That Was A Day

Schooling was a bit distracted yesterday as we were glued to the news coming in about our local University experiencing a campus stabbing. Certainly we're getting used to news like this, but not when it's just a few miles away and we have friends working and teaching on campus. Thankfully it ended quickly and much less tragically than similar events, but it does leave everyone with a feeling of unease for awhile.

It was a bit after schooling when I had just started contemplating what to get to making when I got an order in the shop. It was such a relieve to not only have finally sold a Romanian lace necklace, but also to have a small piece that needed to be custom made. This is my Flourish pendant made in Lizbeth harvest orange thread.

I think that working on this small piece finally put me in the mood to tat something. I decided that I was actually going to put some snowflakes in my shop this year. I searched through the many different ones I've made and designed over the years and settled on one from last year. I didn't want it to be just the same so I started playing with it. I guess since I've been doing so much weaving lately, it's not shocking that I went for a a little weaving to change it up. I also opted to use both white and a very light gray for a bit of a contrast.

I ended by adding a bit of glitter to both add some dimension to the
piece and stiffen it for hanging. I'm not certain whether it will be better to list them individually or as a set, but the plan is to get hooks on them today and get them in the shop. Then I'll cross my fingers and hope they're appealing enough to sell. Here's hoping!

Octopuses

So, I didn't get any sales in the shop yesterday and I certainly didn't have any awesome tatting ideas. What did I do with my time then? Well, I had leftover yearn from the gifts I'd recently made. Just enough of each color to make something small and adorable. I picked small and adorable octopuses to make with my time. The big one was made with this pattern. I chose it because it was a no-sew pattern and like most things I make, I want them to be done when I stop crocheting, or knitting, or tatting. I don't want to have to assemble a bunch of things.

The small one I made up myself using the same basic method as the larger one. I still had a little yarn left and the oldest daughter had a small one similar to it that we bought at the Ren Faire a couple of years back, so I tried to copy it by eye. I got close, but not exact.

As nothing else was happening to break the crochet streak, I continued making octopuses all day long. I figure I'll add them to the gifts going to nieces and nephews. That's right, people will suffer handmade gifts this year. Most of the leftover yarn wasn't enough to make an extra small one, but I'm certain there are more scraps around here somewhere and barring anything else important coming up, I'll just keep right on making these. I really do hope something more interesting or important does come up though.

Almost Done

After schooling yesterday I got to work on the transferring the Gothic doily pattern from text to PDF with pretty with pictures. Of course I also decided to use a different program for it and so I had to fiddle around and teach myself how to use it in this manner as well. All this learning and mucking about made this project last the entire day. I almost forgot to eat lunch I was so focused on getting it put together. In fact I did forget I was doing laundry until I was headed upstairs for the night and then I had to rush about to finish it before bed.

The result of all this is that the pattern is done pending test tatting. It is with someone right now and should hopefully be available for sale in my shop within the week. That is unless I complete botched writing out the pattern and it needs a complete reboot. I wish I could say that that is not a possibility, but it very clearly is.

I was going to post the picture I took for the front of the pattern, but I think I'll just save that for when it's ready to post the pattern. I don't want you to get sick of seeing it. So I'm starting today with absolutely no projects on hand. No tatting, knitting, crochet, Armenian lace, or anything else creative. So here's to a sale in the shop or a creative idea in my head to get me back to my favorite state of busy.

Halloween Weekend

My goodness, what an incredibly long and busy weekend. Friday started with schooling, then it was a bout of afternoon cleaning to prepare for guests on Saturday afternoon for my mom's birthday. I got to take a break from cleaning to get the kids ready to visit their father's work where they trick or treat every year. I took this picture of them before we left. I also posted this on twitter Friday as well, more on that in a minute. We spent some time at the afore mentioned rick or treating, then it was an evening of cleaning, mostly floors.

Saturday was early morning errands, last minute party prep, followed by a house full of people and food. That was in turn followed my more cleaning and a little afternoon rest before costumes were again donned. We headed to our friends' house to spend the evening with them and trick or treat in their neighborhood.

It was a nice long night with wine and good conversation. They even took a nice family photo of us before we went out. Of course my husband is hidden behind his paper craft mask. He spent weeks working on that thing. It turned out pretty good, though he complained about it's discomfort the whole time we were out.

Oh, one last thing, Saturday morning that picture of the kids got retweeted by Marvel and the kids got to be internet famous in a small circle of people for brief moment in time. It was just kind of cute so I thought I'd share that as well. Sunday, well we mostly just tried to recover from Halloween and the time change. The cats don't believe it changed and are insisting that I continue to wake up at what was the original wake up time. I'm going to have to baby step them to the new time. Until then I suffer.

I'll be working on the Gothic doily tatting pattern today and hopefully it should be ready to get in the shop in the next day or so. Other than that I have nothing else to work on since I did manage to finish the last circle cardigan gift while I recovered on Sunday. So here's to something new and interesting needing to be made by me soon.

That's Done

I kept my focus pretty sharp yesterday, well, once I had time to sit down anyway. The morning was busy with schooling and laundry and final test runs on the kids costumes including makeup for the youngest. When I did sit down, it was straight to work.

I managed to finish the last two round on the sample doily. Of course I also discovered that I had failed to write out the last round correctly, so that slowed me down a bit as I had to write it as I tatted it.

The next step is to make all the corrections I found in the computer and then I have to write it all again with the page layout and pictures included. I also have to figure out what else the pattern needs to say to be clear. This is all so much easier when I'm just keeping a design to myself. It doesn't even have to be really legible, just notes, a picture and usually a prototype sitting about as a refresher.

I definitely won't get all that done today, or even this weekend as it should be a busy one. My mother's birthday is on Saturday and as it's a milestone birthday I offered to host a get together at our house. I won't call it a party, because I am rubbish at parties. It does still mean, cleaning, food, guests, and more cleaning. Then of course there's the Halloween evening itself followed by Sunday recovery time. I'm tired just thinking about it, but next week I should have some free time to get the pattern ready and listed. Here's hoping.