Mayhem Murder Motif

They all start with  'M'.  So does marvellous.  You will note that I have not included that descriptor in this posting.  Anywhere.

I could have said malingering or malady or madness - all appropriate.

I tried. I really tried. This is what I got:

2nd photo added later...Can you see the pattern better?

#12  Motif Challenge

Also, I broke my promise to be slow and deliberate and not rush through - remember, quality trumps quantity? Not in this piece!  I just wanted to get the sucker finished and off my plate!

I also broke my word and used the bloody beads!  I couldn't help myself.

Therefore, another promise:  I am going to attend my first BA meeting this evening. Under cover of darkness.   I understand I will  have a Beader's Anonymous Buddy to help me through the rough spots.  It might be too late though...

Taught The Doc (not mine - a customer!) to tat yesterday!  Yes, she came into the shop - all 6 foot. willowy blond, c-cup beautiful, long eye-lashed -  bright, baby blues and all !  She insisted I describe her to a 'T'.  There, I did.

We were chatting away about knitting, this Family Practitioner who wears Army boots (really) and I, and of course I had to mention the picot thing.  She lit up and told me about her Grandmother who had tatted and that she had actually looked at a tatting booklet some time ago, but never really tried it.  

Opportunity knocked loudly  and I loaded up a shuttle, sat her down and didn't she say right off - "Oh, like a surgeon's knot!"

The Doc is a quick study.  Mastered the flip in under three minutes.  She now holds the record for the fastest learner  I have yet encountered. 

I sent her away with a little orange shuttle like the one the lovely lady gave to me two years ago when this whole party began. I have high hopes for it. 

Mission accomplished!

Anon,

The Agony of Defeat

...and I don't mean the ones in the running shoes!

#11 Motif Challenge,

Maybe it's more about the stepping stones to success - in a future endeavour!

I was so excited when I started this and again, everything went south from there:  uneven stitching, picots of differing sizes, cut picots, split threads, wrong counts, misplaced joins - you name it, it's wrong!

This piece; I cannot work on it any longer. I am calling it a day. Finito.

Crazy Mom was saying that the heat can have a powerful effect on us all - well maybe I should blame all the bad tatting events of the past few days on the awful weather of the past month.  And those effects are certainly cumulative.

This piece has depressed me beyond words. I think the beads were just a bit to much to deal with as I am not comfortable with all the joins.  I found myself becoming extremely anxious and intimidated as I sat down to tat - not the reaction I would look forward to on a regular basis, that's for sure!

Back to basics, I think.  The beads are going to have to sit in the drawer for a bit, till I get back to a regular rhythm.  I tend to forget that I am still relatively new to this thing called tatting that has taken over my time and my apartment.  I really need to slow down and perfect all the skills I have learned, and sure, go overboard with the embellishments once in a while, but not all the time.  That seems to be very counter-productive for me.

I think I will opt for simplicity in the short haul.

To sum up,  I am doing the pattern over again, with a 3 ply HDT by Karey Solomon in a slightly larger size
- #30 -  that I have left from a few months ago. Maybe a change of colour , a larger thread  and a lack of beads will  promote a more positive outcome.

Anon,

Mad for Metallic

#10 Motif Challenge

This is Nami's's pattern, that I saw on Gina's site - so pretty I had to tat it.  I used Altin Basak Metallic, (thanks Suneeti!) together with #80 pink Majestic around the border - a bit tough to tat with, but much more effective in the work than the photo displays.

The Cébélia thread I have had for two years and never put those two colours together. Umintsuru mentioned them in T.T.E. and it occurred to me that they would be great together in a motif!  Thanks Umi!

The pretty, pewter/gray beads?  Hmmm.... well. I spotted them the other day in Kensington Market.  They were in a funny, little store that sells odds and ends.  There are lots of beads in there - just to look at...  Okay, so I cannot turn away from a 99¢ bead-bargain!   Actually, they were the inspiration for the entire motif!

Why I had nine  - yes, NINE, starts to this is a great example of my spatial problem.  I could not see how to attach the chain on the second round.  Simple, right?  NO!

Intellectually I know how it works, but the brain will not translate that to the fingers and after many hours of wasted effort, I was almost weeping with  frustration.

One would think after decades and decades of this I would handle it better - but I never tatted, so it was never an issue.  Knitting or crocheting did not present the problem. Very occasionally, as a graphic designer, I ran into it headlong, but nothing like this!  Thank goodness!

Here I was, at Tom Horton's the other day, escaping my hot apartment.  I got the bulk of the motif tatted there. Thank goodness for air-conditioned coffee shops!

Finally, this morning there is cool air in The Big Smoke. Relief at last!

Anon,

Promise Produces Pulchritudinous Progress

Yup!

#9 Motif Challenge

Two more motifs to add.  This pattern had me confounded for quite a while with the dyslexia thing.... The pattern itself is rather simple. So frustrated that one night I almost wept and had to work on something different.  Such a bummer.  However, I worked through it and should be able to do the last two squares in fairly good time.

My New Winding Method For CTM

Works like a charm!

I have these tiny pretty-smelling soaps in the bathroom.  They have been there a long time and yet, all of a sudden I viewed them with a different eye... a squinting, discerning, designing tatting eye!  Do you see it?  It's everywhere I look now.  All fodder for the tatting table....

Ice Princess, from Germany, sent these fabulous threads from The Thread Exchange!  Aren't they great?  This is a thread I have never heard of - Perlovka. Gotta love T.T.E.  Even The Cat got excited...

Anon,