Asymmetrical

I was right about not having nay extra time to worry about until well after lunch. The morning was jam packed with schooling and the teacher meeting. After lunch the kids both read and I lamented my now idle hands. The shop remained quiet, so I had to come up with something to make all by myself and I was not feeling very adventurous, so I settled on an old idea, the one off piece.

There is a lot of extra work involved in making any piece meant to be one of a kind, but it's the perfect remedy when I don't want to design something. Generally I just make it up as I go without a thought for stitch counts or joins. This makes up for all the one use only photography and writing up a listing that, again, is only used once. I opted to make one of my asymmetrical necklaces worked around metal rings. First I lay out the rings to get a generally idea of the shape I want, then I just start tatting.

The hardest part with this on in particular is getting the right number of stitches on the ring so that it's well covered and I have a number of picots that match with the petals I want to work. Often this means squeezing the stitches together tightly at the end to work in just one more repeat. It's also a bit of a challenge to make the outer petals different on rings of the same size. I suppose it's just a lot fiddling and hoping it all works out in the end.

I did finish the tatting on this one, but I still need to add the chains to the sides before I can press it and get it listed. That shouldn't take too long after schooling unless I start stalling again. Here's hoping for something new to keep me focused for today. If nothing comes, I'll probably just bust out the grab bag supplies and make more one of a kind pieces, so at least there's that.

I Tried

Well that was a bit of an odd Monday. I oscillated back and forth between cleaning and tatting with just a bit of lazy stalling thrown in for good measure. The husband had it in his mind to clean our bathroom counters, so I cleaned the floors downstairs and since it's been getting colder in the morning, I cleaned out behind the gas fireplace grills where apparently spiders think it's great to hang out. Then I spent far too long cleaning up my supplies as I searched for jump rings that had gone missing. I found them, but I really need to order more of so many things. Unfortunately that will have to wait until sales pick up so you know, I can pay for them.

By the afternoon, we were all ready to do a little nothing, so we put on the extended edition of the Hobbit and while that was on I managed to not only finish all the tatting I needed to get done, but also started making more needle felted soot sprites. I decided that they would look great as ornaments, so I put some head pins through them and gave them a ring to hang from. Of course I didn't take a picture of them then, but they're cute either way.

I've got all the tatting I had in queue to be done, done so I'm not certain what I'll get up to later today. I do have yet another teacher meeting to go to this morning, this time for the youngest child. There are a lot more meetings with two different teachers than we had with one. I miss having just one. Oh, well. That means school will go longer today, so hopefully something interesting will happen between now and then so I'll have plenty to keep me from lazy.

Listed

Hello Monday. I'm afraid to tell you that I have been, yet again, pretty damn lazy. You see it occurs to me that I have three modes when the shop is slow/dead. The first is using the time wisely to create new things or stock up. This mode usually occurs when I expect the slowness like the beginning of the year. Then there is the one you're probably most familiar with, constant whining in some illogical attempt to change things. This mode also has me working a lot, just with that annoying commentary. This past week I experienced the third mode, indifference. Like the others I start out trying, but after 4 or 5 days, I slip into complete laziness convinced that nothing I can do will change things. This mode seems to occur when I am sure that the shop should be busy based on historical trends, but it's just not. Of course just because I know what I'm doing and why, doesn't mean I have much control over it. I just sit there and play games on my phone until some housework calls me.

All that was a segue to me telling you about actually, finally getting the new necklace design listed late yesterday afternoon. Yes, when I said I'd get it done of Friday. After utterly failing to get an overwhelming opinion on the chain type, I listed it with both options. The tatted chain had a slight advantage in the polls, so I made that one the face of the listing, but there were so many people that preferred the silver chain that I figured it didn't hurt to make it an option.

Other than getting that done, we went to see the new Thor movie and wondered at why, after so many Marvel films, the audience would leave before the end of the credits. There was also a birthday dinner for my brother-in-law and my niece at which I ate something that did not agree with me. Then of course the rest of the time was filled in with lazy. Late yesterday I finally got some small sales, so I will try to get back into work mode today. The kids are off school and the husband is home from work, but if I don't shift gears soon, I fear the lazy will win. We would definitely not want that to happen.

Trains

Well, that was one long day. Even though I did bring my tatting on the train, I didn't do any. I'm not sure if it was the bumpy ride, the scenery or the company, but I just didn't feel like losing myself in lace, so I didn't.

We had a lovely time of course. I'm not overly fond of trains, but the enormity and history of them makes for a more than interesting outing. The youngest child looks like that in all the pictures because she's decided that she looks creepy when she smiles with teeth. It took us most of the day to get that explanation out of her. Of course part of it could have been that her sister insisted on taking a picture in front of nearly all the trains.

After the museum, there was a bit of shopping in Old Town and then back on the train. So I guess in all, it was about a 10 hour outing with 5 or 6 hours of walking and we managed to get a little schooling done before we left too. Yep, a long, long day.

Today I will get back to tatting. I will finally decide on the chain style for the pendant piece and get it done and listed, I promise. It might take me awhile though. I have a feeling I'm going to be dragging through the day after all that walking yesterday. I suppose I have the whole weekend to get it back together so I suppose it's all good.

Inspired

While nothing interesting happened to me yesterday, I couldn't let yet another lazy day commence. So after schooling and copious amounts of laundry, I started in on tatting for the day. The first attempt was something that ended up immediately in the trash. I was trying to mimic a piece of commercial lace in tatting. I failed.

Next I started searching though the tatting books and patterns folder on my computer. I was just flipping through the images looking for something that might inspire. At first I was just  going to settle for turning yet another edging into a bracelet, but then I flipped past a pattern by Marliee Rockley. The pattern was for her Ripple Necklace and it was just the thing to get me designing again. Even though she allows one to make and sell her patterns as is, I immediately has other ideas. The first go here was just the addition of the long picots and made as a much smaller section.

It wasn't quite me yet, so I kept mucking with it. Usually I avoid even looking too hard at recently designed pieces because I don't like to copy people, but it was too perfect for an adaption and she is so kind to allow me to do so. Anyway, for the final version I worked it all in one round with some split rings and twisted the picots when joining. I adore twisted picots, they have such an usual feel to them. I also added the center drop to give it more of a pendant feel and did a few more stitch count changes. It curves a little more with the twisted picots and bottom drop as well, which I like.

The question remains, do I hang the piece from a metal chain, or do I make a tatted Josephine chain for the the piece? I think either will work and though hanging from a chain would be a bit easier, I think I might prefer necklace with the tatted chain. I made up a couple more of these, one in a sage green and another in black. I'll probably play some more on the train today as well, but these won't see the shop until at least Friday because I'll be out much of the day. So thanks once again to Marliee for the inspiring pattern, hopefully the result is acceptable.