I have had some lovely messages & conversations this week, via different media. Thank you to those who have been in touch.
One realizes the extent to which fellowship helps you carry heavy loads and make them feel just a little lighter. Not all contexts make those conversations possible, so they are even more special when they happen.
I’ll talk about a few of the takeaways from this week, but I’ll do so against a backdrop of something that I’ve mentioned before here on the blog… the lacemaking technique of tatting. As recently as January I mentioned that I was wanting to do a bit more… well, here’s what I’ve done since then…
Another Timely Message
I’ll tell you what. Melinda Poitras is the real deal. After reading my post, she reached out and shared the link to a message she preached the Wednesday before I published my post.
It’s well worth the listen, here’s the YouTube link.
Remember what I said about the timeliness of Rev. Trent Gilliam’s message & Melinda’s books? Yet again, here’s another message, which speaks directly to the situation we’re living, given within 3 days of me hitting publish on my post.
Sometimes God’s just too cool for school!
(While it may sound almost flippant to say it that way, it’s hard to just chalk those things up to coincidence and it’s another sign that God hasn’t lost our address.)
Happy Knots:
I picked up this variegated ball of DMC cotton about a year ago. When I found my extra shuttle (the others are currently occupied with white projects), I loaded it up and tackled a pattern I’d been wanting to try for years.
I’ve made a lot of bookmarks but this one was going to be bigger than what I usually do, owing to the happy colours. With an extra day off school… I finished it in a jiffy.
The colours (orange is my favourite) and the cleanliness of the design (in the absence of an abundance of picots) really appeal to me.
Small homemade luxury!
Psalm 34
The words of this psalm were brought to my attention this week and I’ve begun journaling my way through them.
Sometimes I’ve felt that there can be an awful lot of pressure to ‘read the Bible in a year’ or ‘read the Bible in x-months’. While this is an admirable goal, it sets me up for failure every blessed time. I have never yet managed to complete it in a year and as soon as I get off track or behind, it’s a race against the clock and I find myself reading to catch up rather than reading to understand... or peer into the eternal.
I’ve been reading through the psalm daily and meditating / journaling on one verse at a time. Sure, it’d be a slow go if one was trying to journal one’s way through the whole Bible that way, but I’m more honest about, and am getting more value from, digesting one verse at a time than I’ve been in some time.
Happy Knots:
Somewhere in Canada we have a little box, filled with a number of tatted hearts that I used to decorate for Valentine’s day. We initially left them there because we were only coming for a year or two (*clears throat*).
We were missing them, so I made the bottom heart to go with the pink & white roses I’d gotten Liz for Feb. 14th. We had one like this back home… so it was a nod to the past.
The top heart is, again, a pattern I’d noticed quite some time ago, but had never done. I’m honestly surprised at how small it is, but then again, I like tatting with small thread… it makes the most delicate lace.
Journaling
It’s one thing to journal and focus on scripture, it’s another thing altogether just to journal.
Before coming to France, I was an avid journaler. I have a small stack of Paperblanks journals that are filled to overflowing (ras-le-bol… but in a good sense!). Somehow, I’ve gotten away from it. Undoubtedly, blogging has been partly responsible for that; I write my thoughts down for a wider audience. The nice thing about offline journaling though, is that there’s a whole lot less self-editing and perhaps a bit more honesty.
It’s not that I’m dishonest on the blog, but there’s always going to be a bit more honest self-reflection when journaling privately.
It’s been good to get back to that.
Happy Knots:
The bottom motif is one that I tatted up based on an Instagram post I saw. The designer hadn’t published or referenced a pattern, so I eye-balled it. Here you can see what I meant above about the abundance of picots and the look it gives to tatted pieces.
The top motif is another that I had to eye-ball & recreate from a photo. It’s a miniature maple leaf, in a nod to my home country. It’s just. so. tiny!
Tatting & Visible Results
I’ve done more tatting in the past month, than I’ve probably done in the past 2-3 years: Different patterns, different threads…
I’ve referred to it before as cheap therapy… but there’s something slightly hypnotic about the repetition of the hand movements and something gratifying about the visible progress. That’s one reason I refer to them as Happy Knots.
That notion of visible progress / results, or relative lack thereof, has been part of the struggle for me. There have been too many times where it felt like “1 step forward and two steps back”.
It’s never about results… but social pressure would have it be.
1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
1 Corinthians 4.1-2
2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
I kind of love this verse, and have highlighted it to Bible students, for the following reason. It teaches that as stewards (people to whom something has been entrusted) what is required is simply that we be found faithful with what has been entrusted.
We’re called to faithfulness… not success (whatever criteria we use to judge that). In the end, success is only truly measured on God’s criteria and God’s timeline… not ours.
That being said, though I love the verse for that reason and have taught it that way… still, I put pressure on myself for the success portion. 🙄
There’s room for improvement, so thankfully the Lord is patient about working out my knots.
AIM Long 
Your tatting is beautiful and very pretty although I can crochet I had to look at the process of tatting a learning curve :)…I hope you have a lovely weekend, Mike 🙂
Yeah… I crochet as well. In fact, I was crocheting when my friend’s great-grandmum asked me if I was tatting / or if I knew how to tat. She was the first to introduce me to it; in 1994. I’m soooo glad she did. I go back ‘n’ forth between tatting & crochet… I’m currently on a tatting streak. Have a lovely week as well Carol!!
A beautiful post and your tatting is remarkably beautiful too!