Gentle Spiders,
Finished and mailed off to Cathleen Belleville the samples inspired by her Rosa Libre workshop sometime last week. Which left me with a few days before my son's arrival and an empty pillow/idle bobbins. So I decided to try out Colcoton 34/2 for Windrose #1 (it works nicely <g>), since, having sent off most of them in cards, I was left with only one for my own tree. Finished *that* yesterday, about half an hour before my DH drove back from Roanoke (the nearest airport) with him in the passenger seat.
So I was at loose ends this morning. Cooking and laundry were under control, puter lesson couldn't be scheduled (DS is going to be working throughout the holidays having phone and on-line "meetings", and my lessons need to be woven around thhose as well as around "the call of the stove and oven"). Cleaning didn't appeal (it never does <g>). Clearly, I needed at least a bit of a lace-fix... But what?
There are things I *should* be doing - getting together a pattern and article for the Spring issue of the Bulletin (deadline Feb 15) being "it". But there I'm stuck. Windrose #3, the one in Milanese with optical illusions refuses to gel. Windrose #4 (in Polychrome) will require all my braincells all at once, not just the few I'll be able to spare in between the trips to the stove and oven, and for several weeks at least; if I manage to get that one out in time for the Summer issue, it'll be a major miracle. The "Detour with Paisleys", which I started working on when I first got stuck on W#3 is in a half-baked stage. It was left there since I learnt that it would be at least 21 days before I got the silks from Pipers; I lost the impetus to keep improving it. The pattern, if fully developed, would do very nicely for the Spring issue of the Bulletin which will be on Polychrome (and the pattern is semi-Polychrome, using some of the techniques) but what's the point of fiddling with the pricking, if I can't test it out?
There's something I *could* be doing... Any of the numerous kits I have from Lenka Suchanek, or even one of my own versions of the paisley I learnt in her classs (promised one of those as a gift. Not necessarily a Christmas gift, thankfully <g>). Or, I could be doing a re-make of my census tag. I had it all done, and then came up with a better mouse trap - I improved one of the elements to the point where the first version was no longer acceptable :)
Decisions, decisions, decisions... I made a pricking for the new tag, but only half-heartedly. Not only did the guilt feelings about the work left un-done keep me uncomfortable, but, 3 months of nothing but fiddling with a couple of Rosa-Libresque elements was enough of an overdose to have taken the edge off the appetite for it... And I never work well without the initial fizz of excitement, which will probably take a month or so to come back.
And then... PO takes the decision out of my hands :) Late in the afternoon, in my mailbox, there's a little padded bag, with Royal Mail metered sticker on it (postage in UK is high too, it seems <g>), and a faint stamp of return address on the back. *Pipers*, as a live and breathe :) So, OK, a bit more than 21 days, more like 30, but it's here! Thread for the sample, and thread for the project (something to wear, though neither very imaginative nor original, I'm afraid; just an edging for a dress neckline)! Merry Chrismas to me :)
I *almost* wish tomorrow was January 1, and I could begin to concentrate on nothing else but the pattern, instead of stealing moments here and there. But, tomorrow, I'll pull out the pricking and the diagram, and see what needs to be done about the blasted scallops (always my weakest point), to make the threads go in and out in an orderly fashion - not too many pins, and not too few. And then, the pillow test... How many plies there'll need to be in the worker to make sure that the skimpy few passives are not only sufficient (without constantly adding and subtracting) to fill a motif, but that I can also pull out 2 prs, in the widest spot, to make a raised (but not rolled) leaf tally?
All the old excitment is back, a constant stream of champagne fizz <g> Even the many Christmass-related chores and the puter lessons seem more palatable, less daunting, now that I know which path to follow. And that I'll be working towards fullfilling my obligation in respect of the Bulletin (no guilt feelings <g>) is an icing on the cake...
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Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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