Well, hello!

It's been a long, long time since I posted - look at that last post - January!  Dear me. I'm fortunate to still have followers, I think.  Thanks for sticking with me, inconsistent as I am.  School, family, work, and life in general all conspire against poor ole Blogger. 

Although I am a busy person I still always find time for tatting.  Also, learning new bead-weaving techniques is one of my favorite things to do nowadays.  Here's a recent piece that combines both techniques.

Beaded leaves compliment this vintage pattern from "Lily Doilies & Edgings to Tat & Crochet" in Yarnplayer's gorgeous "Roses" thread. A picture of the entire necklace will reveal a problem however.

I've been wearing it myself (rather than offering it for sale) once I realized the mistake.  I will get around to fixing that wayward upside-down bead one of these days.  I do plan on remaking the necklace for sale and keeping this one, however, because while wearing it I fell in love with it.

In other news, the "Garden Afternoon" piece finally sold at my latest show - it looked so good on the lady who bought it that while I was a bit sad to see it go, I was comforted by the fact that it found a great home.  In my mind a piece is never really "finished" until you get to see someone wearing it.  All the work and time and creative energy and love you put into it is then - somehow - complete.

That's all for now, but hopefully I'll be a little more active in the days and weeks to come.  Thanks again for hanging around!

Oh, My Eyes

As a tatter, this is when you know your eyesight is failing.

1. You find yourself strangely drawn to thicker and thicker threads. Currently I am fascinated by size 10 - when I started I would never have touched anything thicker than a size 30. Of course, I still like size 80-100 but when I tat with it I have to...

2. Depend on a magnifying glass, bifocals, or develop ways to see up close like pushing your glasses so far up on your nose that you can actually look out from under your glasses and see the thread. Yes, I need bifocals. But it's been tax season, you know, and I haven't had any time to get a new prescription. So instead, I either use my magnifying glass or do the peeking under the bottom of my glasses thing (it really does work!).

I am still really annoyed that I am having this problem at my age - I'm only 40! Isn't that too young??

Here's a little spring earring pattern for you. It's nice for using up leftover thread on a shuttle (these are in Yarnplayer's gorgeous "Roses" thread and some DMC Cebelia in olive green.) You will need two shuttles and some seed beads. Thread 1 bead on Sh #1 and 8 beads on Sh #2.

R = ring
Ch = chain
- or p = picot
vsp = very small picot
bp = beaded picot

Sh #1. R 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1 vsp 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1. RW. Ch 14. Do not RW.
Sh #2. Bring 3 beads off the shuttle and keep them on the thread you wrap around your fingers to make the ring. R 8 bp (place the three beads in the picot and pull a 4th bead from the shuttle, place it next to the last ds made, and finish the picot) 8. Again, bring 3 beads off the shuttle and keep them on the thread you wrap around your fingers to make the next ring. Duplicate the ring you just did, but make this one 6 bp 6. Do not RW.
Sh #1. Pull the bead off the shuttle and place it next to the last ds of the first half of this chain. Ch 14.
Cut and tie ends to vsp. Finish off by hiding ends. Add earwires!

My next post will be about how I achieve flat, even rings in my tatting - if you are interested, check back in next week.