How to learn

 Make mistakes.

Most of the time, we strive to get things right. We know we have learned things when we complete the pattern correctly. If we’re lucky, we don’t make a lot of mistakes along the way. There’s something to be said for finding a teacher/mentor that can guide us so we have more success than mistakes. However…..

Creating something new usually ends up with mistakes along with those successes.

I’ve been working on new ideas lately. That means some mistakes.

I’m learning.

Coming along just fine

I’m happy to say my design is coming along just fine. The lace is working up to be flat. I haven’t had to change anything once I started my final version. I like the color of thread and the beads. To say I’m relieved is an understatement. Now is the exciting part of creating a piece.

It's springtime

 And fast approaching summer. To be fair, where I live is perpetually spring in a sense. We don’t really have cold weather. We don’t really have hot weather. Our big ole Historic house stays a pretty constant 62 to 65 degrees F. year-round without much change in furnace use. We don’t have AC. If it gets warm, we just open a window or two. The breeze off the Bay usually cools things down quite nicely. Because our weather is the same all year round, I find the same chores on the list year-round: water plants, weed, prune, etc. Getting the roses pruned for the annual hard pruning sometimes doesn’t happen. It’s just too difficult for me to cut unopened buds off the plant!

It's about this time of year, just after Easter before school ends and the Bach Festival, that I find myself with very little to show for my tatting. I’ve finished all the gifts on my list. I’m in the final stage of getting my piece ready for Art of Music. You could say I’m a bit numb from all the extra music for Holy Week/Easter. So, not much to take pictures of. Not much to pass around for Show and Tell. Lots in the half-way done phase. Most of my time is spent cleaning/gardening/resting. Lots of rest, i.e. napping, the past 2 years. One more year of recovery and then I should be better able to predict what I can commit to do for music and tatting.

I promise to do better about posting twice a week. I am touched by how many of you asked if I was OK. I’ll let you know if I bump up against my mortality again. In the meantime, I will continue to create with music and thread. Join me?

Now what????

 I finished my sample using the TDS for a middle round. 

Now the next question to answer is how to hide ends

……….

How to handle frustration:

 Tatting is one of those activities that can land people in a puddle of frustration. You’re happily on the Adventure of Life and boom, you step into this smelly, disgusting mess of thread you thought could be pretty lace. If you’re lucky, there’s an experienced tatter around to give you a hand and help you figure things out to get back to the rings and chains you see in your imagination.

Sometimes, you end up just setting things aside for a day or so and tatting something just to create lace. I needed a break from the design project. The deadline is looming, so it wasn’t going to be a grand project. This square from Takashima book 3 is just the ticket!