The game is on

Here’s my version of Day 2: 

And Day 3:

I have also added to my design sketch book. I attended a lovely chamber concert last weekend in Carmel Valley. The musicianship was superb, the room pleasant, and the selections enjoyable. Being chamber music, the venue felt quite intimate. I could almost hear the rustle of silk and smell a bit of powder or snuff on the air. Almost. I really have very little desire to relive that era. I’m very happy living today in this age. There’s much wrong with the world, and much right.

One of the selections was Terzetto by Gustav Holst. The piece is in 2 short movements scored for flute, oboe, and viola. Written later in Holst’s career, the piece was interesting and well executed. Through spoken “Conductor’s Notes” given before the concert by the Artistic Director of Ensemble Monterey, John Anderson, and also through written program notes, we learned that the score of this piece is written using 3 different key signatures. Each of the instruments plays in a different key. Sure enough, I could hear the difference. I could also recognize when the instruments ended up playing a chord in one or another of the keys. It made for some rather nerdy listening. The true artistry of the composition is how the music sounds positively melodious.

I immediately dreamed up a tatted motif. Each instrumental line would be in a color assigned to represent that instruments tonal character. Mostly chains, the thread will weave in and out creating a design. Even the negative space will play a part. Just as my ear filled in the missing pitches to recognize tonality, my eye must fill in the holes to recognize shapes. 

There are a few projects I must finish before I work on this. Whenever I have trouble motivating myself to finish a project, I’ll just need to look at this sketch!

Jane's TIAS 2018 has begun!

And the snowman isn’t finished. But that’s not a bad thing. I caught an error that couldn’t be improvised around. So, another start. And there were a few distractions. Nothing dangerous and mostly fun, just took time.

Here’s my version of Day 1 TIAS 2018

Jane's TIAS 2018 Day 1

Another way to mark picots

I spent some time yesterday looking for a notebook. It has my notes from meetings with the Concert Task Force. I didn’t find it. I did find a few UFO’s. A Prayer shawl started years ago (yikes) and an angel pattern left unfinished. I always wonder about what I determined was most important to do the last time I held the project in my hands. Truth be told, sometimes it seems most important to reduce my stress by setting it aside until I get inspiration to solve whatever problem came up. Not the best priority of my attention.

I’m still working on the snowman pattern. I started a version using size 80 thread. I hope to use them for earrings. Really. While I was loading beads on, I grabbed a bit of leftover thread to use as markers. Remember this idea? (insert link) Well, the brown thread I grabbed was rather slippery. I think it’s waxed button thread. Bad idea. I ended up without markers as the knots untied themselves and the thread fell away from the beads. What to do?????

Here’s my solution: 

I took another piece of sewing thread, used my crochet hook to pass it through the picots in the order that I would need to find them. It’s working out better. I can see them much easier. Still need the magnifier with size 80, but I’m working my way around joining those 11 picots! I hope to have one finished next week to show. I’d like to wear them while working on Jane’s “final” TIAS.

During Christmas

Ah Christmas….

I love Christmas. As a musician, it’s a great time to join in the general fun of carols and music. And music is a huge part of celebrating the Holidays.

I tend to unplug from just about every “normal” activity during Christmas. Today being the 9^th Day of Christmas, I figured I could pick up blogging again.

 Here’s what I completed tatting

Not finished yet. Which reminds me….

finishing…..

That word tends to strike terror into some stitcher’s hearts. Well, I’ve discovered that a lot of the finishing involved in tatted pieces really happens as you tat. You can hide ends with loops, you can tat snugly so blocking is minimal, and you can work loops for hanging and such into the pattern. Easy-peasy!!

Incidently, I tried to strategically place black beads as I was loading the clear beads for these guys. Makes ‘em look beady-eyed. Pun intended!