Pattern Reworking

Here’s an update/reworking of the #45 tatted edging from Butterick’s Tatting and Netting 1896 reprint–that is to say, a tatting pattern old enough that the author seems to think working chains is a revolutionary idea that will come as a mild surprise to her readers.  The original is…weird; no two rings have the same number of stitches and the directions are wonky.  I’ve omitted the tiny little thrown ring that serves no perceptible purpose, regularized the stitch counts, and modified the center ring of the Small Clover a little.

Start with a Small Clover.  Each ring joins to the last picot of the one before.

Ring 1: 6-3-3
Ring 2: 3+3-3-3-3-3 (5 picots total)
Ring 3: 3+3-6

Reverse work and Chain 3-6-3-3-3-3-6-3 (7 picots total)

Reverse work and make a Large Clover

Ring 1: 6-3-3-3-3+to first P of R3 of Small Clover 3-3-6 (7 picots total)
Ring 2: 6+3-3-3-3-6 (5 picots total)
Ring 3: 6+3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-6 (9 picots total)
Ring 4: As Ring 2
Ring 5: As Ring 1

Reverse work and work a second chain, 3+6-3-3-3-3-6-3.  This forms the repeat of the pattern.  (For second and subsequent Small Clovers, the first picot of Ring 1 instead joins to Ring 5 of Large Clover.)

Here’s a sample in progress in Lizbeth Size 80 (color #165):

Gearing Up

There’s this thing that happens.  I’ll see or think of a project, and it’ll sit in the back of my head.  And sometimes that’s all it does, but other times this thing happens that I think of as “gearing up”.  I don’t necessarily decide that I’m going to start working on whatever-it-is now, but I’ll realize that I’m browsing around for materials, thinking about colors, deciding if I have the tools necessary, whatever.

I am in the gearing-up phase of a completely impractical, SCA-oriented project¹; I can tell because I ordered a book from Amazon yesterday on the technique I want to use, and I have been looking around at how to make a band loom with small enough dents.

I wish my subconscious wouldn’t mug me like this.  It’s not as if I have a dearth of projects that need finishing.  For one thing, I just got the party-trick socks back on the needles correctly after taking them apart to do the heels because the third time I had to rip back was just too much.

1: And heck, if I get started in the next few weeks it might actually be done by next Pennsic!

Have Needles, Will Travel

I’m going to be at Pennsic in about a month–otherwise known as a huge collection of people who have reason to be interested in hand needlework.  And I’d like to make some money out of my mutant power; at the moment I’m in the middle of a project for KnitPicks, but it’ll be done by the time I head for War.

So what I’m wondering is if it’s worth the money to make some business cards.  And if so, what should they say?  Professional cards–expensive, but nicer–or print my own?  And that’s not even getting into the question of what I should charge for things, assuming anyone wants to hire me.

Business is hard.  Let’s go shopping.

Just a Little Advertising

I dunno who the curator is, but I like hir taste in creepy.  Also, who doesn’t love a title like “Elucidation of the Seasonally Noir“?

And Other Crafts

Here’s a look at one of the other things I do.

This is a tablet-woven band based on a medieval pattern from the late 1100s, which is nicely period for my persona.  According to the book I got the pattern out of, the original color of the base was reddish, but the brocading was in silver; I decided I liked gold better.

The base threads are Guterman silk sewing thread; the brocade weft is four strands of DMC embroidery floss.  (747?  Something like that.)  I started out turning the cards forward all the time, till too much twist built up, and now I’m turning backwards for a while.  The bonus of brocading is that the turning isn’t complex: you just turn the whole pack of tablets at once.  The fiddly bit is picking up the tiedowns for the weft.

My loom, meanwhile, is nicely low-tech; it started life as a two-foot oak board and a couple of drawer-handles.  This setup holds the band horizontal for easy working.  I do have to do a bit of fiddling to advance the warp when necessary, but I can live with a bit of inconvenience.

Got no idea what I’m going to do with this when it’s done; it isn’t as if I do a lot of SCA stuff these days…

Typical

Does it surprise anyone that I think this quilt is awesome?

It’s complex, and colorful to the point of being almost garish.  Of course I like it.  Never mind that I’ve sworn off quilts, and that that much appliqué is more handwork than even I am interested in doing.  I still love it.

The pattern’s about $30, but given that the jpeg I linked to can be expanded to nearly full size I think I could come up with a nice close approximation on my own.