Free Luna Moth Pattern

You know all that stuff I said I might get to today? I know you're terribly shocked to learn that I did none of it, not a bit. I think I just faded into a zone where I had nothing that really 'needed' cleaning or doing. My motivation to work was completely used up I suppose and I needed a recharge day. Lucky for you though I had already written out the moth pattern and I already had some pictures so here we go.

Tatted Luna Moth Pattern

Some words before we begin. I used size 10 thread and a size 5 needle. On the body portion of the moth I employed the use of reverse/downward facing/inward picots. There are a lot of names for the technique and you can find a simple diagram of them from Jane as a pdf here. They are formed by using the first half of the double stitch twice adding the picot and then using the second half of the double stitch twice. The pattern as I wrote it does not expand into this, just know that the last ds before and the first after the downward picot are formed this way. Also when the downward facing picots are joined to, you will need to pull your stitches off the needle being careful to leave the loop at the beginning of the ring to join to at the end. Joining to the downward picots is simply pulling the needle through them, do not tie, but keep working stitches. When you join close the ring everything should pull together just fine. You may of course omit the inward facing picots entirely and make the body round, but I think it looks nicer the other way.

One more note before I let you have the pattern, To make the wings symmetrical, I started both at the top and tatted the second backwards. I honestly have no idea what the proper term for that is and didn't make an effort to go look. All this means to me, is that I started each chain section with the second half of a ds, reduced the number of full stitches by one and ended each section with the first half of a ds. I found doing this let the wings lay better. Having tried it without doing this as well, there is little difference expect to the perfectionist I suppose so you don't 'need' to do this either. I think that's all the notes I have for you so on we go.

Large moth

body
r - 4ds 1 long picot(antenna) 4ds close, do not turn
r - 1ds 1small picot 2ds 1 small picot 2ds inward picot, 2ds inward picot 2ds picot 2ds join to reverse picot, 2ds join to reverse picot 2ds small picot, 2ds small picot 1ds close, tie and cut.

Cut antenna in two.

Wings
join thread to top small picot on body ch - 20ds close rw ch 7ds close rw ch 2ds 1p 7ds join to next small picot on body do not reverse. ch 7ds join to picot on last chain 7ds close rw, ch 5ds 1p 5ds close rw, chain 7ds join to last picot 15ds join to same picot on body.

repeat for second wing.

You can choose to omit the inward facing picots making a simple r of 1-2-6-6-2-1. This will make for a rounder body though.

Please do let me know if I've made any glaring mistakes so I might fix them and as always this pattern is for personal use or offline sale only. There is of course a small chance that I will add the small moth variation as well as that video of the downward facing picots at some point. I would however not hold your breath. Today, I have one mask left to finish and thank the gods I made a couple of sakes yesterday so I will be getting a couple of things remade as well. You have no idea how much more motivated I am during the day when I have sales to take care of or pieces to remake. Sure,I can survive on the energy between especially when I'm designing, but only for so long before that malaise I described above kicks in. One last note, if you are facebook sort of people, I will be having yet another giveaway and a Halloween sale through my fan page if and only if I manage to increase my fan/like numbers to 1000. I know it's gimmicky, but no numbers no giveaway. There are over 125 left to get, so again no breath holding, but I thought I'd give you a heads up. The link to the page is on the left of the blog.

What Babe?

Let's see, what did I do on Friday? Well I did finish up the mask that sold, though it never was paid for and I had to cancel the sale and watch my sales numbers run backwards. Anything else? No, I believe that was the whole of Friday.

I did get some time to work on the new mask design that has been worming through my brain for a spell on Saturday. It started with the same 'babe with the power' base. I opted for burgundy with this one partly because I had it out from the last mask and partly because, well it looks good with black. Then came the tricky bit, making the frill.

I used the same basic technique as this bracelet. You should be able to see what I did there, but making it up as I went, it's just one long chain attached to the picots below it where the chain is one stitch longer between each picot. This formed a fairly consistent ruffle. In fact it turns out the really tricky bit was pressing the mask face without killing the natural freedom of the edge, but I have developed a fairly light touch over the last few years, so it worked out in the end. The mask is fairly reminiscent of frilly panties honestly so it earned the Labyrinth lyric, 'What Babe?' and is now listed. I think it was the last mask idea left in the brain for now, so here's hoping I actually sell some of them this year. It's not looking so good right now.

After that one was listed, I have only two more masks listed that have to be made, so I started on one of those. Then I got a request for a Luna Moth bracelet from someone who had seen the moth creation. She wanted some variegated thread, so I ordered up the one she wanted and I'll need to wait for that to arrive before I make it up. Then she also asked for one in sepia tones, so I did get to work on that one. Unfortunately I took no pictures last night when it was completed. On the fortunately side though, I did finally write down the pattern for the large moth and will be getting it up for you as a free pattern tomorrow. If I get enough free time I will also get down the small variation and have that up as well. If I get tons of time and more motivation, I might get it up as an Instructable complete with a video on how to do the inward facing picot I used. That however is not really all that likely as I still have school to do along with a ton of other little things, but I do promise the pattern anyway. That, I think, is the whole of the blog for today.

The Smallest You Can Think Of

I just spent the last ten minutes all confused because yesterdays post was dated for Wednesday and I wondered where yesterdays post had gone. Then I realized that it was yesterdays post, but because I had started writing it the night before it dated it that day which is very confusing since I definitely posted it yesterday. Clearly I am not awake enough to deal with these inconsistencies so I'm just going to move on now.

Unfortunately, I don't really have much to show you. I spent the morning after schooling working on a pattern to shrink the moth I had made for a wedding. I was actually quite impressed with myself as my very first attempt seemed right on the money. This is just the prototype next to prototype of the moth on the lapel pin. I just guessed the new stitch count as I worked instead of attempting something as horrid as moth and save for one added stitch along the top wing the final piece was exactly the same. One of the mall moths was also put on a pin which means I just tatted the head onto the small ring.

After that I spent the rest of the tatting day getting a mask made. One sold during my stint on the front page of etsy but has yet to be paid for. I know I should not bother making it as it has already been over a day and I've heard nothing back, but it was a good excuse to get another mask on the 'ready to ship' list so I soldier on. I'll get the moths ready to list and ship this morning and hopefully finish up the mask so I can get the new idea tried out before I forget all about it. I wanted to try and put a frilly edge on the most recent design using the same technique I use in one of my bracelets only a little more extreme. Not sure how frilly will fly, but I want to try it out anyway. No other pressing plans this weekend other than a neighbors birthday party to attend so maybe I'll get around to some interesting something and some point. That was sure a lot of 'some' I just wrote there, but you get the idea. I'm rambling and I should just stop now so, well...I will.

Strike A Pose

Okay, first off how it is not Friday yet? It feels like it's suppose to be Friday and yet here we are on a Thursday. What good is a bloody Thursday anyway? Apparently its good for complaining about, but I digress. I got yet another little treat from my Google alerts yesterday, there was a nice little post about me on Craft Gossip's jewelry page which is new for me. I have of course graced the needlework page repeatedly with various free patterns and tutorials, but the jewelry mention was quite pleasantly unexpected. Thanks to Stacie Hooder for the nice write up, I really appreciate it!

I did get photos done of the gray and black mask as well. I opted for modeled ones since someone I know is creeped out my mannequin heads...she knows who she is. I do admit they look better worn, but sometimes I am just feeling too lazy to get dolled up and make faces at the camera. I mean there is a good reason I never had a modeling career, okay many good reasons. I shudder at the thought of someone walking by and looking in the window as I pose like this. Sure folks say the pictures turn out okay, but I still feel like a bit of a fool taking them.
I slacked off for most of the remains of the day, but I did do a little custom work. I was asked if the new moths could be made onto a lapel pin so that the original commissioner could get a few more like that, so I tatted a moth to a pin. As I remarked on twitter, it was a bit like an entomology experiment and thankfully a relatively successful one. I'll be working on adjusting the pattern to a smaller size today as well as putting more moths on sticks. I'm also still mulling over another mask pattern though honestly I hope the shop picks up soon so I won't have time to work on more. Well more so I have actual sales, but six of one right?

One last bit for today that could have been posted yesterday had it happened then. Apparently I made the front page of etsy with this treasury at 1 am est. I was of course fast asleep and I didn't even get the usual instant link at facebook so if it hadn't been for the handful of congratulatory messages I received at etsy I would not have known at all. Lucky for me craftcult takes screenshot so I can pretend I saw it and this is what it looked like.Crossing my fingers that this wasn't the last of the season as I have been getting a crap load of 'you're in my treasury' messages from sellers as they put together all the Halloween lists. Again not a huge boon to sales or anything, but even in the middle of my night I received more than 60 new heart or people favoriting my shop. So thanks etsy for the bit of love...keep it up!

Look At Me!

Well, I might not have gotten much of significance done yesterday, but that doesn't mean I have nothing to share. First up on today's 'look at me' post is the Steam Tuesday feature at Overbury Ink. Every Tuesday, Nancy puts up a feature on a different artisan that focuses on Steampunk or NeoVictorian art and promotes the post all day long on twitter. I was lucky enough to be chosen for this weeks feature and it is up here.

Next up also from the 'look at me' files is a tiny little bit of etsy's front page. Rotating near the top of the page are links to different features. Each time you visit the page or refresh the images change up, but are a small number of repeating images. Currently one of those is a link to Halloween treasuries and thanks to Azcra Woodward's amazing picture with the perfect aspect ratio, my Crystal Moon mask is one of those images. A hearty thank you to dbvictoria for letting me know and catching this screen shot for me or wouldn't have known at all. You can of course try to catch it like I did by refreshing the front page of etsy until it shows up, but I have no idea how long it will be in rotation. The only sad part is that while the image is credited as my item, there is no link to me from it so it is unlikely to bring me any direct traffic safe from those who look me up after seeing it and even then I will have no idea where they came from.In other news, I did get the new brown and red mask named, 'In Absence Of The Sun' and listed and began work on another in gray and black.I almost started a brand new design, but smacked myself a few times and settled on just making an existing design in the chosen shades. Well that's how it started anyway. I was going to just make the Babe With The Power Mask, but as I started the second round with the black thread I decided to change it to more of an outline and now we have yet another mask design albeit very similar to the other. Fortune smiled on me though as a name for this one was easy to decide...it shall be 'You Remind Me Of The Babe' since it will indeed remind you of the other mask. I should get it photographed today and its creation has spawned a few other ideas as well. I shall throw them against the wall and see which ones stick.