Even though the weather absolutely gorgeous today, I felt out of synch with the beauty of the day.

Today was a day of melancholy for me.

Perhaps it’s because it’s close to the anniversary of the death of one of my husband’s sisters.

Perhaps it’s because the other sisters have been here visiting and now they’ve gone  home and I miss them.

Perhaps it’s because the project that I have been wrestling with for days is refusing to set itself to rights and is a disappointment.

Perhaps it’s because I always feel sad when I cut down the glorious hollyhocks and sunflowers and put the yard to bed for the pending cold winter that comes so quickly and stays so long.

Anyhow…today was a melancholy day.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

But then….

I walked past

a group of

‘Blessed Bunny’

tatting shuttles

that I’d just finished

varnishing.

They stopped me

in my tracks and

just made my heart leap up

in delight…. Yes!

And then!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I turned around

and saw the

most

incredibly gorgeous

rainbow in the studio!

wow…..

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

And, then,

I looked down

at my much worn

comfie old socks,

and saw that they

were in need of

darning.

So I poured myself

a cup of tea,

and sat down and

indulged myself

in one of the great

simple pleasures of all time.

I darned my sock.

And, decided that these three things  were pretty good metaphors as metaphors go….. sometimes, things get worn and threadbare, but they can be patched. And, there is much joy to be had in stopping to be touched by charming small things, and to feel blessed by a miracle of nature. But… it takes noticing. And, it takes courage to not run and hide from the melancholy.

I have set the unco-operative project aside, and I am darning another sock and sipping more tea, and feeling very grateful to live a life that is full of small, but sweet and simple pleasures. I am lucky and blessed indeed.

And, yes, melancholy is part of life at times, but there are ways of facing it and finding the blessings and coming home to joy….

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo copyright Sherry Pence, used with permission

I asked Sherry a bunch of questions, and she has graciously answered them for me.

The photos are all Sherry’s and she has given me permission to include them in this profile.

I began by asking Sherry where she lives:

I currently live in Idaho, but that may change soon. I am a military spouse and we move a LOT; we go where our country tells us to at any given moment. We have moved an average of once per year for the last 10 years. Idaho has been my favorite place to live thus far, so I plan to make the most out of my stay in this great State.

1.  You are well known for the beautiful threads that you dye and the unique tatting shuttles that you make. Can you tell us a little about the process of how you design your threads and shuttles?

My ceramic shuttles came first. You see, I am a studio potter by day. I have been a tatter since the age of 12. As a tatting shuttle collector, studio potter and avid tatter I had the idea one day to combine my love of the three and make ceramic tatting shuttles. After a frustrating year of one failure after another, I had successfully produced a product that was worthy enough to send out to several tatters to be tested.

Since I often get this question in reference to my shuttles I made a slide show of the process:

SLIDE SHOW

I cannot talk about “Hand Dyed Threads”, (known in the tatting community as HDT; something which many tatters get hopelessly addicted to) without referencing the very talented Marilee Rockley aka “YarnPlayer”. She was the first to start dyeing threads specifically for tatting and was my inspiration to start dyeing myself. I began as a customer of hers and of course became hopelessly addicted myself. I kept asking her to custom dye colorways for me and I became too impatient to wait for my thread to arrive in the mail. So I started dyeing skeins for myself. It was such a natural fit into my artistic life and routine, that with Marilee’s blessing, I started to sell skeins along with my ceramic shuttles. Thereafter, I became the second tatting HDT supplier. With some ideas of my own and the support of the tatting community, HDT has kind of taken over my life. LOL sometimes I feel like a drug dealer who is addicted to her own product.

2. Do you have a favorite style of shuttle to design and make?

I make post style shuttles; small ones, big ones, shuttles with pic tips, double decker shuttles, whatever fuels my fancy. Although I don’t have a favorite, I do enjoy making the “Diane” shuttle. It is one of my most regal shuttles. They are a bit more challenging to make than the others, and I never tire of looking at them. link to-diane-shuttle

photo copyright Sherry Pence, used with permission

3. What aspect of being a designer and artisan is most challenging to you?

I think dealing with rejection is the hardest part of putting oneself “out there”. I design and create because I believe in it and I am driven to do it. It cannot matter to me what anyone else thinks. I cannot be hindered by rules and tradition. I live “outside the box”. I have to trust my instincts, be patient and believe that there is an ultimate reason that I pour my whole heart into what I do.

4. What part of being a designer and artisan is the most rewarding to you?

The most rewarding element of my work is the “aha” moment when I discover a solution to a design problem that has been alluding me for months. I thrive on puzzles and challenges, and there are certainly many to be found in the ever growing and changing world of tatting.

5. How long have you been designing and crafting shuttles and threads professionally?

I finally went public with my shuttles in January of 2007 not including the year of research and development beforehand. I added HDT to my Etsy shop in November of 2007 and then the hand dyed silk was added a little over one year ago in the summer of 2008.

6. What triggers your creativity?  What is most inspiring to you?

It may sound trite, but I am heavily inspired by nature, especially the detail of things, all of which can be translated into tatting. Design challenges really trigger my creativity. I’ll start with an idea and I will not stop until I have a satisfactory result. No matter how long a problem may take I am relentless in my pursuit of finding a solution.

7.  Is tatting the only medium that you design in, or do you design other things, too?

I have been a creative soul ever since I can remember. If I look back on my life, I recognize that I was creative in everything I attempted, it is my nature. Whatever I happen to set my mind to at the moment I will try to somehow make it new or different. I also enjoy photography, writing, painting, just to name a few, in addition to ceramics and tatting.

8.  What is your favorite way of getting your designs out into the world?

Before the internet became conducive to what I do, I would show my work in art galleries and art shows across the U.S. But now I exclusively use the internet to get myself and my work “out there”. Etsy.com and Blogger.com have been an utter “Godsends” to my workflow.

9. Does where you live influence your work in any way?

Although I can’t pinpoint anything specific, I am positive that I am influenced by my surroundings. In the last decade I have lived in the Deep South, the Midwest and now the Pacific Northwest. I just moved back to the United States after a year long tour in South Korea. I have gained wide and varied experiences which I know has to manifest through my work in some way.

10. Where can people buy your work?

WWW.LadyShuttleMaker.Etsy.Com

WWW.MadMadPotter.Etsy.Com

11. Do you maintain a blog? If so, what is it’s url?

Yes I have a very active blog with tatting tutorials, free patterns and links to just about every tatting site out there. It can be found at Lady Shuttle Maker’s Blog

12. Do you have a tatting community that influences you and is important to you? (online or ‘real life’).  Is it important to you to be in touch with your peers?

I have no one in “real” life that I can tat with so the online tatting community is extremely important to me; I consider them family. With the recent explosion of interest in tatting, new tatting blogs and sites are popping up everywhere, which is very exciting to see. We, as a tatting community, are rapidly growing, so I am not sure how long we can hang on to that “personal” element which translates into how helpful we are to one another. But for now, and as long as I can, I will keep my online tatting friends close to my heart.

photo copyright Sherry Pence, used with permission

13. Do you have an all time favorite piece that you designed?

Hmmm…I have many favorites and they are constantly changing. My current favorite is a butterfly design which will be one of many new patterns featured in my upcoming book “The Exquisite Collection of Tatted Butterflies II”. Here is a sneak peak: Butterfly Book

photo copyright Sherry Pence, used with permission

14. Is there a design that has ever flumoxed you and just refused to work out?

Oh yes, “Royal Diadem” took me 6 months to design. I wanted it to be perfect, lie flat, be continuously tatted, have repeating harmonious themes and include several advanced tatting techniques. I took this design back to the drawing board a multitude of times. But in the end my persistence won out and now the pattern is a book in and of itself. 

15. Is there anything that I have missed that you would like to share with the readers of Hankering for Yarn?

Don’t be afraid to put yourself “out there”; to share yourself and your ideas. Whatever you give will come back to you tenfold and is well worth the effort in the end. Don’t take yourself too seriously; a good sense of humor is a must! If you can’t laugh at yourself from time to time then what is the point? Try to enjoy every minute of life while you can; reach out and grasp all the precious moments before they pass you by.

Thank you so much, Sherry! I wish you the greatest of ongoing successes!

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Ours was lovely, although we are all so exhausted we are walking into walls……

it’s been moving week for our daughter and her husband, so we’ve been scrubbing,

sanding, priming, painting, packing, moving moving moving…. yargle………

Anyhow…. we had a lovely supper with the whole family, and afterwards,  my daughter-in-law and son brought out a special little Easter treat….

the chocolate bunny was delightful, but even better…..

The lovely tin box it came in has become the home for some of my crochet hooks and tatting shuttles.

I have a major soft spot for rabbits, and as soon as my daughter-in-law and son saw the box, they knew that I’d love it. Bless their hearts!

They were right…. the box is lovely, and the rabbit is just wonderful.

I am going to enjoy keeping  small projects, or  crochet hooks and tatting shuttles in the new bunny box!

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

I’ve been focused on finishing up the designs and projects for a new book, and have been totally immersed in it.  Oops…. the homework  for the tatting class got  pushed to the back burner.

I decided today that I would play catchup, and get going on the homework.

I filled a tatting shuttle with rainbow colored hemp cord and tatted up the first exercise.

I decided that it would make a great bookmark….

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

so…… I tatted up the side of the first section, and added a dragonfly at the top of the bookmark.

I quite like tatting with unusual yarns  like hemp cord, but, you have to make allowances for it’s idiosincratic nature.

The thickness of the cord tends to change, and sometimes you get little tussocky bits.

It makes it somewhat challenging to tat, but it’s still fun, and I do recommend it.

I then switched to silk thread that I had left over from tatting butterflies for my daughter’s wedding dress a couple of years ago.

The silk thread is very fine and soft, and when I was making the butterflies I found that a single strand made incredibly tiny butterflies.

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

Because of this, I doubled it up and worked with 2 strands.  It’s lovely thread and tats up beautifully.

And so, then,  I finished up the homework for the second lesson  of the course.

I had intended to move straight on to the homework for the third lesson,  but I got distracted.

I was giving our dog a bone to chew on, when I noticed that one of the bones that the dogs had already chewed clean was really straight and hollow.

I had an ‘upcycling’ moment, and  thought…

photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

I could make tatting shuttles from this!

Earlier in the weekend, I had joined the Trashion upcycling/recycling team on etsy, so I was definitely ‘pre-programmed’ to be thinking about alternative uses of materials!

(I took a pic of the bone, but when I was photoshopping it, the program hung royally. Arghhh.

Anyhow, trust me…. it was a big old, cleaned bare bone that the dogs had had a lovely time with.)

I scrubbed it off, and traced my templates onto it.

My husband called out to me to wear the heavy duty dust mask as I was trotting out to the workshop.  You bet… I didn’t fancy inhaling the sand off the bone!

I was a little concerned about what it would be like to saw and file and sand.

all photos by Noreen Crone-Findlay (copyright)

It definitely has grain…. and it does splinter if you catch it the wrong way with the files.

But…. I really like the way the bone polishes up.

I decided to take a chance and see if I could use my wood burner on the bone. Yes! and it didn’t even smell! I thought that it might…..

The finished tatting shuttles feel really nice. They are light and smooth and pleasing to the touch.

So, it was really worthwhile to take a chance and follow my inclination about experimenting with the dog’s old chewie bones.

Although they keep coming up to me and looking very, very sad about their Mum snitching their treat……

And, oh yes…. I really ought to get back to that homework.  If this class was in the ‘real’ world, I’d probably be relegated to the back of the class!  Ahem.

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

But, we have a greyhound, so we could never have a pet hedgehog. (’Mmmm, tasty’, I can imagine him saying….)

So, recently, when one of my readers asked me if I would make a teardrop shaped tatting shuttle, I did some sketches, and played with it, and came up with:

I am VERY pleased with it!

It tats like a dream, not at all spikey like it’s real life inspiration.

I love it when fun things evolve out of conversations with my hankering for yarn buddies!

Image  Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Tatting Chic won the Lady Hoare tatting shuttle that I gave away recently on my blog.

She wrote about it: Tatting Chic and the new Lady Hoare shuttle

She was disappointed to find it slow and difficult to work with.

The Lady Hoare tatting shuttles are slower to work with, but you can move along with them at a fair clip, once you get used to them.

AND, there is a secret to working with them comfortably.

Pinch lightly on one of the openings, and have the rest of the tatting shuttle ‘float’ out in front of your fingers.   A closed shuttle will sit mostly inside your hand, so adjusting to the ‘floating hold’ does make the Lady Hoare easier to use.  It’ll seem odd at first, but it will click for you, and it’ll work beautifully.

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay  copyright

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Well…. the first winner of the earrings didn’t respond to her email or the  shout outs on the blog  about the contest, so I did a second chance draw.

Here’s the winner: WINNER

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

2 of the winners have not done that yet…. so I am going to give them until midnight tonight and if they haven’t responded by then…. I will draw again for these earrings:

Gold color tatted butterfly earrings contest winner

Tatted cotton rainbow earrings contest winner

A fair warning!

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

Click here to see the WINNERS of the contest 

And now, to get the envelopes ready to mail to the lucky winners!

Image source: Noreen Crone-Findlay 

Post from: Hankering for Yarn

photo copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay

People have been asking me if the Little Bird Tatting Shuttle is available for purchasing.

I have sold out the Little Bird tatting shuttles, but do have a few of the Blue Birds of Happiness left.

Post from: Hankering for Yarn