Knotting

I did exactly what I thought I'd do yesterday. I obsessively checked for an email that didn't come and knotted thread. I did manage to also read two novellas and start reading another novel. I did do all that while not completely ignoring the children and their schooling needs.

The Armenian lace has reached about 30 inches across and I cannot get around the piece with fewer than two lengths of thread. I actually measured and I use about 14.5 feet of thread every time I cut a new piece. It's a bit unwieldy at first, but I think I've gotten used to it. The last couple of rounds have been an experiment. I mean I've been trying out a knot combination that I didn't actually learn from anywhere and making it up myself. It's similar to others, so hopefully it looks good as I keep going.

It certainly likely that today will be a twin of yesterday. Hopefully I hear back one way or another from the potential customer so I can have some closure there. I dislike just wondering what happened. So, here's so a weekend with some answers and hopefully some tatting too.

Prototype

Yesterday slowed down a bit for me. In fact I even had some time in the evening to work on the Armenian lace. Not enough time to finish a round or anything, but a little time. This is the prototype hair piece I worked up yesterday. It's been shared with the potential customer, but I haven't heard back about it yet. The challenge with this piece was to alter my existing design to be an inch wider. My first thought was to add an entire new round, but in the end I left it to strategic stitch count increases. It took two complete prototypes to get to not only the right size, but also the right degree of curve. I do hope to hear back from the customer soon, otherwise it was just a day of practice tatting since I've no other reason to simple alter the size of the piece.

I still do have a couple of pieces I could remake for the shop, but I'm stalling on them a bit. I'm not entirely sure why, maybe I tatted just a tad too much over the last few days and I need a little break. I'm not certain, but I'll try to get to them today. Well, that or I'll ignore them, obsessively check my email all day and knot on the Armenian lace in short,  unpredictable bursts. I bet you can guess which one I think I'll be doing today.

Still Busy

I was nice and busy again yesterday. I finished up the ankle corsets while schooling actually. Some days I can get away with tatting while teaching, though it doesn't always work. Some days I'm up and around so much helping with two different classes at once that I'm surprised I don't drop weight, but not yesterday. Yesterday I was able to sit and work long enough between helping that I got things done.

Right after schooling, I got a necklace order in the shop and I set to work on remaking that one. Finally I had a request for a slightly larger version of my doily fascinator head pieces. I couldn't answer the customers questions theoretically, so I'm working on a new prototype for the request right now. That should take me a bit today and then depending on the results, I could have more tasks ahead. I certainly hope this work level lasts for a while.

Busy

I had a lovely, busy day yesterday. Before schooling I made up a custom order of pendants. Then, just as I finished schooling the kids, I got an order in the shop. Lucky for me, that order contained a pair of ankle corsets and a bracelet, so I had plenty to do. I started by remaking the bracelet. This one is based on a classic insertion pattern. I mucked with the stitch counts when I designed it, but it essentially looks the same. I like it because it seems off balanced somehow.

After I got the bracelet made it was onto remaking the ankle corsets.They generally take more than a full day to make, so I'm not quite done with them yet. And since I skipped over the other pieces that needed remaking to get to these, I still have a nice queue of pieces after I do finish them. That means today should be nice and busy even if the shop stays quiet. I do adore being busy.

Weekend Recap

Well, my sale is finally over and I'm going to go ahead and call it a success. I still have a handful of pieces left to remake for the shop and that should keep me busy for awhile. The best part is that I sold not only tatted pieces, but also a little Armenian lace as well. Before the sale I hadn't sold much of that at all. This is the pair of barefoot sandals that I still haven't quite finished making. I should be able to get them done today.

The reason I didn't finish the sandals on Friday is because I kept putting them aside to work on other things including remaking some pineapple tassel pendants. I was pretty surprised that despite having not made them for quite some time, the new one turned out exactly the same size as the previously made ones. There are so many more variables to size with Armenian lace than with tatting. The double stitch keeps everything pretty much the same, but these had so much bare thread that you would either have to measure or hope you have a good eye. You might have guessed that I would never bother to measure, but I was surprised that I've developed a good eye for thus already.

Saturday we went over to Monterey for the day and visited the Aquarium. Sunday we recovered from the trip with a little housework and laundry. I honestly didn't touch a thread most of the weekend. That does leave me refreshed, but with quite some work this week and I am glad for it. Thank you so much to everybody out there who made a purchase and helped me celebrate 10 years of selling lace. I hope I have at least another 10 years of it in me.