Oh, Monday

Let's see, weekend recap. Well first off, I woke up this morning with a large and rather painful cold sore, but at least this one is actually on my lip. I am taking this as a sign that the week ahead may be a disappointing one. Or I suppose I could try to think of it as, it could only get better from this point. We all know that's not true, but I guess until the sky does indeed start to fall, I'll try and treat it as an isolated event. Of course none of what I wrote counts as a recap of the weekend, so let me start again.

I didn't get much interesting done over the weekend. I did get the new bracelet listed and that was about it. Over the weekend I finished my, just in case it really is lost in the mail, replacement mask. I also spent a little time making more cat ear headbands as it seems to be the one thing selling from the shop currently.

Other than that it was mostly a family adventuring weekend without too much adventure. My brother was visiting to go to a wedding, we tried to visit a local fall festival only to be rather disappointed and I got out the Halloween decorations only to not put any of them up yet. I did marathon half the last season of Supernatural on Netflix because I didn't watch it at all and I wanted to catch up. I still have the last half to watch before the season starts this week, so expect little productiveness from me so a bit.

I guess I won't know how bad the week is going to be unless I leave this room and really start it, so I'm off. Here's hoping that I'm just being rather pessimistic and that the week instead, holds many wonders and happiness.

A Bracelet and a Tweet

So I was getting ready to put together the new pieces when I made a last minute decision to use a hook on the bracelet instead of a clasp. Now I could have just cut out a few elements and redone them to accomplish this, but I really do hate doing that with final pieces, so I held off on listing the bracelet and just got the necklace up instead. I've also been dealing with my face misbehaving lately, so I kind of skimped on the listing pictures.

Once that was listed, I went to work remaking the bracelet. As a aside effect, that gives me the prototype I need in the first bracelet, so two birds with one tatting needle. Oh, that would be gruesome. Forget I wrote that.


I didn't get the bracelet listed yet, but I should get it listed today. With the way I worked the hook side, I should be able to make it an inch longer if needed, but these designs with large motifs are otherwise too difficult to customize. It does also only look right when it's sitting low on the hand like this. It just looks a bit odd further up the wrist. At least I managed new things these last couple of days. I feel almost productive.

Oh, one last bit of, well, sort of, news. When I checked in on my shop this morning there was an inordinate amount of traffic overnight. I checked my stats and it was this lovely tweet sent out by Etsy that did it.

She arrived cloaked in mystery, but the room soon fell victim to her enchantment http://t.co/QbUDFvykGa
— Etsy (@Etsy) October 4, 2013

 So, thanks Etsy for the shout out and the extra traffic it sent my way while I slept. It was certainly a nice little surprise to wake up to.

New

With no more spiders to make, I thought at first of making a mask that "might" be lost in the post. There's still a little time before I can really consider it gone since it has left to another country and the tracking at least takes it there so far, but since I hadn't much else to do, that's what I started with.

After schooling I wanted to do something new though, so I put away the mask and started to doodle. I literally had no idea what I was doing. I had no concept in mind, but just started tatting anyway. I'm not sure what I thought I was making, but it started to have a bit of a triangle shape so I went back in and made a few more rings. It's no usually my style to make a piece in small sections as I much prefer tatting pieces in one or two rounds, but even though I tried to go back and work the new rings in, I had to do them separately.

Even at this point, I had no idea what it was going to grow up to be, but a little more doodling and I decided it was going to grow up to be a choker necklace. Adding the necklace portion did fundamentally change the shape of the original motif, but I still liked it so I kept working. It was also suggested that it needed a matching bracelet so I went back and worked out a new side section to create that as well. It only looks good as a bracelet if it's worn low on the wrist over the hand, but that works for me.

I didn't do any finishing work on either piece, so that's what I'll get up to later today. They both need to be pressed and get clasps put on and then if the fates are with me, they'll get named and listed today as well. I think I'm also gong to make up a third piece of at least the motif as a prototype to keep on hand because if I don't do at least that, I'll have to write down the pattern. You know I won't do that, but the design is unusual so if I have to remake it in a year, I'll just stare at it all confused like without a prototype. I guess that gives me plenty to do today and you know how much i like to be busy.

Just Like Yesterday

Some days are so very nearly the same as the one that preceded them, I feel odd bothering to write about them at all. Of course you also know that by the point I am somewhat compulsive about writing daily whether I should or not. Yesterday was, as you've already guessed, a repeat of Monday.

After schooling wrapped, which was a bit later than usual, I dug through my collection of beads to find as many as would fit the size and shape needed for spiders and I tatted. I made up spiders all day while catching up on all my recorded shows. By the time I was finally finished with the pile of beads, I had enough spiders for 14 sets of 6 when added to the ones done before. I did, however, use up all the beads that would work, so I'm done with spiders now. Either I hopefully, sell all of them, save the left overs for next year, or I give them away on Halloween. Whatever way it plays out, I'm done making them.

Of course that means I need to find something else to occupy my tatting time. I might actually have to get to designing again, but every time I say that I think, what else can I do? I mean I've designed so much already, why do I think there is anything left in me to create? I know that's nonsense, I'll think of something, but I really am afraid that one day I will run out of ideas and then what? Well, I suppose that's enough existential anguish for the morning, I do have things to get to after all. The day waits for no one.

Spiders!

While I was determined to make yesterday a 'tatting day', I just couldn't get any fresh ideas. Instead I fell back on old ones, with a bit of a twist. I made spiders, lots of spiders. This time, I used some of the vast collection of beads I have acquired through buying grab bags. I figured they would never get used otherwise, so the kids picked out the ones they liked with the right size and I tatted the day away.

It took me a bit longer to decide on how to sell them. I mean they don't take long to make and the beads are from a grab bag so they're all different. It would take forever to list them one at a time, plus it wouldn't be very cost effective to do so since I didn't want to charge much for them. I finally opted to sell them as inexpensively as possible as a random set of six spiders with the option of adding metal jump rings to make them charms if desired.

I also noted in the listing that you may request colors and I will try to accommodate those requests, but it is on a first come first served basis. I did already sell one set so some of those pictured are gone, but they're are plenty of creepy crawlers left. If you can't buy any, but you have an overwhelming desire to add tatted spiders to your life, I did do an instructable for their creation last year. Just a note, I did have to adjust stitch counts to fit each bead better since they vary so widely, but it's fairly easy to do with a little trial and error. Just share your spider creations with me if you make some!

I'm not sure what else I'll get up to today. I thought about making more spiders, but I really ought to wait until some more sell or I will be overrun with the things. Of course I could always give away the left overs on Halloween so maybe I will spend the day with my new growing arachnid family.