Week Recap

Happy Monday back all! I clearly lost track of time on my trip and blogging fell away quickly. We had a wonderful time with wonderful friends. We got to experience a sand storm worthy of an emergency alert at the same time as a chocolate tasting. We visited a butterfly habitat and a pinball museum. There was hiking, sort of, and shopping, just a bit. It was a busy week of adventuring.

That brings me to an apology and a confession. I'm sorry I completely forgot about International Tatting Day this year. Yep clean forgot it even existed until yesterday when someone asked if they missed my pattern this year...oops. I was so focused on prepping for this trip and the youngest daughter's birthday, that I just let it slip my mind completely. Of course I must also confess that it's been increasingly less popular every year for me. Both the patterns and the sale pendant barely sold last year, so I fear it was only a very few that missed it this time around. Yeah, I'm not sure right now whether I'll try again next year or not. Maybe I'll get to work on something soon and just release it at a randomly selected time. I guess only time will tell.

Now before I go, here's the progress I made on the Armenian lace doily while I was away. I might have been vacationing, but I still love keeping my hand busy while I relax. It's at about 35 inches across now which I prefer to think of as almost 3 feet because it sounds bigger somehow. No, there is no end in sight.

Can Do

So, I've been told I've been a bummer lately, sorry. I really didn't mean to foist my rut on all of you. The husband surprised me and came home early on Friday and we went out of town to finish Christmas shopping and get me out of the house. What he didn't know is that after a message from someone who reads the blog on my answering machine, I felt like I needed to pull myself out of the funk anyway. Speaking of that message, I didn't return it, and I feel a bit bad about that, but I am not particularly comfortable with strangers on the phone, I much prefer email unless I know you in person. I appreciated the sentiment, so thank you for the message though. Okay, back to the point, I actually got some work done. First off I got these necklaces that I had already mostly made finished and photographed. They are made with the crochet cord, the macrame closure and a simple line of Armenian knotting along one side. The cords do take quite some time to make, but I love the simplicity of the finished piece.

Then I actually got them listed in the shop here.  They're made and ready to ship in all four colors. Then after sharing them on Instagram, someone asked if I had made matching bracelets. I wasn't sure if the design would lay right on the wrist, so I decided that was the push I needed to try something new and I spent some time on Saturday trying that out. They do in fact work well as bracelets and I made two more over the weekend. a variegated purple and a gray. So today, after schooling, I'll be photographing those and get them listed in my shop as well. I promise I'll try not to bum you all out anymore this holiday season and focus more on what I can do.

Nope

With everything done, my free time yesterday was excruciating. Okay, that might be a bit hyperbolic. I had no projects, no ideas, no sales, and when I tried to read to fill the time, I finished the book. This left me with little to do at all.

I did remember that I had recently been shown a video of someone doing Turkish oya, so I watched it again and attempted to mimic the incredible fast video where her hands were always going out of frame. I did not do so well. I did learn something interesting though. The Armenian Lace book I used to learn was very insistent about working from right to left, but it seems all the videos I skimmed though, they work left to right. They also seem to wind the thread twice rather than once, but not all of them. I don't know whether this is a regional difference from Armenia to Turkey, or an evolution of the form, since that book is from the 20's. I certainly didn't accomplish anything yesterday, but maybe I learned a little something. I guess I'll try working the other direction today and see how I do. I've got nothing else planned.

Before I go though, I have a confession. I got an email last night asking for a pattern to a bracelet. I was on my phone and I meant to mark the message as unread so I could answer it this morning. Instead I deleted it and I cannot find it. It's not in the trash, the deleted messages, nor is it at either of my computers or in the online email archives. How I managed to so thoroughly erase something I don't know. I think the name on the email might have been Amanda, but that's all I've got. So if that's you, sorry, I'm not ignoring you and if you could email again I can apologize, but I'm afraid I don't have the pattern written up for the bracelet you asked about. I'm also pretty sure I just wrote this while paragraph in vain, but it was worth a shot.

The Horror

You know how I was worried I would make too many mistakes in the first pattern I released for sale. the Christmas Ornament Motif? When a couple of days went by I thought I was in the clear, but I was wrong. I got a message last night while I was out letting me know that I had in fact allowed a few strange typos to live on. I seriously felt horrible about this...horrible, and embarrassed. The culprit was the auto correct function in the text program. I'm so used to those damn things I hardly pay them any mind, but every time I wrote a double stitch number like this, '8ds' it would try to change it to 'ads'. I should have stopped when I realized this and figured out how to turn that function off, but I didn't. I combed through the pattern and I thought I had found them all and corrected them, but I was mistaken and I converted the whole thing to a PDF warts and all. My husband asked if I should have had him proofread it, but I'm not sure he would have caught it not being familiar with tatting abbreviations. Next time I release a pattern, I will call for a test tatter to do that. Of course that won't be at least until the start of the new year, but my lesson is learned. I did fix the mistakes and send out a revised pattern to all those who purchased it so far with an apology and I hope that's the last time I need to do that, but at least I know how to handle it if it should occur again.

Other than all the pattern issues, I worked on remaking just like I said I would, stalling and all. I managed to even finish remaking one mask despite all my attempts to avoid the task. It was a much calmer sales day than it's been lately so I only have one more small piece in queue to be remade and after that I still have at least two masks that have sold over the last couple of months that I didn't bother remaking. I'm not sure if I'll get on task enough to tackle those masks, but I shall try to stay focused on work anyway. It'll take my mind off the rookie pattern mistake. Oh well, you can't go back right? Always forward, made wiser by our mistakes.