Remembering the Goddess

http://krystledawnetats.blogspot.com/2009/01/iris-im-in-over-my-head.html

Linked above is one of my very first blog entries showing a bookmark I had made from one of Gina's Patterns.


The tatting world has lost a treasure, but you will always be in our hearts Tatting Goddess!


Regina A. Brummett, Rest in peace.
http://threadsofatattinggoddess.blogspot.com/

A tale of two socks.

It was the best of yarns, it was the worst of yarns.

And wound from this skein, is a tale of triumph and sorrow....

....of love, and of loss.....

...of perseverance.

Our tale begins on a dark and not-so-stormy night. The Maiden fair was waiting with bated breath, for the clock to strike midnight. At the awaited hour, an epic battle would begin.

Her preparation was complete as she refreshed the page. The list was made, and her plan for victory was precise. The new years midnight yarn sale at Supersock.com would be her greatest conquest! As the page reloaded once more, she finally saw what she had been waiting for--- the Add to cart button! Like a flash of static electricity she quickly collected the items into her cart. The last skein of Noro Silk garden sock in rainbow? Check! Four skeins for a striped scarf? Check! Malabrigo Rasta for slipper socks, Halleluia.....Check! As she dashed for the checkout she chose one last fateful skein, Cherry Tree Hill sock in the Peacock colorway. Upon checkout, she was anguished to find that her precious Malabrigo had been snapped up by another customer! Dash! Faster than you can say superwashmerino she entered her credit card info to ensure the acquisition of the other fine yarns.

Finally the battle was over. She had lost the Malabrigo, but was sure that her other selections were just right.

And she was correct. The colors were perfect! Especially the Peacock sock yarn. Simply divine! And fit for a princess. No glass slippers for this girl, no way. Only the finest hand knit socks would do.

Ready to embark on this new adventure, she began her socks, two at a time on magic loop, with the assistance of a book sent to her by her Fairy godmother.

The maiden fair was a warrior princess of much renown. However, having been defeated by the evil race of double pointed sock needles, and also having succumbed to a dreadful disease known as second sock syndrome, she knew that quick and decisive action was called for. The socks were quickly cast on.

After completing the ribbing section late one night, she fell under a deep dark spell. When she awoke, she found that the yarn had stopped pulling gracefully from the center of the ball! Gingerly, and then with more force, she pulled. No! it was stuck! What could she do? In the epic battle that ensued, she fought the dark forces of fiber in an attempt to rescue her precious sock project from the clutches of the most vile curse of all.....Yarn Barf!*

*(yarn barf=the most inhumane enchantment to ever befall an innocent knitter, when a once tenderly wound center pull cake of yarn starts spewing it's innards in matted and knotted portions)

You see, maiden fair had chosen to work from both ends of the ball in order to conserve the yarn she had fought so hard for. This however, was almost her ultimate downfall.

Many hours of sleepless night were spent unwinding the tangle only to have the yarn break. In a fit of despair, she cast the gnarled mess into a heap beside her bed.

The next morning, she awoke to the forlorn remains of her project. Her heart was broken. So much of the yarn had been lost to snarls and disaster.

Or so she thought.

She consulted with the village advisers on Ravelry and Facebook. To her delight, many good souls assured her that not only could it be saved, but there were lady wizards in nearby counties who could work their magic on her yarns should she need such intervention.

Bolstered by the good will of these fine people, so charged ahead. Weaving a special blend of Peace and Patience enchantment as she worked, she labored bit by bit to recover the mass. And lo, by sundown the spell was broken and her work could resume.

Only one thing stood in her way. The amount left on the ball recovered after the break in the yarn would surely not be enough to complete the sock without joining in yarn from the larger ball. The magic of the wool/nylon blend would not be able to transform her into a princess unless each sock was made from an unbroken strand!

With her hope hanging by the very thread she was knitting with, she stitched onward.

Her heart was beating faster as each toe decrease was completed...."I'm almost there.....I'm almost there!" she chanted as the rows grew shorter.

Finally, in the last stand at the battle of Kitchener Stitch......

Victory. Sweet, yarn coated victory.

As she placed them on her feet, she knew that her princess powers came not from the yarn, or even wearing the precious socks, but from her will to see them through to completion. Had she discarded them at a time when all hope seemed lost in a knotted mess of wool, she would have cursed herself for eternity with self-doubt, and been haunted with it from that day forward.

Instead, she earned herself some warm feet, and the praise of all the subjects in the kingdom (who are all jealous, and want their own socks.... rainbow colored ones have been requested by the little elves and grey ribbed socks for prince charming)

No circular needles were harmed in the making of these socks.

The end.

Tatting? On This blog????

Look! Actual, real life, tatting. And it's not beaded, or hanging from a chain or earwire, nor encased in resin. At no point will it have a price tag. I don't have to pay taxes on it!

Just. Tatting.

Now, it's not completely tatting for tatting's sake. It is part of a private swap of sorts on Ravelry. They will be sent off along with a few others that have yet to be made, to become decor on a hexipuff blanket.

The three larger motifs are from Mini tats. So they are all under 2". The butterfly is just a doodle.

The sad part of being a production tatter, is that tatting is officially "work". I'm sure I've talked about this before.... but for some reason, once I have to do something, it's not as much fun. This is a pretty universal thing for my personality. So, tatting time is work time, and me time becomes something else. Lately that something else has been knitting. For a few months I think. Since shortly before Christmas I know that much, because that was when I asked for my Knitpicks options interchangeable needle set. Since then I've made socks, and hats (to cover my hair that I'm growing out... the "ugly" stage will be the better part of a year.) and I've embarked on my first sweater project. And since this is my blog and I can knit if I want to, (anybody catch the song reference? Ten points if you do.), you may from time to time see some knitting. I promise this is not about to become a knitting blog. You tatters can hang in there with me and I won't leave you! Really!

Anyway, in saying all that, what I was really thinking about is how nice it was to do a bit of good ol' double stitchin in those little motifs. Kinda going back to my tatting roots. It was a nice moment. :-)

I fought the Dr.....

....And she won.

It was a tooth and nail battle over my credit card when it came time to place an order for dye and supplies today. Dr. Vonthreadmore insisted on many new colors of dye. And double quantities of all other consumable products.

While she cackles merrily around the room, savoring her victory over my more sensible nature, I can tell you about Shuttlebirds!!!! If you haven't registered yet, go take a look. I'm teaching three different classes.

Our travel plans are being made and I get to take a year off of driving (woo!). A full teaching schedule is pretty taxing I must admit, so thank you in advance to Bugsy who is taking one for the team by driving this year. We've also decided to room at a different hotel than in past years, so that we can be closer to the LPS gals who live up north. It's gonna be a fun year.

Anyways, the sun is shining, so we are going to go play outside!

Live

Click the above picture to visit the size 20 color collection in Wisteria Lane

The thread is listed! The first batch since last April actually... The only thing not listed are a couple of size 40 color collections (I chose the darker green for this size) . The light wasn't right, and the weather is lousy, so it's still not right. I think it's finally motivating me to build some sort of light box aparatus.

In celebration of her return to the dye pots, Dr. Vonthreadmore would like to extend you a special discount code. Type in DRVONTHREADMORE at checkout for %15 off today and tomorrow! (code expires January 26th at 10pm. EST)

The Skeins have been wound....

..... but the light went away before I got a chance to get proper pictures for the shop.

As you can see, my always eager helpers were more than happy to help me twist skeins and sort them all.......

....and then mix them all up again.

Wisteria Lane should be listed tomorrow, all sizes and also color collections!

No threads (or children) were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Holy Snowbuckets Batman!, or..... For the love of Synthropol.

I couldn't bring myself to tell her that she had to be outside to catch snowflakes on her tongue!

Greetings! We are preparing for this snowstorm of epic proportions that the weather service is convinced we are going to get beaten with. Hubby's school district called school for tomorrow already, and they are notorious for waiting 'till the last minute. Will it be record breaking snowfall? I don't know. Will we build a record breaking snowman?!?!?? You can count on it :-)

I don't know why, but it's taken me weeks longer than I'd planned to really get into thread mode. I would off 70 skeins over New years, but only this week did I finally get it dyed. It's a full batch of Wisteria Lane, and should be ready and listed in the shop by this weekend. If you'd like to call dibs on any, (I know there have been a few patiently waiting!) feel free to shoot me an email and I can get a paypal invoice out to you. krystledawne at gmail dot com :-) It's currently drying in the kitchen, so I expect pictures to be ready tomorrow or the next day.

a rare glimpse of the Dr. in her natural habitat.....

The delay in getting the Dr's laboratory operational again was made slightly more tolerable to her by my current drug of choice....

Noro Yarn! (I stayed up on new years for the late night half price yarn sale online....yep, that's how I roll.) I suspect these skeins of wool were what really got me ready to delve into dye again. The colors are simply scrumptious! Dr V. would sit in front of me, just mesmerized by the changing stripes in this scarf I'm making. Yarn seems to call to me this time of year, but more so this year that many past. I could've sworn I hated knitting, and I still don't know what brought me to ask for a set of interchangeable knitting needles..... as a combined gift for Christmas AND my birthday. But, alas, I've finished a pair of two-at-a-time magic loop socks, hats for myself and the girls, a mini shawl, and several other projects you can view on ravelry if you are so inclined. (username krystledawne of course). There are a few crossover tatters that I've run into over there, if you are one of them, please do "friend" me!

Anywho, I'm off to finish rinsing the tail end of that batch of thread. Apparently my bottle of synthropol (rinse aid soap) was disposed of after it got knocked over in the garage this summer. And of course I didn't find out until I couldn't find it....after the batch was set aside to cure. So, I've been meticulously rinsing (....all.....afternoon....long......) to make sure that the thread is still up to the Dr's exacting standards. The next batches to hit the dye will of course be the winners from the Globetrotter giveaway contest! Now that I know I'm out of synthropol, and low on other dye ingredients, I'll need to place a supply order in the interim. One of the two batches will be relatively easy to do, but the other will take some careful thought and testing. That should be fun, and instructive.

Until next time!

A very Merry Christmas to you!

December has become my month off from tatting....two years in a row now. It would seem that after umpteen hours spent in production through the spring and summer, which of course drags into holiday show prep in the fall, and then into sales in the winter.... I've just about had it with double stitches for a spell lol! So, the pressure is off for December. Decompress. Do something else for the sake of sanity :-) I've kept the shop open with some things that are still in stock, and I've been finishing up custom orders generated from the shows, but other than that, I've put the shuttles away to do whatevertheheck I want! I've been making christmas pressies, and since I get the yarn itch every winter, most people are getting hats. The grandparents are getting some great Photo calendars that I put together, (It's ok, Gram already spilled the beans, so if Mom reads about it here the surprise isn't really spoiled :-)

Anyway, it's like 2am, and my laptop battery is about to die. So I'm signing off for this year in all likelyhood. Hubby is home all next week, so I plan on letting Dr. V get busy. if you know what I mean :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!

p.s. I haven't made the rounds on the blogs lately to comment and such, becuase I had to implement some time management skills.....such as removing Blogger and Facebook and Craftopolis from my homepages that open automaticaly when I open Internet Explorer. I get sidetracked so easily, and having to go to the site and manually log in each time makes me think a little about if I really need to be doing that at that moment. Sometimes it works :-)

Sale season

Thankfully, Craft sale season is over for me :-) It was such a whirlwind getting ready for it, and doing all three events within two weeks... wshew! Anyway, Dr. V is in her usual state of agitation. The craft shows generated quite a few custom orders, all of which are due by December 1st. So I'm still not quite ready to delve into the dye. Sad, but true. The itch is there - in fact I spent this afternoon COMPLETELY cleaning out and moving Tat Corner (so we can put the christmas tree up tomorrow) and in handling all the colors of thread I started dreaming and scheeming. The other thing at the top of the list is my teacher submission for shuttlebirds..(due by the end of the month).. It will be on time, I swear! Just barely you can bet.

When I'm not tatting I'm.............

http://www.reverbnation.com/krystlepyette

For those interested in my extracurricular activites, you can visit that link up there to listen to a quick demo of a song that I am taking to be critiqued at the Songwriter's bootcamp at the Christian Musician Summit tomorrow.


As far as tatting goes, I'm still in scramble mode, pumping out hairclips and post earrings as fast as I can. My final craft show of the season is this Saturday and Sunday. I had two last week, and did pretty darn well, which means of course that I am way behind right now.....and tomorrow's adventure takes me out of the house for around 14 hours, so that leaves me Friday to get things done. I've been having lots of fun doing in person craft selling again, and I've got several custom orders in the hopper as well. Yay!

One of these days I'll do a post about things I hear most often at craft shows, my favorite being this: (said with a sceptical glance) "Do YOU do all the work?'' (as if I have a little granny filled lacemaking sweatshop in my garage. Trust me, this is the time of year that I really wish that were the case!)

Well, Ta ta all. Dye season is just around the corner. After this weekend I can pace myself well to finish out the custom work and work in a few batches of thread. First up will be another round of Wisteria lane, just to get back in the swing of things. After that I'll start on the prize winning colorways.

**** Thanks for the reminder Patti! To add to the list, Shuttlebirds teacher submissions are due by the end of the month lol! Could there be any more going on? I don't think so.