to $3.25 tomorrow, the 2nd. As usual, the pendant is available in any thread color I have on hand. I'll be making them to order so, depending on the number of pendants that sell, it may take up to a week to get them all out. I'm really crossing my fingers that I sell a ton of them, so please pick one up if you can!

The pendant listing is here or click on the picture above. The matching pattern is here, or click on the image to the right. The pattern is written for needle tatting, though I'm certain that it can be accomplished with shuttle as well. I can't really help with that though as you know me and the shuttle have a long standing grudge. The extra pattern this year is for my Fenestra pendant. It's a slightly more complex design, though I was planning on offering something bigger as well, I think I procrastinated out of time to do so. The listing for that one is here or click the picture to the left.

So, that's it then. I really hope that you like the piece and the patterns. I'm a bit nervous about them as usual. So, do share these links around, or at least share tatting with someone new. Wear some lace around or sit at tat at the mall with some tasty chocolate and try to ignore the April fooling going about.

Star Flower Pattern

The pattern is listed now.

Star Flower Pattern

New Pattern

You might remember, back when I released the International Tatting Day pattern, that I said I had another ready to go. Well that was almost true. I had written it up and passed it on to a couple of test tatters. Then I sort of forgot about it for awhile. Then when I realized that I hadn't gotten any further feedback on the pattern, I just didn't want to impose of folks doing me a favor and pester them. So I went about editing and rewriting it myself with some of their feedback. When I reached the point where more eyes were needed, I called upon another wonderful tatter to run the gauntlet for me. She did so at record speed.

Why am I telling you all this? Well it's just unnecessary buildup to announcing that I finally do have another needle tatting pattern in the shop. I'm calling it Scallops, and it contains instructions for earrings, a necklace and a bracelet. I designed all the pieces some time ago, based on an antique edging. Of course I did quite a lot of work redesigning and adapting the basic shape to fit my needs, even on the bracelet.

I figure getting this done was my work for the weekend, but when I had it ready to list, I also went back and remade a sold necklace. Not the one I've been stalling over, but another one entirely. It's yet another piece based on a vintage handkerchief edging. I did so many modifications on this one, whole new elements, that it was hard to remake. I had the original pattern, a prototype that I had made many changes after, and photographs to sort through to figure out all that I had done. Yes, I am aware all my problems would be solved if I wrote all these damn pattern out. You know I'm going to, I'm just going to keep complaining because that's what I do.

Today I'm hoping to sell a few patterns and I'm also hoping that there is nothing further wrong with them. Also I think I might stop stalling and get back to that everlasting queue of mine.

International Tatting Day

Those of you you've been around awhile are probably aware that today is International Tatting Day. To those new around these parts, I assure you that while it is unfortunately timed, it is in fact real. The traditional celebration ritual is of course to tat some lace and eat some chocolate. Clearly this is a holiday that is easy to get behind.

What may be slightly less traditional, is my own personal celebration ritual. For that last few years I've been designing a pendant to sell at a very low price for this day only and more recently the pattern as well. I hope that by offering a small bit of lace cheaply, it can fly to new people exposing tatting to more places. I also hope that by offering the pattern, those that already practice our art can create something new to share with others as well.

Both listings are up in the shop now. They will continue to be available after today, but the price of the pendant will double tomorrow, the 2nd. As usual, the pendant is available in any thread color I have on hand. I'll be making them to order so, depending on the number of pendants that sell, it may take up to a week to get them all out. I wanted to design an infinity pendant, but it's rather too easy, so I went for a Double Infinity and wove them together. I also wanted the piece to have a distinct widening shape, and a small focal of beads. No, it's not overly intricate, but I think it makes a nice pendant.

The pendant listing is here or click on the picture above. The pattern is here, or click on the image to the right. The pattern is written for needle tatting, though I'm certain that it can be accomplished with shuttle as well. I can't really help with that though as you know me and the shuttle have a long standing grudge.

Well, that's it then. I really hope that you like the piece. I'm a bit nervous about it for some reason. So, do share these links around, or at least share tatting with someone new. Wear some lace around or sit at tat at the mall with some of that afore mentioned chocolate. April may be fooling folks right and left online, but International Tatting Day has chocolate and lace and I think that might be better.

Listed

So between the bandaged finger and the quiet shop, I had little motivation to tat anything yesterday. The finger is much better this morning by the way. I've coated it with liquid bandage and that seems to be taking the edge off. I still have to be careful to not knock the exposed nail bed, but it's usable now. Back to yesterday though. I did get the new bracelet listed. It took me a long time just to suss out a name for it and honestly I'm not all that pleased with that, but it'll do.

I used the rest of my day to clean and you don't want to hear about all that again. Most of my floors are clean again though and I realized how much better I feel about the house when they are. Not sure what the weekend holds. There will likely be some adventuring and some more cleaning. My youngest has her birthday next week followed by a party next weekend and if there was ever a reason to clean, it's house guests.

Just a reminder that next Tuesday, the 1st of April, is International Tatting Day. I will be releasing a pendant designed for the event at a low one day price. It will stay in the shop, but the price will likely double. I will also be selling the pattern for the pendant as well. There is another set of patterns in the works too, but they are off with test tatters/ proof readers and I'll get them in the shop as soon as they are ready. Next week will hopefully be a busy one!

International Tatting Day

Happy International Tatting Day everyone! As I'm sure I'll have to mention every year, this is not an April's fools thing, just an unfortunately timed holiday. Seriously Google it, it exists. To celebrate this holiday I try to do what little I can to expose tatting to a wider audience, to get a few people off the fence to pick up a shuttle or needle and try this lace making stuff or to just own a little tatted lace and appreciate it as the versatile and unique craft that it is.

To that end I am offering this classic looking pendant in any color thread I have on hand for the today only price of $5 plus shipping costs. You can pick up as many as you like, shipping only applies to the first one. Give them out, hoard them in every color, do what you will, just get one! This is not a limited edition design, it will remain in the shop, but at it's "regular price" after today or more precisely when I change the price tomorrow morning.



But Pam, you say, my name's Pam if you didn't know, I can tat just fine, why should I buy something from you I could clearly make? Even though I'd still love for you to get one, I understand, so this year I went one extra step with my Tatting Day preparations and I worked up the pattern for this motif, the cuff bracelet using it and the derived motif that makes a lovely pair of earrings with. This is also for sale, but at it's everyday price since it's already fairly inexpensive and it will also remain on sale after today. So those you can tat, go ahead, pick up the instant download pattern, grab some thread and chocolate, head somewhere public and tat away. Someone is always bound to ask what it is you're doing and there's another convert right there. Why the chocolate? Everything is better with chocolate.

If you can't pick up the pendant or pattern or even if you can, do me a favor and spread the word. Share this blog post wherever you share things, twitter, facebook, pinterest, tumblr, your own blog, wherever. Let tatting spread as far as it can today as Jane always says, Tatting rules the world!

The Horror

You know how I was worried I would make too many mistakes in the first pattern I released for sale. the Christmas Ornament Motif? When a couple of days went by I thought I was in the clear, but I was wrong. I got a message last night while I was out letting me know that I had in fact allowed a few strange typos to live on. I seriously felt horrible about this...horrible, and embarrassed. The culprit was the auto correct function in the text program. I'm so used to those damn things I hardly pay them any mind, but every time I wrote a double stitch number like this, '8ds' it would try to change it to 'ads'. I should have stopped when I realized this and figured out how to turn that function off, but I didn't. I combed through the pattern and I thought I had found them all and corrected them, but I was mistaken and I converted the whole thing to a PDF warts and all. My husband asked if I should have had him proofread it, but I'm not sure he would have caught it not being familiar with tatting abbreviations. Next time I release a pattern, I will call for a test tatter to do that. Of course that won't be at least until the start of the new year, but my lesson is learned. I did fix the mistakes and send out a revised pattern to all those who purchased it so far with an apology and I hope that's the last time I need to do that, but at least I know how to handle it if it should occur again.

Other than all the pattern issues, I worked on remaking just like I said I would, stalling and all. I managed to even finish remaking one mask despite all my attempts to avoid the task. It was a much calmer sales day than it's been lately so I only have one more small piece in queue to be remade and after that I still have at least two masks that have sold over the last couple of months that I didn't bother remaking. I'm not sure if I'll get on task enough to tackle those masks, but I shall try to stay focused on work anyway. It'll take my mind off the rookie pattern mistake. Oh well, you can't go back right? Always forward, made wiser by our mistakes.

Another Pattern For Sale

There is something truly gratifying about a busy day. Not just busy, but productive and busy. December has started well for me and I only hope being happy about that doesn't jinx it because I'd really love the rest of the month to follow suit.

I started the day tatting up a custom order ring which I didn't finish until after schooling wrapped. Then before I got on to the remaking tasks, I went ahead and worked on the other pattern I wanted to put up for sale, the Special Occasion pendant. There were a handful of folks that got this one as a print copy when they ordered a pendant during the deal I ran, so I thought I'd add to it a bit before releasing it for sale. Again, I hope I haven't made too many mistakes. I'm finding the process of selling PDF's strange as well. Instead of packing up a piece of lace, I copy and paste email addresses and just sent it into the ether hoping that it safely arrives through spam filters or whatnot. I've taken to sending a shipping confirmation through etsy letting people know it's been sent and to let me know if it doesn't arrive and so far it appears there have been no problems. I'm still waiting for me to accidentally send the wrong pattern. Even with just two, I fear it's bound to happen. I don't know how people juggle dozens of them in their shops. Though to be fair I'm sure my boxes full of lace sound pretty intimidating to manage too.

Once that was done, it was back to remaking things. There were a couple of small pieces and then a handful of sold masks that I've been avoiding. I really like to be able to finish things in a day and masks take longer, so I tend to avoid remaking them until I have tons of time or I really have to. The same aversion does not apply to designing large pieces. I love that sense of discovery even if it takes many days. I just don't like to remake things for days, but that's where I am now, on the masks.

I got a couple more sales overnight, one which requires a custom piece, so my tasks for today are set as well. Make one order, remake the sold pieces, hem and haw over remaking another mask, settle in to do it anyway all the while hoping more orders come in so I have something more urgent to do instead, stop working entirely to give the Universe more time to send more orders, get impatient, give up and get to work. Ah, it's nice to have a plan for the day.

Pattern For Sale

Happy Monday morning all. I had another busy, busy weekend, only this time it was also raining the entire time making all our adventures extra adventurous and all our returns home extra cozy. Let me start at Friday though because I actually did something I've never done.

After much thought and yammering on here and elsewhere online I finally made the decision to release a pattern for sale. So I carefully wrote up the pattern and took a few more pictures to flesh it out a bit. I haven't a clue how to do a proper diagram so I figured good pictures are the next best thing, then I listed it. Well, that's a bit out of order, before I listed it I read a dozen pattern listings on etsy to make sure I knew what information to include to avoid any issues. A big Thanks You to Marilee for such well written listings which I studied closely to write my own as i found them to be the best written there is. Anyway, the pattern is available for the Christmas Rose motif now. A few wonderful people have already picked it up and no one has told me I screwed up...yet, so I'm going to count this as a success so far. In fact I was thinking that I would add the instructions for the small version of the earrings to the pattern I gave out with the Special Occasion pendant and list that soon as well. I don't think I'll get in the habit of doing a lot of these, but a few can't hurt. And don't go thinking a book is coming anytime soon. I still don't have the time or skill set for that project. That's a 'when the kids are older' project.

The rest of the weekend was all that family adventuring I mentioned. We decorated the tree and put up lights inside. I like to say we don't decorate outside because we don't like to share and all our decorations are for us, really it's more cost and effort, plus it's not like it's a centuries old custom or anything, but I digress. We also left most of the ornaments in the the box this year because the cats were too aggressive with them last year and we have too many 'collectible' Hallmark ornaments that we'd prefer stand the test of time. I suppose if the cats behave this year, they may go out again. We also managed to knock out the bulk of our admittingly scaled back holiday shopping. Just a few more grown up gifts to get and some things to make and we're done.

I also had a wonderfully busy weekend in the shop. People clearly got paid and started buying gifts. In fact I woke up to a couple more small orders this morning and I'm really happy to get to work today. I have orders that need making and pieces that will need remaking. If I have time I should get that pattern I mentioned ready to list as well. I'm crossing my fingers that this is the beginning of a trend and I will be happily busy from now until Christmas. Here's to a busy day, week and month!

The Spiders Are Back

It actually took a couple of minutes this morning for me to remember what I did yesterday that might be worth mentioning. There was schooling of course and I was working on getting a large choker made up for the shop. When that was done, rather than work on more remaking, I decided it was time for the spiders to get made. I always sell a few of them this time of year and they're fun to give away to kids. They're also one of the few tatted things even the nephews think are pretty cool.

They're the same ones I listed last year when I also made this post for them: Spider. It has a few vague tips at the end on how to make your own spider. Just to recap more clearly for this year though. It's a simple two ring design.

R: 4ds 1p 4ds close
R: 4ds 1 very long picot(vlp) 2ds 1vlp 8ds 1vlp 2ds 1vlp 4ds close cut and tie.
Snip the picots in half for legs and done.

Variations on the theme include, increasing stitch counts for bigger spiders, encapsulating a bead within the body or leaving a thread space between the rings for a smaller spider hanging from it's web.  You can even stiffen them and shape the legs so they stand on their own. These are my favorites though, perfectly simple and they are wonderful for using up the otherwise useless ends of the thread ball.

I just thought it was about the right time to share these again and you'll have plenty of time to make swarms of them up to decorate for Halloween, or everyday if you want. I'd love to see your spiders if you make any. I'll toss photos up on the blog near Halloween if I get any. My email is in my blogger profile. Enjoy.