I’ve done something I’m not exactly proud of… because I was otherwise good. And because it was time. After finishing the doily book, which will be picked up from the publisher tomorrow – and in the process, learning a huge amount about the differences between tatting cotton of various brands and ages… (Shameless plug here – I’m really pleased with the way the doily book came out. If anyone wants a copy of the doily book, please email me at threads@empacc.net – cost is $10 plus $1 shipping… and yes, I do take paypal.) This below was the raw material for the cover.

And finishing projects I’m teaching next weekend for the Lost Art Lacers – please note, the background color is really black, not brown, and the thread is a beautiful vivid variegated green/blue that got totally washed out by the flash, but these are five original hearts, a few of them as-yet unpublished…

and realizing, partly thanks to concentrating on all those tatted hearts that Valentine’s Day is coming, I started yet another pair of socks. Those are the ones in brown that have a couple of wooden needles in them. They’re actually brown and blue. This is the fourth pair in progress. My only excuses are that they’re not for me – and it’s kind of an experiment, making socks for Bill that aren’t red. I’m trying to broaden his horizons a bit. The one that’s just a footling was begun about a year ago; the sparkly ones were begun about 9 months ago, and the one that’s just a blob of blue was begun last month because I was trying to show someone Dani Rotach’s hybrid innovation of beginning socks at the ankle with a provisional cast-on, knitting the foot and finishing with the leg. All the socks in the photo are done that way. I should be soooo ashamed. I’m not.

You’re never prepared for snow. Cold, blowing, piling-up, coming-down-in-sheets old-fashioned blizzard-style – well, that’s what winter is supposed to be about, right? That was the woodpile a few days ago, already significantly reduced from September, but before I took a broom and snow-shovel to the question of how I'd get more wood indoors. And winter is at least partly why we gardened like crazy all summer, laid in supplies of everything we could run out of (of course, forgetting tea and oatmeal) made pots of soup and made sure there were plenty of wound shuttles, projects-in-progress… oh, excuse me, that’s me. All Bill really needed was his Kindle with the wireless connection so he could get his online edition of the New York Times, which he seems to read in entirety.

Diligent tatting, interspersed with some knitting brought the doily count up to five finished ones before 2012 ended…. A sixth was finished today. And two dishcloths, which I really like and are quick and fun to knit (the pattern can be found here) http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2012/12/knitted-honeycomb-dishcloth-1.html

Six more to go – that’s doilies, not dishcloths – until I’ve got enough for the booklet… though I’m not sure how many will actually fit. I’ve got three more in progress, including a small one I began today. Ginny’s got one and Kathy’s got one. And there’s a good supply of books on tape for the repetitive parts. For the third year in a row, Bill was sick on New Year’s Eve. This year he shared a touch of flu with me too. We were probably the only people under nine who were asleep last night before 9:30. Despite missing a much-looked-forward-to party, a lot of sleep seems to have helped. As for New Year’s resolutions, I’m happy to report that I made only one last year – that of putting my house on a diet – and kept it. Not so you’d notice, but I do. I’m not saying what my resolutions are for this year – this year there are three – but this time next year we’ll know if I kept them too.

After Christmas...

Santa’s workshop is closed. I’ve finished socks for Bill (my last outstanding knitting project for the year). Those who’ve visited Graceful Arts Fiber Studio could all sing out in unison why Bill’s Christmas socks always have to be red – it’s because red is WARMER! (According to Bill, anyway.) I recently realized that when Bill and I first got together, washable wool wasn’t an easy-to-find option. But now, thankfully, it is so his Christmas socks fit better and do better in the wash. There’s another good reason they need to be red – the one time I made blue ones, they got left behind in a hospital stay. Bill promises this wouldn’t happen again, so maybe (shhh!) for Valentine’s Day another color might be used. A lot of those early socks need replacement.

Socks might be in the air, so to speak. Last week, Shelly, of the Thursday knitting group, finished her socks. Her feet are now ready for dancing.

Instead of dancing, I’ve got my nose to the grindstone on the upcoming doily book. Here are ones finished and blocked so far. It’s a terrible photo, partly because they’re tatted in size 80 thread, and partly because we’re in the midst of a late afternoon blizzard, so the light isn’t great. Three down, about nine to go. Ginny and Kathy are each working one - and right now I've got no articles due - so I think it will be possible to finish in time. Big Thank Yous, ladies! Went to the store and the library earlier and stocked up on milk for Bill and books on tape for me. I’ve cleared a rocker near the fire and – even more importantly – within headphone reach of the CD player. We’ve gotten in wood, parked the snow shovel outside the door and talked to the snowplow guy. We’ve got tea and chocolate, so we’re ready for productive and well-nourished hibernation, if necessary. I won't say bring on the snow, because I'd very much prefer spring, summer or fall - but since we can't seem to stop it, I'll try to enjoy it in my own way.

I'm back!

Trying to catch up with a neglected blog is like trying to tell a long story. So here are a few photos of what I did this summer and fall.

A lot of gardening led to a great deal of canning. Full disclosure – Bill did much of the gardening - I helped and the result was tremendous. There were a few crop failures - the cucumbers came on so slowly we forgot about them, but the zucchini was apparently mis-labeled, because it all turned out to be yellow summer squash. Which is why we lost interest in it by August and forgot about it on purpose. But these were more compensated for by the tomatoes, which just never quit. For this we have to partly credit Bill’s trellis-work, an intricate Rube Goldberg-like device he builds each season out of a small mountain of saved string and recycled vineyard posts. And a little credit to me, too, for choosing a giant variety of paste tomato and starting a bunch of seeds in the house. Opalka tomatoes aren’t the tastiest on a sandwich, but they make great sauce. And do we have sauce! I had to buy another shelf system for the pantry, and it still left us with a large cardboard box in the kitchen, which holds another two dozen jars of sauce with peppers, eggplant, and garlic all also from our garden.

Working at my favorite theatre – the Old Havana Courthouse Theatre in Montour Falls. I took this photo backstage at our last production of “Wings of Fire.” On the left Elizabeth Hageman as Wendy Wingnut and Sarra Solomon as Poppy Rivets – the two played an all-girl aviation team. I had a very minor role as judge of the air contest and sheriff arresting the villain at the end of the show, but as they say, there are no minor parts, just minor actors. I’d judge myself a very minor actor but I had a great time anyway.

Sarra took this picture - you'll have to guess which one is me. The backstage area is about the size of a small bathroom (minus the plumbing) and when there were more than three people back there, it was definitely crowded. I was also box office manager and stage manager and I loved every minute of it.

Wood stacking – four cords’ worth. There was still about ¾ of a cord left that had to be re-stacked first; I managed to stack about a cord’s worth per day which allowed me to finish the job single-handedly in record time. Just me and my little bottle of ibuprofen.

Dyeing threads, because I’m totally in love with color

Kelly Dunn in Canada made this doily using up the last of my "Sunset on Seneca" colorway.

Teaching – these two projects were for the Fringe Element tatting group. And as always, they did a fabulous job and I had a wonderful time.

A little more traveling. I spent Thanksgiving week in Sweden visiting friends. Tatting and friends came together when I met a group of Swedish tatters at my friend Anita’s house in Stockholm. We had a wonderful afternoon of coffee and cake and sharing; I brought a new pattern and we tried it out. Now I’m tatting for next year’s teaching and a forthcoming doily book. Oh, and getting ready for the holidays.

Off to a wedding today. The bride and groom requested (most of) these colors; admittedly the orange was added to set off the others. Making this quilt was a labor of love. I actually made two quilts more or less at the same time, but I can’t post the other one yet – it’s not time for it to go to its new home.

This sweater took about 15 months to complete and happened amidst a lot of other things, with tatting taking the uppermost priority. I finally finished it this morning. It’s mostly cotton with a little nylon for shine and stability. It was fun to knit (which doesn’t explain why it took so long); and feels good finished and on my back. Despite its weight, it was a comfortable airy sweater for a hot, hot day, and I can’t quite bring myself to take it off yet! Luckily, it stopped raining just in time for the ceremony, and it held off pouring until we were back inside the synagogue. Earlier this week, feeling a surge in clean-up energy, I began to consider

what I might move out of the way, and decided to do the long-awaited spray painting of tins saved by fellow tatters for future Tatting Seminar gatherings. The ones that are metallic gray (car paint, as it turns out) are for the 2013 gathering; the little white ones are for 2014. About half the larger ones (40 of them!) are already labeled and packed; the rest await a lower-humidity day to be finished.

Swaps have started...

Some little trading cards are on their way to Australia. There are also cards on their way to Sweden and places in this country… I can’t stop making them, they’re just too much fun.

Here are a bunch of cards made by our group at our most recent meeting. Everyone had a very individual take on the cards – there’s even one with crochet (lower center) and one with bobbin lace (middle) – several were a collaborative effort. I was told emphatically by several friends that mine were very “over the top” – over-embellished, too decorated, maybe even too much – but I like them that way, though I had to promise on several I was working on to not add more… but I did add just a little more, where more seemed to be needed. Really. In the topmost photo, mine are the one with the tag (lower left, the crowded one in the center (but I really, really liked that one!) the purply one on the striped disk right below Dani’s red one, and the one in progress with the orange threads emerging from behind.

Here's a closer look at a few of them And of course I’m working on more, but I’m also working on Tatting Times…

And the wild haired garden maiden says…

"You’d better keep digging that garlic!" (there’s a lot more in the garden)

More about Tatting Trading Cards – this is part 2

At our meeting last Saturday, the Finger Lakes Tatting Group – which this time was five of us – spent an afternoon working on our first trading cards. I had a head start and I’d already put about three hours into my first one. Ginny’s family had been using their plastic jugs for watering plants so she tried covering a CD; and since she had a few motifs already done, sewed one down (though she thought the sewing-down stitches were too visible. No one finished theirs in the three hours we played with them together. Even though this is a relatively small finished project, it takes longer than each of us thought it would. I don’t always center things well and my first attempt, a Celtic heart I designed, wasn’t quite in the center. I’d added an edging, but it still didn’t feel complete. so I added embroidery and beads, which helped a little. The above image is the ‘almost there’ visual. It still didn’t feel completely done to me. Here are Ginny’s works in progress. The large one on the left is the covered CD. Ginny didn’t have felt when she started this at home, so she covered the whole disk in fabric. She still plans to add an edging, because she needs to cover the join and the sewing between the two pieces of fabric. She said she didn’t like using the CD – it’s not flexible and it felt fragile. If it cracks or breaks, as CDs sometimes do, the piece is kaput. The recycled plastic is more flexible, less likely to crack. She also has an elaborate motif (center) and a rooster (one of Jane Eborall’s designs) she’s considering putting on other rounds. I’m sorry Dani’s started trading card photo is blurry, because Dani’s tatting comes out the way we all wish our tatting would look. This piece was, I think, in the nature of a swatch, to see how the gray Flora thread would compare in size to a variegated Lizbeth thread (both size 10) in the Pam Palmer elephant pattern. The verdict was they seem to tat into different gauges. But this swatch fitted perfectly on the 3 ½ inch round. Dani was going to sew it on and see what else was needed. This is an important point. These are not a matter of tatting or finding a motif, sticking it on felt and saying, “okay, good to go.” Unless, of course, it’s a truly spectacular motif that so exactly fits the space it needs no further embellishment. There are exceptions (like the work of a young beginning tatter who’s personally dear to you) but I think most of us would feel that trading a thoughtfully crafted work for a four-ring butterfly stuck to a piece of felt would be an unequal exchange. There’s a lot more that goes into these – or so we all felt when we worked on ours. It feels important to take time with each one, to truly create a small bit of art. I wanted to try to make a few more today, and I’d purchased some felt for precisely that purpose - enough to share with friends - but in cleaning my studio, pre-meeting, I managed to misplace the felt. The studio has the talent of swallowing up quite a lot of stuff (threads, yarns, with a particular appetite for projects-in-progress) and a dis-inclination to give anything back until I’ve moved on to a different idea. The studio obliged this time with a variety of unspun fibers, and I’d also carried down, for then-unknown reasons, a piece of bubble wrap just a little smaller than a standard piece of felt. So while I was listening to a book on tape (a murder mystery at the exciting, about-to-unmask-the-killer part) I layered wool on the bubble wrap, wet it and sprinkled on dish detergent, rolled and unrolled it and squeezed and rolled the whole thing on the table and made three small pieces of art felt. The one on the upper right has strands of light lavender silk streaked through it. So after another full afternoon in the studio, here are my first three almost-finished trading cards. The one shown earlier (now on the right) has a butterfly bead sewn on with antennae. I thought the metal bead helped balance the piece and added a bit more shine. To the left, a center motif with two smaller motifs in size 40 thread, with size 15 beads, sewn layered over the first piece. I found I liked embroidering around the join, so I used two colors of thread and some beads to bridge the border between the felt and the fabric. An experimental button motif is mounted on a circle cut from the handmade felt. I added extra beads, and used a buttonhole stitch (and more beads) to sew around the felt/fabric join. Buttons, beads, charms, rick-rack, old jewelry, shell, maybe even some flat sones – all are fair game for adding something interesting to the work. These are still not quite finished. As an astute commenter pointed out, trading cards need statistics with them or something. These will be finished when I’ve added a tag or business card with my name, email and address, maybe a name for the trading card, the origin of the motifs on it and/or how and why it was created can be added to the back of the tag. Our group decided to work on our own, then meet for a daylong trading card crafting session in July. We’re planning a swap with another group interested in the idea. I’m probably going to host a swap with interested parties in a couple of internet tatting groups. I’ve already seen that each one takes more than a few hours to do; also they’re not completely flat. But I’m enjoying looking at the results, and already contemplating the next ones.