The Doodle Grows

No orders in the shop yesterday at all, so I used the time to play with the doodle from the other day. First I mucked with the basic design just a bit. I played with stitch counts and picots and then realized that I mostly got it right the first time. Then I decided that I would make the whole this grow a bit. This left me with what felt like an earring and a pendant. This is the bit I posted for feedback. While I waited for some, I started to set the pieces near each other and thought maybe a necklace?

Once I received a bit of feedback that encouraged my larger necklace thought, I took it as a green light and started working toward that end. It's too soon to tell whether it will work out in the end or not. There may need to be an additional row on top after I get this main section done. I can't yet tell if it's going to hold the shape I want.

In other news I was disheartened to find another tatter clearly counting stitches to copy some of my work. Someone was sharing a bunch of my photos from my Facebook page to theirs, which is fine, but while visiting that page, I saw other photos they had shared from another tatter who was using some of my original designs whose patterns were never published. It looks like she is selling her work directly off of Facebook. I can't tell for certain because it is not in English which is also why I don't know if any credit has been given either...though I don't see any of my names. I'm not going to do anything about it because I don't need the extra aggravation especially with the added language gap. I will use the occasion to again ask those of you out there that are new to tatting and are tempted to count stitches to copy pieces, particularly to sell, to think twice. How would you feel years from now, if you had worked hard on a design and then you saw it pop up in someone else's shop list as their 'original' design? I have nothing against counting stitches to learn, but not to steal designs for sale and to take credit for them is worse.

Alright, rant over. I'll be working on the new necklace today, so hopefully it's a success and I have something interesting to show you tomorrow too.

Either Way

Yesterday was nice and fairly predictable. Schooling was done quickly and we finished reading 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, which seems to have taken forever to accomplish. I think it's because in between all the glorious undersea adventure are chapters full of lists of sea creatures that span entire chapters named with their archaic scientific names. It's done now and we still have one more novel to complete before the end of the year. I'm definitely feeling the stress of this time of year. It seems as if there just isn't enough time to smash all the things that need doing into the next month or so. I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

I didn't get round to working on the little doodle again, instead I happily made up a pair of barefoot sandals that sold around lunch time. It was perfect timing really. The entire second half of the day was devoted to that project save for a few minutes for a project with the oldest child. She had decided that she was going to make her own cat toy. She acquired a long wood dowel and some ribbon. I was tasked with cutting the dowel shorter and drilling holes at the end. I think she hoped I would let her use the dremel, but I didn't see that ending well, particularly with a thin, rounded, piece of wood. Then she set about cutting and tying ribbons to it and adding small cat toys to the ends while I tatted away. I should have gotten a picture, but I didn't.

So I start today with no projects in queue again. I will try to get back to the doodle unless I get wonderfully distracted by a sale again. That would be my ideal day...distracted by sales. Either way, at least I know there will be tatting today.

Tired and Sore

Oh, what a busy weekend. Of course the reason it was busy had nothing to do with tatting, nor was any of it really my idea. The husband had decided a while ago to try and clean/rescue the items stored in the attic space of his parents garage. Rescue, because years of cats agilely  jumping up there and handling business has put many of those things at severe risk of destruction and many more of them already destroyed. I had planned to clean the kids room and cull their clothing while he was off and I did so for 3 hours in the morning. Then I got a text asking if I was finished enough to "help." I foolishly replied that I was. I then spend the next 3 hours or so sorting through boxes, tossing, keeping and sneezing. It was a long, tiring day,

I thought Sunday would be calmer, but there was a little more of the same in the morning, followed by copious amount of laundry from my Saturday clothing culling project. I am sore and tired and I have boxes of old toys from the 80's sitting in our computer room awaiting cleaning. It really was a long weekend.

I did mange a good sit on Sunday afternoon to watch a show. I also used that time to do a little tatted doodling. Nothing big, nor too interesting, but I needed to do something with my hands that wouldn't contribute to the soreness. So this is what I came up with. I may muck about with it today if I get some time. Otherwise I sold nothing over the weekend, so I have nothing in queue. The cat picture up there was taken during my bedroom cleaning and I thought they were cute, so I posted it. So here's to a nice quite, normal week. Hopefully there will be a little more creativity, a few good sales and absolutely no more cleaning projects.

As Expected

Yesterday went pretty much as expected. Schooling was long and reading time extended. After lunch I finished up the crochet project I had started out of boredom. Not because I was actually done with it, but because I was running out of yarn. So instead of a full sized shawl, the youngest daughter has a child sized one. I know she's pretty happy about that.

Once that was done, and it was done quickly, I was finally tatting again. I remade the necklace I had just sold and it happily took me most of the day. Of course that means I really have little more to share. I tatted, you've seen the finished piece before, but since text posts are boring, here's an old picture of it. These daisy based pieces were some of the first big ones I designed, so it's always very comforting to go back to them.

I thought I was going to start off today with no new tasks, but I woke up to a sale overnight. It's a smaller necklace, so I should have it remade quickly. That's okay though, I'm just happy to have something in queue. If I hadn't, I was very likely to go stash diving for more yarn to waste away. Or worse, yarn shopping to make something new. I really ought not yarn shop, it gets far too pricey to make anything interesting. So here's to the weekend bringing me projects and sales or at the very least some good ideas.

Meditative

Another day with nothing, but chores to do. There was schooling followed by laundry and I was just exhausted for no good reason. I was also plagued by the feeling that something had gone horribly  awry, but what and how were a complete mystery. This left me feeling anxious and a little stir crazy with no projects, so I crocheted.

Having a small stash of project-less yarn, I just dug in, picked something innocuous and started to work a nice repetitive pattern. I hoped it would act as a meditative force and it did. Sure, I'll likely have nothing to show for the effort, but it calmed and centered and most importantly it kept my hands busy. That is vital.

The Universe finally threw me a bone as I was making dinner. I got an order in the shop for a necklace. That means not only do I have something to get in the post today and a few more dollars in my account, I get get to start today with something that needs to be remade. For the first time in days, I actually know what I'll get up to after schooling the kids. It's kinds of sad how happy that actually makes me. I have something to accomplish and I'm hoping that it was a sign that things might be picking up again. I desperately miss feeling busy...at something I actually want to be doing.