Done

I started the day, after schooling, with tatting up cat ears and sewing them to headbands. I only did two, so I might do some more today. They tend to sell in little clusters and then sit in the shop for months. I also made a few slight adjustments to the pattern and a change to how I sew them on. They still look the same though.

After those two were done I finished the last round of the Armenian lace doily. I also ordered up a frame to see if my gift idea will work out with it. So when that arrives, I get to experiment on the best way to mount them without destroying. I already have a couple of ideas and I'm hoping that the simplest one is the right one. If it works then I order more frames and a large chunk of our holiday gifts are taken care of.

I'm about halfway through the novel I'm reading now, so it will still be sometime before I have the desire to shift gears to any other big project. I do still have the knitting project though, so that should fill in for the knotting for a spell.

The Same

I fear my posts as of late are bound to be rather boring, at least until I finish this novel. I am currently averaging about 9% a day though so it's going to take me at the very least another 8 or 9 days to finish it and that's probably being generous, I've got other things that need doing in the next couple of weeks. In fact this weekend is the opening of the Renaissance Faire near us, so we'll be there much of Saturday and that means reading is right out. There's also our usual family time on Sundays, so I likely won't read much then either.

The point I was trying to make before I got distracted by my own weekend plans was that I apologize in advance for what is likely the next couple of weeks of boring blog posts about me reading and knotting, knitting, or tatting at the same time. When the book and this last doily or done I was thinking about finally trying to put together a tutorial for the Armenian knotted lace though I still feel a bit like an outsider doing so. I guess only time will tell if manage to muster up the courage to do it or not. Personally I'm still crossing my fingers for the sales to start back up in my shop to keep me busy that way. We could definitely use the money.

Multitasking

I was a bit distracted by household tasks and recorded television shows yesterday. Nothing too major, but it made me double down on my reading to see if I could make the same progress as the day before. I made it to 18%, but just barely. I think what really suffered was my knotting. At one point I was reading and peddling on the stationary bike, but I can't do that and knot. I needed to move more than I needed to knot though. I was getting pretty sedentary.

I was asked how I read and knot at the same time and this is how. I never thought I'd get into digital reading as I do love the feel and heft of a printed book, but the freedom it allows me is amazing. My hands are free to knot or tat or knit. I can get up and read while walking and put it down anywhere without losing my place. I can carry what would be an enormous 1200 page book in one hand. Page turning is a tap I can accomplish between stitches or knots. I can also have any book I want in a matter of seconds and you just can't beat that. I do still buy printed books from my favorite authors or when I find a good deal at the bookstore, but for multitasking, the kindle is king.

Read and Knot

Well, yesterday went just as I though it would. I spent much of the day with my kindle in my lap, reading while I tried to pay just enough attention to my knotting that I wouldn't mess anything up. I was actually much more successful at both endeavors than I thought I would be. There are no page numbers for the book on the kindle, so I can only tell you that I managed to get to 9% yesterday. At the same time I managed to get to 8 inches on the doily.

I don't think I can expect the same kind of progress everyday though. The kids had a light schooling day and I had little else that needed doing yesterday, save for software updates. I am quite enjoying the book, though I must say that it is definitely not for everyone. Saying it's a weird one would be a gross understatement and I'm fairly certain that I haven't even scratched the surface of the weird it has in store later in the novel.

So today is the same plan as yesterday, unless I get wonderfully distracted by a tatting order or something of that nature. Here's to a wonderful distraction sooner rather than later.

The Plan

Well, it was a fairly low key day yesterday. The oldest child had to interact with her new teacher for the first time and it appears there is definitely going to be an adjustment period. Though I don't sense it being too bad in the end, just more change to get used to. He is just really, really new to this and there is a lot to learn.

I really didn't do anything after schooling was wrapped except knot the Armenian lace doily. I actually stopped and measured it as well. It's at about 7 inches across right now, so there's about three inches to go. Id like to say it'll be done this week, but I just downloaded the new book from Alan Moore, Jerusalem, and I'm pretty sure it's going to take up a whole lot of my time and energy. The last book I read by him was definitely not an easy read and this one is 1,280 pages, so I'm anticipating a long relationship with it. So today the plan is knotting lace and reading a book.

To Hope

Well, let's see, the aloe cuts are all healing nicely and the sore muscles have almost completely abated. I have had weird cold symptom recurrences all weekend including the mother of all headaches last night, but this morning I'll risk saying I'm feeling pretty good. Oh, and the television died a silent death on Friday afternoon, going to black and staying there.

So as you might've guessed we spent Saturday shopping for and then setting up a new television. Thankfully they are much cheaper than they were we when bought the one that died, but it was still a pretty painful purchase. Of course it's one of those new smart TV's because that's what they all are now, so we spent the rest of the day figuring out how to use it.

Sunday I got to sit and knit and knot. I haven't been measuring the latest doily, but it seems to be coming along nicely. Since I don't know how big it is, I'm not sure how much longer I have before it's done.

This week we're also breaking in a new teacher for the oldest child. I'm definitely a 'roll with the changes' sort of person, but I am disappointed that we're going from a teacher with over a decade of experience with this program to a fellow who was just hired and who has never taught this grade before either. To say I'm feeling a little apprehensive is a bit of an understatement. Hopefully the transition will be smooth and my worries will be unwarranted. I'm also hoping for some sort of huge surprise purchases in my shop to take the edge off of our weekends unexpected purchase. Here's to hope.

One Down

You'll never guess what happened late yesterday afternoon. Yep, the biggest schooling issue was resolved, leaving a couple of other issues in its wake, not least of all is the need to now catch up on all the classes we missed the last 4 days. Now the real stress starts as we just now get to use the new online system and find all the questions we didn't know we needed the answers to before. So, yay.

Now I'm not certain if I'll finish the doily this week, maybe over the weekend, but my focus has definitely shifted and from what little I've already gleaned from the new schooling system tells me we're going to be much busier this year. Man, I really wish we'd had access to the system even before school began to get used to it. I hate being under-prepared. Here's hoping things smooth out quickly and I'm in a better mood next week.

So Slow

Nope, school issues are not yet fixed. I am assured that people are working on it, but I fail to understand why it's so difficult to fix. Perhaps it's because no one has yet explained what the actual issue is, but really I don't care what or how, I just need taken care of and I am beginning to lose my very carefully cultivated sense of patience. The oldest child currently has no classes, nor materials. Oh, and I'm sure you're already sick of hearing me whine about it as well, so let's cross our fingers that it's resolved soon for all our sakes.

Onto doily news. Well, there's really no actual news. I'm at about 21cm across right now. I still think I should get it done by weeks end. Though to tell you the truth, this week is the longest one I've experienced in some time. I suppose it's true that vacation flies by, but work crawls and work riddled with problems that have to be fixed by someone else is downright sloth-like. So, here's to school problems miraculously fixed, many surprise sales in my etsy shop, and time moving at a more acceptable pace.

Growing Doily

Still no resolution on the homeschooling issues, though at this point we're just rolling with it and hoping that it gets fixed sooner rather than later. My biggest concern right now is starting to be the catch up we'll need to do once it's all been fixed. It's going to be rough.

On the plus side the stress continues to fuel pretty much nonstop knotting. When my fingers are busy I can keep focused on just that and getting our work done, but not all the setbacks. The piece is at about 18cm across now. If things keep going at this pace, I should have this one finished by weeks end. I still have at least one more on my gift list to make, though that may turn into more as I got started early enough to do more if I need to. I'd love to be shifting gears to some tatting, but my shop is still pretty much a ghost town with only the occasional visitor. Everything has to start looking up sometime, right?

Argh

So I wrote the blog yesterday before I found out that the homeschooling glitch I referred to was much more robust than previously imagined. The day was a pain in the arse, at least for the oldest child. Unfortunately none of it has yet been resolved, thus today will likely be the same kind of pain, if not worse.

On the plus side my need for stress relief was so high that I knotted even during schooling. That resulted in quite a lot of progress for the most recent doily. Something about the stress is also pushing me to make more interesting choices with the design and I'm quite pleased with the way it's turning out. Too bad I can't fix everything with a nice piece of lace.

I imagine that I'll get more done today as well, since there's bound to be no resolution to our issues. Yes, I'm aware that I'm being super pessimistic. It's a gift. I'll still cross my fingers for things to work themselves out, but I have no illusions that it's likely.

Radial Symmetry

Well, here we are at the start of the homeschooling year. My free time will shrink to what I can accomplish outside of that much more important responsibility. This year is starting in somewhat of a rough patch as there's been some sort of glitch with the older daughter's account. The issue is supposedly being worked on, but in the meantime we have no class materials and I can tell you it's going to be a frustrating week as we try to work around that huge handicap. So I fear I shall be whining more than usual this week, my apologies in advance.

I did mange to start another gift doily. I've sorted out all the colors for each of the recipients and managed to actually find some proper thread in stock somewhere local. Of course I'm still playing the 'use a filter to obscure the color' game just to keep something a mystery. Good thing I have so many photo editing apps on my phone, huh?

I am still also working on the shawl, but I didn't get a picture of that. I'm also pretty distracted with all that stuff from the first paragraph, so here's hoping I manage some creative work this week at all. I'll likely really need the stress relief it brings. Pleasing radial symmetry bring me peace.

One More Done

For some reason I thought I was much further from done with the doily I was working on, but I managed to finish it up yesterday. Of course the photo is manipulated again to obscure the color since it's a gift for someone who might see it online and I want to keep at least some part of it a mystery.

Once this one was done and pressed, it hadn't been yet in the photo, I went back to the shawl. I didn't make enough progress on that piece to warrant a photograph though. I'll likely grab another ball of thread and start another gift doily soon. I sure hope the intended recipients are okay with these as gifts, because I appear to be going all in on them.

In other news, some of the pre-schooling year drama has been resolved, but there are still more issues that are clearly not going to be resolved in time for Monday's first day of school. I spent much of yesterday in a state of heightened anxiety and I imagine I'll be living there for the next week or two. I'm just one of those people who likes to be prepared and get started on things early. These delays and set backs are  seriously eating at me. At least I have knots to tie to try and keep myself distracted.  I fear it's going to continue to be rough beginning.

Fit For A Cat

If anything, my stress levels went up yesterday as the oldest child's teacher attempted and failed to resolve some of our issues. It's not really her fault, it's just time is short and I'm losing my ability to be patient with things like busy help lines. So instead I focused on knotting. I got the shawl experiment to about 14 inches. It's now big enough to be a cat shawl. No, the cat did not enjoy the modeling gig. I was starting to lose patience with the yarn about this point as well, so I switched back to the doily.

I cannot begin to explain how much nicer the thin thread is to work with especially after the stretchy yarn that snags on itself. The smaller piece also has the advantage of perfect density which allows no sliding of the knots. It was actually relaxing to go back to the doily for awhile, so I think switching back and forth between them is definitely the way to get them both done faster.

Today will likely bring more school stresses and hopefully more knots will be tied. I'm just hoping that I survive the next couple of weeks without day drinking, because it feels like that's a distinct possibility right now.

Stressed

So the homeschooling year starts on Monday, but we've been fielding all sorts of setbacks as the day gets closer. The youngest child is all set and ready to go, but the oldest child still hasn't gotten her class materials and we've had various account issues. The teacher is working on it all, but we've had no progress on resolutions thus far. All of this has led to me being way more stressed out than I like to be. Stressed out also equals distracted and distracted equals unproductive. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's a miracle I managed to spend any time make lace yesterday at all.

I got a few more rows created in what I'm now calling the Armenian lace shawl experiment. It's about 9 inches across right now. I've no set end length, but I think it's a long way off. The biggest challenge now is trying to keep the top edge straight as I'm really making up the rules of reversing work right now. I'll likely end off by working a row along the top edge anyway. Of course I have no idea how long from now that will be, but I suppose this project will work well as a, between other pieces, time killer, so it could be months.

Shawl

So yesterday I was working along on my most recent doily when I had a thought, well, it was a resurgence of a thought actually. Days ago, someone on my facebook page made a comment on one of my Armenian lace photos about wanting a shawl like that. I thought, well of course that's possible, but I let it pass by. Then yesterday I grabbed a skein of yarn and decided to try it out for a change of pace.

So first let me talk about the yarn choice. It's Loops and Thread,
Wool-like. It's soft and has a bit of a stretch to it which does not lend itself well to the knotting process. To say it's fiddly would be an understatement. That being said it's working up with a lovely drape for a shawl. If I had something perhaps cotton on hand, I would have probably chose that instead, but I work with what I have. I'm using a large blunt embroidery needle, so undoing any mistakes is pretty much right out. Luckily that hasn't been an issue yet, but it is more difficult to create loops in the right size as the fibers seem to grab on to each other where the yarn runs over during the knotting. I guess what I'm saying is that this takes a lot more concentration and attention to detail.

As you can see, it's working up quite quickly regardless of the difficulties. I know it will slow down as it grows, but I'll keep at it as long as I can. I don't even knit or crochet shawls save for maybe once or twice, but I do want to see if I can get it to size if, for no other reason, to say that I've done it.

Knotting

I spent most of the morning finishing up an Armenian lace necklace that recently sold and then it was just back to the doily. The one I'm working on now is at about 18cm right now. I'll likely work it to that same 25-28cm as the others. It makes them a nice Goldilocks size. I'm working on a section of basket stitch right now and I do love the little star that forms as I finish one.

I did have one more sale yesterday. This time it was a cat ear headband. I already had extras of those made so there's no rush to make more. Though now that I think about it, Halloween is coming soon and that's when I do tend to sell more of those, so maybe today I'll make some ears along with the doily knotting. I guess we'll just have to see how the day goes.

Done

All done. It took much more of the day than I had anticipated to finish, but the gray Armenian lace piece is now finished. It measures just over 27cm which makes it just a touch smaller than the purple one. I've pretty much accepted that I could never come up with a reasonable price point for these that would come close to how much labor is put into them. Instead I think they might be the beginning of holiday gifts after all. I'm starting to think a nice shadow box frame should work to make them gift-able.

I was worried about what I was going to start on today, but I woke up to another small custom order. That should at least take care of this morning. Then I suppose I'll try to decide what colors would fit what people in my life to make more of these doilies. I also hope I have enough design ideas to make each one unique. Of course this idea is still brand new in my head so it could still die a painless death. I'm not really certain that anyone I know would actually want one as a gift. I suppose I could ask, but that's always awkward. Oh well, I have tatting to do today. I'll worry on it later.

Weekend Recap

Well, I woke up this morning to a custom order in my etsy shop, so I have something new to work on today. Over the weekend it was just the Armenian lace though. I'm very close to done on this one. I'm at about 23cm across and I'm going for about 26cm. I think after the next pattern section it will actually be a little bigger than that and I will be almost out of the the thread I'm using for it as well. I also thought it would be more fun to add the cat to the the doily picture for this one.

The rest of the weekend was pretty lazy. There were some errands, a movie night and some cleaning. The summer definitely feels like it's winding down even though there are about three weeks left before we're back to schooling. I fear I have missed my opportunity to anything 'big' creatively over the summer. I have enjoyed the doilies though, so I suppose it's fine. They may not have been hugely challenging, but I think they turned out well.

Two Days

Sorry that I didn't write yesterday morning. My computer didn't want to play nice with our internet connection. It was fixed later in the morning, but my routine had already been upended so I didn't bother. That just means that you get two pictures of Armenian lace progress, the one from Wednesday and the one from yesterday. Wednesday I was still working it with the same basic repeating design.

Yesterday I decided that it was getting unwieldy at the long loops and it was best to revert to small loop rounds to strengthen the piece. After a few rounds of those I'm changing it up again. Initially I was going to repeat the design at the center, but the spacing won't work right, so I'm just winging it again and hoping that I have developed enough of an instinct with the knotting to not screw it up entirely at this point. It's at about 18cm right now and I'm already running low on thread so I'm not sure how big it'll grow before I have to call it finished. I'm pretty pleased with it so far though, so whenever that it should be fine.

One last thing, thank you for the comments regarding teaching this skill. I'm still a little wary as my information on the background of Armenian lace is so thin, but I suppose that's not the most important bit. Maybe I'll get up the courage when this one is done to do a basic tutorial. I'll just think on it some more I guess.

Eyes

A full half of yesterday was spent sitting in the eye doctor's office with the family, because that's what happens when you schedule 4 appointments in a row and 3 of you have your eyes dilated extending the appointment. The first half of the day was pretty nice though. Look what I got in the mail from Instructables. It's a neat new prize pack. I know I haven't put anything new on that site in a while, but I do go there all the time to learn new things. It's my first stop when curiosity hits.

I've been getting a few comments on facebook asking for an Armenian knotted lace tutorial, but I don't think I'm quite good enough, or more importantly, knowledgeable enough of the technique to teach it. I mean, everything I know I learned from one book or experimentation. Does that even remotely qualify me to teach something to other people? No, really I'm asking. What do you think?

Leaving that question, this is what I got done on the gray piece during the day. I actually worked on it a bit in the waiting room before my eyes were dilated and I could no longer see. I didn't measure it so I'm not sure how big it is right now. I think I'm going to continue with the design I've worked out by growing the points every new round. So far it's working out okay, but this one is just pure guesswork. I'll likely just work it up to about the same size as the purple one.