So the end arrives and new things begin....

Well, Spring has finally arrived! The cats tonight are obsessed with the idea that they can get to the birds settling outside, and have been "hunting" all evening. Clearly it's not working that well for them, as they have not managed to realize that there are screens keeping them in! It's snowed at least four times in March, but hey, it's Ohio. Welcome to bizzare weather in Ohio. We're expecing another huge snowstorm tomorrow, so hopefully we won't be snowed in towards the evening! Even if we are, that's alot of painting models and/or crafting that I can do during that time!

My living room looks like crafting supplies exploded all over it. My poor husband has been so patient with me as I've been trying to finish off the scarf, and I can finally state that I have finished it! That being said, there is scraps of yarn ALL OVER the living room that I'm still picking up and re-vacuuming off of the carpet even if I just vacuumed five minutes ago. As you can see, it looks like a train wreck occured as I made the final push to finish the scarf. It took about 8 hours of work after I got off of work on Friday to finish it, but it turned out to be such an awesome challenge!

Overall, there were  1800-2000 circles invoved in each the overall project. I suspect that there were closer to 2000 circles in the project due to it being close to thirteen feet long, compared to the originally requested twelve feet. It was a really fun challenge, and it was a very cool project to be able to think out of the box on. It is so easy with crafting to be stuck to following a certain pattern, and stifling your creativity in a way. This particular's project directions were to make a "Dr. Who inspired scarf that was  twelve feet long, and in three colors". So, I was left with a completely blank slate that allowed me to do anything. It turned out really cool looking, and there is nothing else like it in existence, as far as I know. It has inspired me to come up with designs of my own more often when it comes to crocheting and tatting, and I really enjoyed making and completing this project more than I can say, even if I did gripe from time to time that it was taking too long to finish. Then again, most people wouldn't be insane enough to tackle the challenge. But hey, what kind of crafter would I be that I didn't challenge myself from time to time? Well, time to sign off for the night. My wrist is telling me its time to take some ibuprofin and chillaxe in front of a movie for the rest of the night. Hope you all survive the snowstorm, and may your coming day be productive!

Crafting

 

 

These past three months have seemed to be all crafting, so i figured I would make a post about my latest insane project, after a endless afternoon of frustration of looking for just ONE single pattern, that, of course, seems to have been lost in a matter of a month...Oh well....Its a Wednesday, right?

 

I was asked recently (approximately 4 months or so ago) to create a Dr. Who scarf. I dont know if anyone is familiar with Dr. Who, but the person wanted a Tom Baker scarf finished by April. The scarf is ten to twelve feet long, with the original scarf being 12 feet and shrinking over time to ten feet. I thought about this for about...oh...five minutes...then agreed, thinking "How bad can it be? It's only a scarf..." My little naive self had no clue what a "Tom Baker scarf" referred to, nor its lenght. Suffice to say, as a I later started doing my research and recalling the conversation, I wanted to kick myself repeatedly in the head. I not only agreed to make a 12 foot three-color scarf, I also agreed to TATT a twelve foot, three-color scarf.

 

I dont know how many of you are familiar with Tatting. It s a form of lace making that has been typically last seen in my grandparents generation. It takes an inifinite amount of hours to accomplish one little doily, even though that doily always turns out beautiful. The doily on the right hand side is one that I Tatted for a friend. She loved it, and I've seen it used constantly in her home, so apparantl its witholding the test of time!

 

 

I have now been working two weeks on the scarf pieces, and after not only working full time, but also tatting full time, I have made disappointing little progress. Still, I am getting faster and learning consistently from my ever so time consuming mistakes. To date, I have 2 foot long pieces completed, one of which is still in need of trimming. You can see the pieces which still need trimmed and glued together, and it is also missing a matching strip of blue on each portion. It doesnt necessarily look like alot of work, but each little circle takes 5 to ten minutes to complete. Initially when I started the strips, each circle took 15 minutes to complete. Still, progress is progress, right?



 Each cirle is conected at least 3-4 times to the circles above, below and to the left and right of them. It makes it a very malleable, hardy material, and is turning out perfectly so far, exactly as I had imagined it. The shuttle is hand-made, through a combination of my husband and I's work. It took about 4 hours to make the shuttle, and seems to be holding up to wear and tear well. Still, only time will tell how well it stands up to constant use, seeing as it's only made out of balsa wood. Tatting, for all intensive purposes, is a fancy system of knots. There are two variations of tatting: shuttle tatting, and needle tatting. I learned the shuttle tatting, and have never really been tempted to pursue needle tatting. However, some people swear by needle tatting, and others, like me, swear by shuttle tatting. At some point when I'm rich and famous and have servants to do everything for me, I may learn needle tatting, but that is a LONG time in the future.

 

Off to bed, or more tatting, not sure which yet, but ending for the night. Hopefully I will have more in another week or so to post as far as progress, but...we'll see......A week is a long time in my world!