Remember What I Said Yesterday

I got a whole lot of nothing done yesterday. The combination of the holiday, the house guests and the afternoon barbecue that lasted well into the evening sort of precluded getting any tatting done. At a few points in the day I was able to sit down and sew on crystals to the new ankle corset, but that was it. I've also learned, after years of selling online, that a day offline is generally a day when you sell nothing/ Aside from blogging, I've been basically offline all weekend and have the lack of sales to prove it. Hopefully I'll get some real work in today because tomorrow it's back to more offline with a family dental appointment and a school outing.

Tatting plans are the same as yesterday. Since I didn't even finish one ankle corset, I couldn't cross anything off the list I made yesterday. So, there you have it in a nutshell, we can just pretend that yesterday didn't happen and everything I said then applies to now and I better get to it.

Lace Maille Again

I'm taking a big breath as I look forward to the busy week ahead. My guests arrived overnight and are still slumbering of course. We planned a barbecue for this afternoon, not to celebrate the holiday, but to have the family get together and visit. This is slightly amusing to me because with the exception of my brother and his fiancée, they were all over here on Saturday for my daughter's birthday party. So to recap the weekend, there was cleaning, birthday party, more cleaning, Kung Fu Panda 2 and a little more cleaning.

I had an idea back when I made the first lace maille piece to use the design for a pair of similarly embellished ankle corsets. I draped them over my foot and this was what it looked like, so I assumed it would be a simple conversion. It kind of has a gladiator sandal look...though honestly I hate gladiator sandals except when they're on gladiators. But I digress, I had a little time of Friday to start working on the motifs and yesterday during nap time I was able to finish them all and get them assembled.

While, the conversion was not as simple as I thought and I did try a couple of different approaches before I settled on a split ring edge, it should be easy enough to replicate. With all the cutting and tying of individual motifs, it is a time consuming project already. It lays out nicely and fits the foot well and just like it's necklace cousin, the attachment of jump rings for connections makes it a bit more adjustable. Next up is the also time consuming task of sewing on all the crystals. I bet you're wondering why they need to be sewed on and not just tatted into the design. The crystals are in montée settings which have two crossed channels on the underside for sewing. The channels are two narrow to accommodate my size 10 thread once let alone doubled. I love the look of them which is far more sparkly than the crystal bead versions so I sew. I've been using clean quilting thread for this sort of task ever since I discovered it and I've worked out a way to neatly sew all four crystals to a motif in one go while keeping the visible thread on the back to a minimum.

I'll likely attempt to work on the crystals during any downtime I get this week, but will all the activity, that may be all I do get done. I do still have a couple of necklaces that need remaking and I still do want to make a thicker version of the midnight choker too. Those all all lined up to work on and after those I hope to get some time to really look through my newest tatting book acquisitions for new ideas and bits. Another deep breath and it's onto the week ahead.

Just Busy

I got next to nothing done yesterday, well next to no tatting anyway. First there was the rapid fire schooling session earlier than usual because we had to get to a doctor's appointment. The appointment was quite quick, just an annual check up for a really healthy kid. Then we ran some errands and home. This is when I realized that I had a lot more cleaning to do than I thought and began the slow process of picking up a two story house.

The kids left to lunch with grandma so that's when I had time to get some photos of the new piece. I didn't even bother getting dolled up like usual, but I got the new slave bracelet listed and that's what counts right? I didn't touch another bit of tatting the rest of the day as I mostly continued to clean after that.

I did get my supplies in and got them all sorted. I wish I could say that this means I will get on all those projects I mentioned yesterday, but the coming week is going to be more daunting than this one was. This weekend is the birthday party, then I have to clean up more to get the house back in order to host my brother and his fiancée for much of the week. Then there are dentist appointments, end of the year programs to attend and a field trip. Still I must get schooling done in the middle of all that too since there are still two weeks and some change of that left as well. I'm tired just talking about it all.

I will be sure to sneak some tatting in there as well. In fact I just woke up to the sale of the first twilight zone necklace, so I should make another of those. I'll probably try to get that done this morning and get a couple new pictures of it for the listing since the color way could make it look significantly different than the first. Or am I the only one who notices that sort of thing? So, off to it then and have a great weekend all.

Designs That Keep On Giving

I know I told you that I would be diving into the books I got, but instead I worked on the thin choker design that was born out of the Twilight Zone necklace. That's what I decided to call the piece made with the yarnplayer thread by the way...yes, because it's the name of the thread. Anyway,  It took two goes on the upper edge before I was happy with it. The first time around the stitch count was too low and it lacked some element. I was going to show you how it looked before I snipped out the new row, but I'd rather just share what it looked like after I fixed it. The chains have a nicer curve and I added a small ring to help bring the design up a bit. I got both this listed as well as the Twilight Zone one.

Then I decided to play with the design some more rather than go searching for something else. I stacked the undulating bit upon itself, added the same top edging and a similar bit as the twilight zone motif at the center. I thought about just leaving it like this, but after I asked the Internet what it thought, the consensus was to go ahead and turn it into a slave bracelet. I did get that done last night as well, but far after the light had vanished. Though there wasn't much yesterday to begin with...strange Spring weather we're having. Of course I wouldn't trade our weather right now at all. It's paradise compared with so many other places, calm, calm paradise.

My daughter has her annual doctor's appointment this morning and I really ought to get on some cleaning for her birthday party on Saturday so I'm not sure what I'll get done today. I did have a thought to take the new bracelet design and made a thick choker out of it, but that will be a bit of a long project. I should also be getting some supplies in today which will allow me to start back on the maille pieces with crystals. I still want to give an ankle corset in that style a go too, but again that will be a bit of a time suck of a project. Now, if I just didn't adore my sleep so very much.

Not Much I'm Afraid

So tired. So very tired. I'm fairly certain that the kids had a wonderful time yesterday and truth be told so did I, but I could barely pull myself out of bed this morning from the exhaustion. We headed down to the zoo early and spent the lions share of the day there. Ironically, they have no lions. After the zoo, we headed to the toy store because as a member of their birthday club, she got a balloon and a $3 to spend on top of her birthday money. Again, very happy kids. We rested for a spell when we got home and then it was out to dinner where she not only inhaled her dinner, but a bit of mine as well. I'm going with growth spurt, it's going to be a long year.

As I had no time to tat I only have two bits of tatting related news to share. First, I petted the stingray...with the arm wearing my newest cuff bracelet. This was unintentional of course, but it provided me with some road testing for the jewelry that I rarely get first hand. I rarely wear my own pieces except for pictures, partly because I never go out and partly because I rarely take the time to make myself anything and actually keep it. Sure, I wear pieces around the house to test them out before I sell them, but I don't generally dunk them in fishy water. Anyway, the the purpose of the story is to say that these things are pretty darn durable. I rinsed it out there at the zoo and let it dry on my arm and it's fine. It could use a pressing but now I know first hand and I'll remember to use my other hand the next time.

The other tatting related bit is what I got in the mail yesterday. I am really picky about which tatting books I acquire. I know that even looking through them will inspire me to make and disassemble pattens and basically re-imagine everything I see, so I only buy old books. I have downloaded many from the antique pattern library and bought as many from the forty's as I can and I basically have all the ones that are generally for sale anywhere. This means it's hard to find anything I would want that I don't have, but I did find a couple and they arrived yesterday, so you can imagine what I'll be doing today. Yep, scouring their pages for things to change and manipulate and make my own.

Sorry for the lack of pictures in today's post, I left the picture taking to the husband yesterday, but hopefully today will will produce a few things worthy of sharing tomorrow.