Be prepared

 I am prepared….

For the Hearts class. I really like these patterns. They are in my “frequent pattern used pile” and I have many examples. I’ve even made a basket with 3 of them. I’m looking forward to sharing them with the students who’ve signed up. If you would like to join us for 2 Saturday mornings (Pacific Time), head on over to the Museum website and sign up. No particular materials needed, just a ball of thread you like working with and 2 shuttles or needles.

Keeping track

 

I encourage students to consider “mistakes” are really just variations. Most of the time, what we see as mistakes aren’t really that bad: the odd loose stitch, a small picot instead of a larger one, or a larger instead of a smaller, a forgotten ring or chain section, or added extra. You get the idea. When tatting up my sample for next week’s class, I knew I wanted it to be rectangular to use with our oval table. So, how many squares to tat per side? All was well until the second long side. I kept second guessing where I was at. You guessed it, I made mistake after mistake. I finally made a small chart in frustration:

I have included a similar chart at the end of the pattern I’ll give to the students. They can use it, or not. It will be their choice. Me, I need simple and clear and ways to reduce the noise as I tat;  a bit like using a bookmark when I’m working through a text. I love post-it notes!

Oh, and bookmarks….

Is it any wonder that I like bookmarks…..and have tatted a few…..just a few….?

If you need the link to sign up: https://www.thelacemuseum.org/workshops.html

How I learned

 I dislike relating how I learned to play the organ or how I learned to tat. I do tell folks. I just don’t see it as important. What I do now is more important to me. Incidentally, now I play the organ for the enjoyment of people, to enhance a worship service, and to share music I think everyone should know about. Now I tat to express what I see in life in thread. I also teach. And that is why I have begun to tell people how I learned to play the organ and to tat.

I began playing the organ as a preteen. My peers hardly understood it. Adults thought it was cute. I just like playing the organ.

I began to tat as a teen. I like working with fiber. I fail at knitting and crochet. I can’t sit still. A relative, who didn’t tat, had a shuttle and a book. I figured it out.

There! That’s how I learned.

Earlier this week I recorded another 30 minutes of organ music at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Here’s the Youtube channel link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK9Xvh2eadS0KrPu8bAOsBQ/videos .  The church is always empty except for the gentleman who films me. We both wear masks. That doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. The church is still very involved in the community. They support food banks for seniors, they provide assistance for Spanish speakers, and maintain several Zoom based discussion groups. They are not closed, just not meeting in person. They deserve to be supported.

Thank you for reading my rant/plea. Now on to practicing and tatting!

Class Material

what to learn next???

I am a life-long learner. I count learning as a hobby. I’m addicted to finding out new information. Yes, that means there’s always a pile of stuff to read, “small” projects to do, and entries on the calendar for talks, conversations, documentaries. Some people’s lives are never boring due to drama. My life is never boring due to curiosity. And yes, I do know curiosity can kill a cat. The older I get, the more things available on the internet, the less energetic I feel, the safer my days are. Honest!

I’ve been pulling together my Class Material for the Lace Museum series. Teaching is a sure-fire way for me to learn. I learned a great deal tatting the sample. I learned which point of the pattern my mind consistently wanders. Valuable information. I plan to pass that on during the weekend classes. Join us!

To register, visit the workshop page and scroll down about half way: tatting workshop

A use for Direct Tatting

I’ve come to accept the term direct tatting in shuttle tatting to mean that you simply wrap the stitches rather than flip the stitches. I find I can only execute it without getting confused when using 2 shuttles. Depending on which shuttle I’m holding, the chain will naturally curve one way or the other. The technique is quite useful in designing.

Recently, I lost one earring of a favorite pair. I’ve finally gotten around to making the replacement. In my zeal to bling the pattern up, I’ve added silver sliver thread to the final round. I wanted to wrap the curled rings at the outer edge with the bit of metal thread, but not the chains between those curled rings. The first time I tatted the ring, I used the clumsy technique of holding the two shuttles together while tatting the half dozen stitches for the chains. Very awkward. 

Enter the direct tatting technique! I have changed to wrapping both threads for the core and using the single shuttle to form the chain DS. Voila! It means you’re switching shuttles to lock join and such, but I don’t end up dropping shuttles either! Now, I just direct tat the chains and manage just fine. Pictures once the sun comes out again.

The fires are still burning in the area. The smoke is getting bad inland. I took this picture mid-morning in the direction of the closest fire. Resources are getting stretched pretty thin. People and animals are being evacuated. No word on how much we've lost for crops and such. Our neighborhood is in the opposite direction from where the fire is spreading. We're trying to help as best we can by  staying out of the way and let the professionals do what they train to do.

What makes your tatting art?

The question arose again as I told a friend about my donation piece. I have no authority like a degree or financial success to argue that my lace is “art” or even that it is not a “craft” to be relegated to various pigeon holes. In my quest for trying to talk about what I do, I’m usually reading something about music or art. I’m currently trying to read a Google Books version of Eye of the Painter by Andrew Loomis. The author makes a distinction between “pretty art” and beautiful art. He talks of the difference between commercial art and fine art. Of course, this method is focused on painting only. He even says something can be pleasing as in a piece of embroidery or a design on wallpaper, but not really art. My reaction: Sigh!

My tatting strives to get people to think. About music, about how things can look, about remembrances of what they have heard. I hope it is pleasing to the eye. I hope it can be displayed in a home or office. I hope it stretches what people recognize as lace just a bit. Is it “art” or just…..?

I’ve decided I will create. For me. For the odd person who likes my ideas. I’ll leave the designation of “art” to others who seem more inclined to argue and parse than to enjoy.

Bottom line: Support the arts. Put in a ticket for my piece in the Fundraiser (link when it opens) and enjoy music represented in lace.

I'm learning a lot

I understand that will keep me young. But, right now, my head feels like bursting, my muscles ache, and I have way too much on my plate. So, if you asked me to do something, and I’ve forgotten or muffed it, please remind me. Well, not that I muffed it, unless I haven’t clued in. I’m learning a lot.

The Blackwork is buried. We discovered the upstairs toilet has been leaking tiny amounts for quite some time. So, a trip to the store to pick up fresh seals, hours stripping paint off wet plaster, and shifting things so that they don’t get covered with the fine dust of “remodel” activities. Until things get repaired and re-shifted, no pictures.

Oh, and another storm is due later this week. My question: Will we end up in someone’s paper for a Science conference this summer? Too much to clean up, repair, and put away for me to write it! Guess I’d better get busy!

Teaching the earring pattern

Today is the day. I am the guest teacher for Georgia’s Monday On-going Online class (scroll down to the correct date). I’ll be sharing my earring pattern worked around a finding from a bead shop. (see pattern page of this blog) I’ve been looking forward to getting this pattern out there to other tatters. I see so many possibilities and I won’t have enough of me to try them all. Please, join in the fun!

Tatting with paper

I’ve seen this phrase used several times now. I like it. If anyone knows who started using this phrase, please let me know. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like playing with thread and shuttle. I like just tatting and seeing where it takes me. I did that with the bead cap earring pattern. But, I also play with combinations on paper using Inkscape to see if it will remotely work before I pick up the shuttle. Sometimes it works. Other times, I come away with no more of an idea than when I sat down with the pencil or mouse. Sigh. So, that’s my challenge for this week: improve my tatting with paper.

Pattern page is live

Last week was very productive. I conquered Beanile style tatting, made good progress on some original designs (more when they’re finished nicely), and learned how to add a page to my blog with links for folks to download the documents. Just click on the bar above my picture and it’ll take you there. Whew!

But, no time to sit back. I have a demonstration to do today and it’s Mother’s Day tomorrow. And since we ran away yesterday to Monterey in celebration of 27 years of marriage, the chores have really piled up…..literally. Now where is the shovel I use for laundry????

the blogging experience

The good part about how busy I’ve been lately is that I’m busy and earning money. The bad part about how busy I’ve been lately is that I’m busy and not able to keep up some things…like picking up after the kitties, keeping up with the blog posting, and folding laundry. I am keeping up with work and such, so I’ll make progress on the rest soon.

I have wanted to put up a website on the internet for quite some time. I’m drawn to getting information out there. Must be on account of all the happy hours I spent at the library as a young child. I was raised to be a lifelong learner too. But…..this internet and computer programming stuff turned out to be just a bit daunting. I’ve found I can handle the blog stuff though. Just the right amount of structure and just the right amount of blank canvas. I’ll get to the website later.

So, on with the organ music and the tatting.

Thank you for visiting and please let me know with a comment what you like best.

My tatting history or What I do while tatting

I learned to tat as a teen from an old book my Great-Aunt was throwing out. She had tried to teach me to knit and crochet. I learned the basics, but she wasn’t very encouraging after viewing my “finished” pieces….with good reason. Every time I set it down, I lost the little something that folks use to keep the tension the same. I was having the same problem with learning piano pieces, but there are no metronomes to use when knitting/crocheting. This book had 4 sections. Since my copy is missing the outer few pages, I’m not really sure of the title or even the publisher. Chadwick’s Red Heart and J & P Coats are listed in the materials section of the projects, so I’m assuming it was published by the company to help market their yarns and threads. The kid in me like the title of the tatting section “Watch my Shuttle Go” and the sound of the word tatted. Even though my brother was in the Navy at the time, I didn’t connect “tatted” with tattoos until much later in life. Anyway, Aunt Dorothy found an old shuttle in her stash and away I went. There wasn’t much available in my local area and I didn’t know of any other tatters. My musical career took off and college dominated my time. The tatting got stashed in a box and forgotten.

Fast forward about 25 years to a point in my life when I had plenty of time on my hands waiting and doing nothing. The why isn’t important to tatting, but I will say that it was my pleasure to be chief stage hand and taxi driver to a talented, geeky daughter. I also ended up in doctor’s waiting rooms for many hours. Tatting began to fill all those hours waiting and watching. It is portable, fun, and I was having a good deal better success than with knitting needles or crochet hooks. Besides, tatting a few DS to Bach solo Cello music is my idea of spending a delightful evening. The internet has made a great deal more available to tatters now. I've found several wonderful communities: inTatters , The Online Tatting Class , Lace Museum in Sunnyvale  , Lacis to name just a few.

Now that my nest is “empty” and I’m reacquainting myself with free time, I cannot just sit still. Fancy that! So, I tat while listening to books on tape, watching the tv, riding in the car, and even waiting in the line at the Post Office. More on where my tatted pieces end up on a different day in a different post. I forgot to add yesterday a picture of the bookmark I was working on at the Open House. It is from Learning to Tat by Janette Baker.

Bookmark from Tearn to Tat by Janette Baker