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.

Sure, That's What It Is

I used to be a pop culture expert, well perhaps not expert, but I knew way more than was necessary. This was of course before I stopped working at the retail end of the entertainment industry. Since then my knowledge has drifted toward the toddler end of the spectrum, so it wasn't really a surprise that I had not heard about the Twilight phenomenon until it started infiltrating just about everything in the last couple of months. When I heard it was about vampires, I was curious enough to do a little research. I think I learned just enough to know that I would not enjoy it and as an old school goth it was not about what I define as vampires even in the loosest sense. I can allow for a lot of changes to myths, but I'm afraid I must draw the line at fundamental changes to the legend that cause vampires to sparkle.

I am however getting away from the point of this post. I made a bracelet in the pattern I showed off yesterday. I chose to do the filigree looking base in black and I made the rose in a deep red. I think it looks positively Gothic and lovely, but something else struck me as I was taking pictures of my creation. It occurred to me that fans of this Twilight business might love this piece as it is made in the colors that appear on the novels covers and in all the Twilight inspired items saturating etsy. I was very tempted to slap a twilight tag on the sucker and exploited its success.

I'm not going to though, I just can't do it. I'm certain that others have done it and will continue to jump on any band wagon that comes along, but the piece certainly wasn't inspired by the books or movie and it just doesn't seem right to say it was. I have had the same dilemma regarding the term Lolita. I see it a lot as a tag on etsy and I have a passing knowledge of the movement and even though I could guess that my pieces would fit in with a Lolita style, I don't know enough to say that with any confidence. I guess I am trying to avoid being regarded as a poseur by assuming where my work fits in. So if a sparkly vampire lover finds my bracelet and like it, great, but I'm not going to pretend it was made just for them.