Suttleless Tatting

I'm working on a doily by the amazing Jon yusoff. It has three motifs that you tat together. I'm doing it in size 40 green (Christmas) variegated thread by HH Lizbeth. So my tatting is a lot smaller than the picture from Jon's site. It's lovely and when I get more done and my end hidden (which I stink at) I'll take pictures.

Last night I was adding a third clover circle when I got to the end of my thread; metaphorically, metaphysically and literally. Here's the short version.

There are 8 clovers, I just started the 7th one when I realized that I had made a join wrong in the 5th one. Do I cut it off and try again or undo all the tatting. (some may say tatting is undo-undo-able, but I've gotten very good at it) It would take me the same amount of time to tat anew as undo and fix so I chose to fix it. *sigh* I was near enough to the end of the shuttle thread that I just took it off for the undoing. Then I started to tat again. As I approached the 8th clover I found I had enough thread to finish, but not enough to loop it all around my hands like "normal" shuttle tatting. So what did I do?

Yep, I took it off the shuttle again and did it with two loose threads. It worked out and the tension is fine, but boy howdy was it a pain. I felt like it was me vs. the tatting.

Today I write fiction and work on the books.

Ripping and Knotting

I'm still ripping paper. Lots and lots of paper. 140 sheet to be exact. That may not seem like much, but that is the amount of paper in the two 280 page books I'm working on. Add to that the embroidery pattern's I'm still working out for the covers...This is a long term project.

In the mean time I'm tatting like mad. In fact I'm going to attempt to teach my best friend Stacy to tat today. Then I can share my frustration about "out of print" tatting books with someone who will understand.

project on hold

This project as been placed on hold till I get my life back in a little more order. It's taking FOREVER to hand tare all the pages in the novels. I must be some kind of mad.

The Berg Project

Here are the unfolded "hot off the press" sheets. I learned the hard way that the paper was too high a poundage; so these books are going to be "tomes" as my husband said.


These are the rough folded signatures. There are 5 pages per signature and the ruler is 2 inches ... that's a lot of book. I hadn't pressed the book yet so I was hopeful.


This is just one section being pressed. I divided it all up into four parts then emptied my shelves of heavy books to press everything. There were three Shakespeare anthologies, a Milton anthology, several art history textbooks, an encyclopedia, and a couple of boxes of old hardbacks. I then left it all for two days.


The books are smaller after pressing, but they are still too "oversized" to do my original binding design. I spent a couple of days working out other designs before settling on doing a case-in (glad I got 2 yards of the silk). I really wanted an exposed spine, but I don't think it would be stable enough as the books are about 3 inches thick.


I'll take more pics and post them this week. The marbled papers arrived and I've been hand tarring the sheets to size.

The Arg of Bookmaking

I've come to understand that some projects are cursed. This one seems to be. Printing problems, folding problems, paper problems, cover issues, embroidery problems, the linen tapes have problems, the marbled papers (actually the credit card) had issues, etc. I'm just waiting for the Boo to draw on some of the signatures when I'm not looking. I'm about to shelve the whole thing. *laugh*

It's a lovely slightly rainy day out. I think I need to go do SOMETHING else.

When You Know Too Much

Have you ever known too much about something? I know just enough about paper to make things difficult in printing the signatures for my latest project.

Paper has grain. It's a bit like a good stake that way. You can cut it along the muscle fibers or across them. Paper has pulp fibers that do the same thing. So, when making a book the grain should run the same direction as the spine.

The difficulty arises when you need 17x11 paper. NO, not 11x17. The second number tells you which direction the grain runs and I need it the 11 length to be the grain.

unfortunately the local prints shops have no idea what I'm talking about...I seem to remember this same problem with the local Joann's store and hook and eye tape...Ignorance isn't bliss, but it makes like a little easier when you don't know enough to care.

Rebinding Favs

I have rebound a couple of my favorite novels and last night I realized that "Breath and Bone" has surpassed "Sunshine" as my all time favorite book.

I have decided to design and *crosses fingers* rebind a copy of it. I've already got a few ideas and I'll need to do some sketches...and find some bones. I'm hoping that I can find Pheasant, or some other amazing flying birds bones. Maybe I need to do two copies and take one to Carol Berg.

We shall see.