A Little of This and A Little of That

I have been tatting, not that you would know it from reading here. Some days I feel busier than a one armed paperhanger with so many things on the go that require my attention it's hard to prioritize.Days always go better when I'm up before hubby because it gives me some quiet time to read my Bible and talk things over with the Lord before the busy of life gets in the way. We take time to read the Word and pray together daily, but I still need the personal time with God and really notice when I don't have it.
The 25 Motif Challenge can take up a lot of my time if it's not handled regularly. I thank God for the many volunteers who have stepped in to help. As the interest in the challenge has grown, keeping up with it went from a pleasure to a pain and without the wonderful folks who volunteer their time it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. We have recently added some new volunteers and that takes a bit of extra time sending them out the information they need and answering questions they have. The Challenge has clearly kept people tatting and created another point of contact for the tatting community.
The Tatting Round Robins have been popular and you'd think that once everyone has their partner information, that my involvement would be over, and most of the time that would be true. The very first group of round robins I co-ordinated ran into all kinds of hiccups. Some of them went off without a hitch and others experienced all manner of road blocks, some of which are still being sorted out 2 years later. Many of these little speed bumps have been related to unexpected accidents and illness that have hampered people from completing their obligations.

If you are someone like my sister who checks email once every week or two, sorting things out can take a very long time. In the interim I can get 5 messages from other participant who are online every day. Last year the individual groups had leaders that collected the pictures for posting on the blogs and helped herd everyone toward the finish line. The most recent groups have been plagued with not only illness but also technical problems due to crashed computers.
This year I started the Design-Tat group to help people create their own designs. I'm not an expert, but there are some things I've learned from doing it wrong the first time, that may encourage other people to spread their wings. I had though of doing it as a paid class because of the time involvement, but I didn't because A- I didn't think I had all that much to teach, and B- I didn't think that there would be that many people interested. I had anticipated that 2 or 3 people might want to know what I know and I had to cut the group off at 60 because there was no way I could personally answer the design challenges of that many people. Really, I think a lot of the folks that joined, just did so out of curiosity, but I have another dozen people that have emailed since asking if they could join. So I'll be doing another course soon.

On the work front, hubby has completed some new software and I helped out with Beta testing and writing the help manual which required setting the software up in a logical manner for doing screen shots that could be incorporated into the manual and the web pages. These had to be done twice. The first were done in a small size for the manual and the second set were done larger and created with transparent backgrounds for use on the web site. We have been fortunate to already have several users promote the software, so we are very encouraged by that.

Things have been especially challenging over the last few weeks as our high speed connection was out and a lot of my "normal" activities are very graphic and require that high speed connection.
In the in between minutes I have been doing some tatting that will go into an upcoming book. I have the designs done and I'm tatting up some additional samples for filming. That's one of the reasons that there haven't been any pictures, as it's all a surprise.

A golden thank you

Another surprise in the mail today. You may have seen this gold beauty on Jeff's blog. I'm the lucky recipient of this treasure. Trust me, the picture really doesn't do this snowflake justice. It looks flat and lifeless in the picture whereas in reality it sparkles and shines from every angle, with the picots at the tips flashing golden sparks. The Oren Bayan Metallic gold thread seems so much finer and more golden that the DMC gold thread that I am used to, and the work is exquisite. I am truly blessed with such unexpected treasures as the snowflake received last week from Maria and this one from Jeff. Both snowflakes were received with thank you notes for arranging the round robins.

Jeff was one of the participants in the recent snowflake round robin and was actually the group leader who kept things in the group moving forward collected the pictures and information on the snowflakes and posted it to the round robin blog. One of the difficulties with organizing tatting related things like the 25 Motif Challenge, The Tatting Round Robins and more recently the Tatting Books blog, is that I don't have a lot of spare time to participate in exchanges and round robins myself. That's why I really like being able to enjoy them vicariously, only this time, I have some snowflakes of my own to cherish.

A little of this, and a little of that

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting much lately and for the one or two who wondered, here's what's been going on. During most of August our front yard was dug up due to the burst water mains. Twice during that period the driveway was unusable and I had to use a bicycle to get around which meant that just doing things took much longer leaving me less time for other, more interesting things.


Then a number of local folks decided to get a craft group going for socializing and for teaching, so I have been showing some people how to tat. The ladies in this group are keen on finding ways to sell their finished goods and I have been coaching them on how to use the internet as a selling tool. This has resulted in some one on one hours spent showing them how to set up PayPal accounts, showing them how to use things like Ebay and Etsy, helping them to take pictures of their goods, explaining why it's important to crop out blank spaces and re size their images and showing them how to use software to accomplish this.


I mentioned that I was discontinuing the Tatted Lace Pattern Collection newsletter and a number of people have taken that to mean that I wasn't going to be designing any more. That is far from true. I have a small doily completed, in addition to the elephant flake seen in the disaster photo, 5 more motifs and part of a bookmark designed and recently I have been stuck in a rut doing these beaded snowflakes. For some reason, this design just makes me happy and I want to tat them in a whole rainbow of colours. The pink one is half done and the beads are already loaded for the yellow version and I have an idea for a necklace that I may or may not do.


Some of my time has been spent just being there. Hubby, who has been diagnosed with Meniere's was relatively okay during the summer but as soon as the colder weather hit, he started having drop attacks again. Let's just say life's not fun.


On another note, I sent out notice that another set of round robins would be starting and I've been trying to match people up and get mailing addresses to get them started. In the middle of this I was reminded that some of the tatting from the earlier round robins hadn't made it home yet, so I started chasing them down.


In the mean time the awesome volunteers on the 25 Motif Challenge blog have been keeping everyone up to date. It's a good thing too, because I certainly haven't had any time for it.

Round Robin Tatting

The tatting community used to participate in numerous round robins. Many of them were hosted by Etha Schuette "Maus" so that we all got to see what wonderful laces were being made. Often the things created were one of a kind and the designers graciously shared their patterns with us. Pirating of the treasures from that site led to it being shut down, which was too bad because it was a source of endless inspiration.


Recently I was asked if there were any round robins currently going on and there aren't that I can find, but several people have expressed interest in doing a round robin. Others don't know what a round robin is. Just so that I don't keep repeating myself, this is how a round robin works.

A round robin is kind of like an exchange except that it has 3 or more participants. They may be making individual motives or they may be working on larger items like a doily. Before they start everyone is given a list of the likes and dislikes of the participants. For example one person might want fine thread and another only size 20. One might want beads included and another might want everything done in purple to match their decor. The names (real names) addresses both email and street addresses are shared among the participants. All of the participants agree on a project type like snowflakes, hearts, butterflies, bookmarks, doilies etc. All of the participants work within a specified time table.

These hearts were from a round robin I participated in some years ago and they have been appliqued onto a shirt so that I can see them and use them regularly. I wanted everything in pink or red and no beads because I expected to wear the shirt often.


Let's say for example that the round robin is for 3 inch snowflakes done in size 20 thread (or 40 Olympus, or 8 DMC perle, see my earlier post on thread sizes) and each snowflake is to be completed in one month. So if we have 5 participants, let's label them A, B, C, D, and E it works like this:


Each participant tats a 3 inch snowflake, it may be their original design or it might be a published design and before the one month deadline they mail it to the next person on the list.

A sends to B, B sends to C, C sends to D, D sends to E, E sends to A

A B C D E
B C D E A
C D E A B
D E A B C
E A B C D


When each participant receives their first package, they take a look at the snowflake and tat a second different snowflake and within a month send both snowflakes on to the next person on the list.


Each month the participants receive a package containing the snowflakes done by other participants, they look at what has already been done and tat another snowflake different from the ones in the package. They have the opportunity to see other people's handiwork and admire their skills and in turn they have the opportunity to have their own skills admired by others. After 6 months the participants will each get back their original package with the snowflake they tatted and 4 new ones, one each from the other participants. So they will tat and give 5 snowflakes and receive 5 different snowflakes (the starting snowflake they give to themselves).


A variation on this is a round robin for designing doilies where each participant starts a doily centre and then passes it on. Each participant designs and tats a round for the doily and passes it on so that A does the first row, B does the second row, C does the third row, D does the fourth row and E does the final row before returning it to A. This type of round robin gives each tatter the opportunity to practice designing and they only have to create one row at a time. Since doilies get larger with each row they often use a staggered schedule where the first row is forwarded in 2 weeks and the last row is given 2 or 3 months. Schedules also have to be adjusted when international robins are done to allow for increased shipping times. At the end, each participant has a new, one of a kind doily.


Others can enjoy the fun of these challenges vicariously when the pictures of the tatting are posted regularly. Each person takes a scan or digital picture and posts it on the internet for everyone to see. So as the snowflakes, hearts, bookmarks or rounds of the doilies are completed pictures are posted where everyone can enjoy them. Sometimes, where the patterns are original the designers may choose to provide the pattern as well.

If you would like to participate in a round robin email me at the address shown. If there is enough interest I will see about setting one up. Let me know at what skill level you consider yourself and whether or not you would be interested in an international round robin. Bear in mind that a round robin is a commitment of some time.


Note: The reason for the email address in the picture at the right, is so that people can email me. Contacting people through blogs is time consuming and when I match folks up with partners I'll need home addresses so that the round robin packages can be sent. So if you want to join the round robin, please contact me by email so that I can get back to you with your group of happy tatters and their addys. Please and thanks folks.