Wardrobe!

So, I started out yesterday morning wearing my completed Brioche Bodice for the Very First Time, paired with a simple, knee-length grey knit skirt:



Apologies for angle of the self-portrait.. Here's one of it flat, but it's almost as bad an angle the other way..



And somewhere in the course of the day, I ended up wearing this (note the cute black sandals - those are the ones I got in Chicago):



No, it's not because the Brioche Bodice is a touch too see-through to wear without something underneath it (it is, but it wasn't so bad that I felt I couldn't survive a day in it). Neither is it because I had a terribly tragic accident and had to change my clothing.

No, much more nefarious, it was a plot hatched by my co-workers (faces intentionally blurred).



See, Fran (she's the second from the left) is retiring. And apparently some weeks ago, Betsy (she's the one in the middle) wore this dress to the office and Fran commented that it looked awfully familiar. And it was a nice little chuckle and we all forgot about it (well, to be honest, I never knew about it.. my office is somewhat removed from the central office, so I tend to be rather out of the loop on these kinds of things).

Until yesterday when Fran and Betsy both showed up in the dress. And, as coincidence would have it, yesterday was Fran's retirement party (you were wondering how that figured into all this, weren't you?), so the collective mind that is the females in the central office decided we all needed the dress. And it was even on sale - half off of $40 - and an unnamed accomplice was willing to run out for all of us who were scheduled into meetings and interviews and other Very Important Activities(tm) and get them for us in time for us to be a sort of warped version of the Bobsey Twins at the party yesterday afternoon.

(I admit it, my arm was twisted - I'm not usually one for smocking in dresses, but I need some more summer work clothes, and it was all for a good laugh, so I caved. I have to admit that other than the smocking, I rather like the dress. And the smocking is sort of growing on me. Or at least, I haven't felt the need to rip it off my body yet.)

Brought to you by the letters..

Those are the three prints by Ursula that Jack got me for Christmas. The women who took our order for the framing seemed to rather disapprove of the brightly colored mats - she thought we should use more subdued tans and browns to complement the sepia tone of the prints - but I rather like how they turned out.

(Yes, yes, I'm behind on the ABC-along.. and while I could pr'bly technically use this as the K entry, I sort of feel like that's cheating. I owe at least K, L and pr'bly M at this point. I'll try to get them up soon.)

In other news, I've made progress on both the Brioche Bodice..



(shown here with the shoulders seamed, but still needing side seams, ends woven in, and blocking)

NOTE: I started this post last Thursday. Since then, I've finished weaving in the ends and seaming the bodice, but I need to make a minor modification to the neckline. It plunges rather drastically right now and since I'd like it to be work-friendly, I'm going to fix that, probably tonight. I'll try to talk Jack into taking a picture to post of it finished.

.. and the Candle Flame Wrap.



(shown here half-way through, which is *exactly* 7 pattern repeats, but without any attempt to pseudo-block it)

I'm not sure I like how the colors started to pool in the second half of the first skein, but it looks like they're spreading out again so hopefully it will work out okay in the end.

In the meantime, I have collected some worsted weight mohair in a dark green (and still have some in a light yellow) and am thinking they're going to become scarves or shawls or something of that sort to donate to auctions or whatever. Or maybe even just to hang on to as "last-minute" gifts. We'll see.

Otherwise, my stash yarn that is of sufficient quantity to plan projects has dwindled, so I might have to replenish some at Stitch DC this weekend. Must remember to leave extra room in my suitcase to bring back yarn. *smile*

One of these things..

.. is not like the others..



That would the entrance to the dining room from the kitchen. It turns out that the trim around that door was white, grey, peach, white again, off-white, white another time and pr'bly a few other colors thrown in for good measure over the course of the last mumbletysome years. And while I can understand not scraping down your *walls* every time you repaint them, why would you not in any of that time think that it might, oh, I don't know look better if you scraped the old (flaking, chipping) paint off the *trim* before applying the new paint?

This does not even begin to address why *some*one in the last mumbletysome years didn't want to restore the trim to it's natural wood so it would, oh, I don't know, match the rest of the woodwork in the house. *sigh* Fortunately, the wood underneath all that paint is beautiful. Unfortunately, there's the rest of this door frame, a single window frame, and another door frame (and a door, but that might just get full out replaced) in the kitchen like this, and a single window frame, a medicine cabinet frame, and another door frame (and another door, which again might just get full out replaced) in the upstairs bathroom still to do.

The above was the results of I think four or five coats of orange stripper stuff. We're going to try a heat gun on the rest because while the stripper isn't difficult, nor likely to be any less of a mess than a heat gun, a heat gun will hopefully be faster and cheaper. The stripper needs to sit for at least an hour before you can strip it off again, so now you know what I did today.

Yesterday was largely this..



Those are the two dining room windows, which were darker before, but now have mumbletysome years old varnish removed so now you can see the wood grain and not the cracks and slubs in the mumbletysome years old varnish. Mumbletysome years old varnish turns to sludge when you put in the stripper stuff, which isn't bad, just.. messy. But a heat gun is not an option on this woodwork (which, as I mentioned, other than the kitchen & upstairs bathroom, is the most of the rest of the house, including the stairs and the eight inch baseboard trim around every room), so there will still be lots more orange stripping stuff in my future.

The windows still need to be sanded and we have to decide if we want to just poly over them as they are now and try to match the unfinished doorway into the laundry room to them, or restain them and try to match the unfinished doorway stain to the new stain. But that will be decided later. Because I still need to strip the baseboard and the entry to the living room, which leads to doing the living room baseboard and windows, which lead to doing the stairs (because the baseboard runs into the stairs, which are framed in matching trim). So it's unlikely we'll get to the actual finishing of this re-finishing project for quite some time.

But at least now it's started. And that is a Good Day's Work(tm).

Rust, varnish and mud.

Note: My extended family has recently broadened their internet horizons and since at least one of my uncles (Hi, Uncle Jerry!) likes to know what we're up to, I've pointed them here. This shouldn't change what I post about, but you may find that I put in more explanation than usual to keep things clear.

Things might seem quiet lately, but only because I've been trying to work in the garden and start working on some home improvement stuff lately, so I've not had much progress in knitting bits to report. *shrug* I'm still working on the Flaming Candle Scarf during my morning commute and I have the front of the Brioche Bodice about half complete, so there might be more interesting things to see in a few days.

In the yard, things are growing fast. The yellow flowers that I think are a variety of coneflower are doing well and very pretty. The phlox hasn't started blooming yet, but the plants are getting to about the right height to start kicking out flowers. I have one lonely little orange lily stuck in the midst of the yellow flowers that's just bloomed the last day or two and I'm trying to decide if I should snip it and bring it inside to enjoy.

(All pictures are clickable thumbnails; clicking on the picture will open a larger verison of it.)


There's a mystery flower popping up in the front lawn direcly underneath the bushes. It's beautiful, but I have no idea what it is other than to speculate based on leaf-shape that it's related to a bleeding heart. The flower looks more like a fuschia to me, but they aren't supposed to grow "wild" here. Part of why I want to identify it is so I can figure out how to transplant it before we pull those bushes out or it will probably get pulled out with the bushes when they go.



The roses have also started blooming, both the bright pink bush in the front and the light pink old fashioned ones in the back.



The bush in the front seems to have become infested with "rust", though, as has the big bush that I haven't identified yet, so we picked up some fungicide today to try to make it go away. I have to wait to spray though because it's threatening rain this afternoon.



The apple trees also appeared to have some sort of disease issue, but I looked it up on the Extension website and they said that it wasn't something treatable, but also wasn't something that was likely to cause permanent damage to the trees. We might not get as much fruit this year, but since we don't actually harvest the apples to eat anyway, I'm not worried about it. They did advise, however, that we clear the deadfalls away completely at the end of the year to prevent this from coming back.

I planted the 4 O'Clocks and cukes in the interior bed and they seem to be surviving and maybe starting to thrive. The tomatoes were not as successful in the side bed. I think there's a rather large colony of ants that managed to eat all the little baby tomato leaves in the course of two days. So in addition to the fungicide, we also picked up ant spikes to try to kill the colony. Once I'm not seeing active signs of ants in that bed, I'll plant more seedlings (I didn't plant all the first one I started because I worried that something might happen to the first set).

Inside, I've started stripping varnish off the window in the dining room. The orange stripping stuff we got works very well and is pretty easy, so that's been kind of a fun project. I'm hoping to finish the window today and maybe start on the door frame between the dining room and the kitchen. The stripper says it works on paint and varnish and I would *LOVE* to get the nasty pale teal paint off the woodwork in the kitchen. It that goes well, the upstairs bathroom will be next, even though it's "out of order".

So far the stripped wood is beautiful. There enough of the color of the varnish soaked into the wood itself that it's still dark even after a light sanding, but with all the old varnish stripped, you can actually see the wood grain. We may just sand it down and put a coat of polyeurethene over it instead of reapplying varnish.

I haven't set up the pottery wheel yet, mostly because I'm still trying to devise a way to bring it to WW (which is a camping event for the SCA in Black River Falls) to set up at Artisan's Row, which I'm coordinating this year. I'd love to have the wheel there for folks to try, along with some handbuilding stuff (assuming I can get Mark to spend some time on the Row doing handbuilding since it's really not my area of expertise), but it's rather cumbersome and we already load the car *full* to get our regular equipment there. There's a possibility that we could make two trips, but that just seems extravagant, especially with gas prices where they are. But I'm not resigned to leaving it home yet, either, so it's still in the garage awaiting a decision (it will eventually live in the basement, but since WW is so close, I didn't want to carry it down there just to have to carry it back up in a couple weeks if I can find a way to get it there).

I need to do more beating of the bushes to get artisan's for the Row, too. It sounds like we have a strong Dyer's Corner contingent. I've also heard from an armorer, but I'm not sure if he will end up on the Row or over in Smith's Corner, and one of the Shires is taking on scribal stuff. There's a couple folks who've expressed interest in music, which I think would rock - imagine spending a day working on a project with a group of live musicians playing period (or period-esque) instruments in the background! - so I hope that pans out.

I'm a bit surprised not to have any carvers, cooks, or spinners/weavers/knitters yet, so I think I'll drop a line to a couple guilds and see if I can get any takers. It seems that groups centered around a common theme will be more feasible, so I'm trying to promote that idea while still making sure it's clear that individual artisan's are more than welcome. I'm not inclined to stress over it overmuch, though. At least some stuff will happen, so that's a good start.

In other more or less random news, our white Taurus died this week. The transmission went out on Jack while he was driving up the big hill on the way home. The car is 12 years old, so it's not really worth putting more money into it to fix it. Fortunately, we commute together so we don't *need* to replace it immediately. We're doing some research and so far we think we'd like to try to get a used Pontiac Vibe, though we're also planning to test drive a PT Cruiser to see what we think. Our second car just needs to get decent gas mileage (we don't need something we can load up for events and the like because the grey Taurus works just fine for that), but we can't afford to buy a new one, so we're keeping an eye out for good deals.

Jali also had her annual check up this morning, complete with Distemper and Rabies shots. She's getting old, so the vet essentially confirmed that some of the things we've started seeing in the last year - cataracts, trouble with her back legs - are just signs of aging and not anything acute we need to be worried about. He gave us some glucosamine treats for her that they've had good success with in helping with arthritic joints in dogs and suggested we use a special dental formulated food to keep tartar from building up and possibly causing infections, so we have a small bag of that to try out.

Most productive morning in weeks.

Thanks, in part, to the City Minion who decided that 6:30 a.m. was the perfect time to sweep the streets, and, in part, to an impatient little black dog who wanted breakfast, I was up before 7 this morning even though I have today off. (I, in fact, have the next several Friday's off, in an effort to use up some vacation time and get some much needed time at home.)

Rather than wallow in self-pity, though, I decided to get up and start my day. I had several bananas that were just about overripe that I wanted to make muffins or bread or something with and we're going to some friends tonight for a barbecue and are supposed to bring something desserty, so the arrival of the newest Cooking Pleasures (the Cooking Club of America* magazine (website is largely members only) yesterday was well-timed.

There are several recipes in this edition that I want to try - there's a recipe for Chicken Satay with peanut sauce that I'm *dying* to try (I've been accused of only ordering the chicken to use as a vehicle for getting as much peanut sauce as possible into my mouth.. I will neither confirm nor deny that motive. *grin*) and a couple other things on the grill that I'm intending to try to talk Jack into trying. There's also a recipe for "Fruity Morning Muffins" - which, in addition to bananas, has strawberries and raspberries - and a recipe for "Mixed Berry Cobbler", both of which I made this morning before it got to warm to contemplate turning on the oven.

The muffins are spectacular. Moist and delicious and perfect for quick breakfasts. I had two for breakfast this morning and have stashed half of the rest in the freezer for later and the other half will undoubtedly be gone by midweek. The cobbler looks wonderful, but as it's for the barbecue tonight, I haven't tasted it yet. But really, it's fairly difficult to mess up cobbler, so I'm not expecting any tragedy.

While the cobbler was baking, I had some coffee and checked my email** and watched My Man Godfrey with Jack. Once the cobbler was finished, I grabbed my little garden spikey-diggy-up-thing and went out to weed the interior garden bed in anticipation of soon being able to plant the 4 O'Clocks and cucumbers there. Managed to get a rather large blister on my finger, but the bed is weeded and ready to planted once the plants get just a little bit bigger.

And it's not even noon yet. *self-satisfied smile*

.. I wonder if I can make that chicken satay for lunch..

* The Cooking Club of America is well worth the membership. I am, in fact, a lifetime member (which means I don't pay dues anymore because I paid something like 10 years of dues all during one year), so I get the magazine every two months and all the wonderful recipes and pictures and also get the opportunity to test products free. Most recently, I was sent a coupon for a free bag of Ghiradelli 60% Cacoa Chocolate Chips, which I already use regularly to make truffles because they melt and set up so nicely and taste divine. I've also tested spice mixes and kitchen tools and a popover pan and a variety of other things over the last several years and while none of it has been hold-the-phone-oh-my-this-is-really-valuable, we have found several things that have become staples of our kitchen. Plus, it's fun to try out new things and both the magazine and the product tests give me an excuse to do that. Oh, and they have several recipe exchange things and you can order reprints of any recipe they've printed, up to something like 6 per year free and for a nominal charge after that.

** Got some rather terrible news in so doing. Nothing that is terrible directly for us, but news that the child of an acquaintance died last night. Obviously, this is nothing to simply gloss over and we are sending are thoughts to the parents as they struggle with what is undoubtedly hell. We are well assured that they are surrounded by a multitude of loving and supportive friends and family, though, so they are getting whatever solace is possible from those that love them.

J is for Janggu.

(Title is linked to a Wikipedia article on janggu, much of which is also quoted below.)

This is a janggu..



.. one of four percussion instruments used in Samul Nori, or traditional Korean drumming. I was persuaded this past spring to join a Samul Nori ensemble group on campus and I'm now officially hooked.

First, a bit more information on the drum itself:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Janggu is the most widely used percussion instrument in most kinds of Korean traditional music. It is made from a hollow wooden body and two leather skins. The two sides produce sounds of different pitch and tone, which then played together, represents the harmony of man and woman.

The oldest historical record about this hourglass drum can be traced to the reign of King Munjong (1047-1084) of Goryeo. This instrument has been found both in a mural painting of Goguryeo tomb and in the bell inscriptions belonging to the Silla period. Whereas the Buk is used to accompany vocal music such a Pansori, the Janggu is usually classified as an accompanying instrument because of its flexible nature and its agility with complex rhythm. Janggu is one of the leather percussion instruments consisting of an hour-glass shaped body with two heads (hides or skins) lapped onto metal hoops placed over the open ends of the body and secured by counter-hoops. It goes by the name either Janggu or Janggo, also sometimes called Seyogo (slim waist drum) because of the large heads and its slim waist.

The left head ('Buk' side) is covered with a thick cowhide, horsehide, or deer skin and produces deep and low tones. The right side ('chae' side) is usually covered with a lighter horsehide and produces higher tones. Either porcelain, tile, metal, wood, guard, or tinned sheet can be used to make the body. Popular choices are poplar and paulownia woods. However, paulownia is most popular because it is the lightest and the best resonating material that produces beautiful sounds. The round tube in the middle connecting the left and right side of the hour-glass shaped body is called Jorongmok. The size of the Jorongmok determines the quality of tone: the wider the tube, the deeper and huskier it sounds; the narrower the tube, the harder and snappier it sounds.

{..tangent snipped..}

There are two kinds of sticks (chae)- 'Gungchae' and 'Yeolchae'. Gungchae is made from a bamboo root, boiled and straightened out. A hardwood, such as birch, or antler bone is fitted onto the end of the stick. Yeolchae is made from a bamboo stick.

Since the performer can use his/her hands as well as sticks, various sounds and tempo, deep and full, soft and tender, menacing sounds, and fast and slow beats - can be created to suit the mood of the audience. Using this capability, a dexterous performer can dance along moving his/her shoulders up and down and make the audience carried away and dance along with him/her. The way performers carry the Janggu differ from person to person, from region to region and varies depending on his/her taste.

So far I've learned three songs (Tego Sori, Young Nam Farmer's Music, and Hae Do Ji) and performed a couple of times with the ensemble. I'll learn the fourth song that the ensemble performs this summer. When we practice and perform, we sit on the floor with the drums in front of us (though there are some songs when the buk's are up on stands), set slightly off center to the left.

The music is not written in standard Western notation, and Young Nam Farmer's Music is written in a different notation from the other two pieces, so it took some time just to get oriented to the notation. There are three basic "notes" - a single hit on the left head with the Gungchae (Koong), a single hit on the right head with the Yeolchae (Ta), and hitting both heads at the same time with their respective chae (Doong). Additionally, you can cross over either chae to hit the opposite drum head (though left cross overs (hitting the right head with the Gungchae) have been most common in the pieces I've learned so far). Either chae can also be struck against the edge of either drum head - which produces more of a "click" instead of a "boom" - or struck together. Tego Sori (large audio file - 5.3 MB) has examples of all of these sounds, though it's difficult to tell which ones are produced by which methods without seeing a performance.

Janggu aren't terribly expensive, but are only available in Korea (or at least, the ones we use are), so the shipping can get exorbitant. Fortunately, if you know someone going over, they can bring a drum back with them in their checked luggage. I know two people going to Korea this summer and one has agreed to bring a drum back for me, so hopefully sometime in the next couple of months I'll have my own janggu. Until then, I'm borrowing one of the University's janggu so I can practice at home between our weekly rehearsals and catch up with the rest of the ensemble (which has been practicing off and on for about three years).

Note: This is now the third time I've completely re-written this post. I've tried to remember to get everything in with each re-write, but if something doesn't make sense or you have questions, let me know and I can fill in stuff I've missed.

Has anyone seen my "J" post..?

*sigh* I wrote my "J" post in March, way ahead of schedule, and saved it as a draft. I *swear* that the week before last, I published it. It's no longer in my drafts folder, but neither is it showing up in my blog. *grumble* I can re-write it, it's just frustrating that I was so ahead of the game and was foiled.

In the meantime, I will distract you with knitting pictures. First a couple of finished objects: the Fixation socks and the Lily ribbed tank.



I'm not sure how I like the socks. Fixation is just not.. really my thing, I think. I haven't worn them yet (in fact they're still sitting on the table like that and I think I took this picture this past weekend), so I might change my mind, but I don't think I'll make more socks out of Fixation, at least not for me. I have most of a skein of this color left plus most of a skein of a variegated colorwary, so I might make a pair for someone else using those.



The tank I like quite a bit. It could be a little longer and I probably could have made it narrower, but if I wear another tank under it (it's a little too see-thru to just wear on its own), it works just fine. I wore it Sunday to my niece's birthday party and this picture was taken after that, so it's a bit stretched out. The silk doesn't spring back as well as wool or acrylic would, but I don't really mind that.



This, of course, is Rogue. Or at least most of the hood for Rogue. I actually finished the hood this week, but don't have a more recent picture. I'm not sure if I'm going to start working on the sleeves right away or not since it's unlikely that I'll have much opportunity to wear it until fall, so it might wait until later in the summer. We'll see.

I've also continued plugging away on the Candle Flame wrap and am about four or five repeats into it, which is still only about 2/3rds of the first skein. It's sort of putzy, but I'm getting used to the chart (it's 36 rows) so it's been going better. I'm starting to wonder though if the variegated yarn is too busy for the pattern.



This is it so far, pseudo-blocked on my bulletin board at work. I think it's the striping that is bugging me - I like the light/dark pools, but the striping is a little too stark. It looks better stretched out, so I'm hoping once it's all finished and blocked properly that it will be fine.

This weekend we're escaping to my parents' cabin and I'm hoping to work on some tablet weaving, so there may not be much knitting progress to show come Tuesday, but I do have about 12 hours in the car the next four days, so there's likely to be some either on Candle Flame or on a new project.

Quick update

Was in Chicago this week. Met Cate and Sara and Minh over Thai. Was a bad knit blogger and didn't bring anything to knit. *shamed* But Cate did manage to show me how to ply (though I have to admit that I haven't really tried it yet) without either singles or a drop spindle. Nifty trick, eh?

I did, however, make some knitting progress. The first of the Simply Lovely Lace socks is finished and the second started. The yellow Lily tank is finished as of this afternoon and I hope to wear it tomorrow to my neice's birthday party. I'm to the double-decrease rows in the hood on Rogue. Pictures to follow once I get a nice sunny day and a camera with fresh batteries and the projects all in the same place at the same time.

Tomorrow I have about 5-6 hours in the car and I'm pretty sure I'll only have to drive half of it at most, which likely means the second Simply Lovely Lace sock might get close to finished and/or I might add another repeat or two to the Candle Flame Shawl. Pictures of those will happen later, too.

Signs I was not meant to work today.

1. The alternator in the car started dying half way to work this morning. I have a 25 mile commute, most of which runs through farm land. I was fortunate to make it to the little town between my little town and the little city I work in before it died completely, and the car is under warranty, so it will all be okay, but clearly someone, somewhere did *not* want me to be at work today. (I mean someone other than me.)

2. In reading local headlines, I mistakenly read "Rains keep local farmers from fields" as "Raisins keep local farmers from field" and couldn't help but picture the California Raisins standing at the edge of a field drunk and threatening farmers with pitchforks...

3. I needed a nap. Because I was home, I could take one. Serendipity? I think not.

Instead of working and while waiting to hear from the garage, I will update you all on the state of my knitting and the state of my yard. All pictures are clickable thumbnails, e.g. clicking them will open a bigger version of the picture.

Yard first.



From left to right, a shot of the violets in the raspberry patch, the small apple tree at the corner of the raspberry patch, and the raspberry patch itself. We're going to try to maintain a semblance of a path through the middle of the patch this year, which is why the straw/dead grass is in there. I'll have to be vigilant about trimming back branches to maintain the path, but hopefully it will mean we actually get some raspberries to eat this year.



This is what we think might be a Sand Cherry, or alternatively one of the plum varieties. It's a spindly little guy and hasn't been well-tended so we're not sure what to do with it (it's also in sort of an awkward place, so the discussions so far have been "move it" vs. "dig it up and dump it and get a new something that we can identify"). I don't remember it blooming last year, but we could have just missed it.



The garden bed along the south side of the house. (This bed is actually one picture longer, but at the moment that spot is mostly empty. It will be tomatoes and maybe garlic chives in a few weeks, though.) The first one is a shot of the Asiatic lily that grows by the water meter. I don't recall it blooming last year, so we'll see how it does this year. Next are the yellow flowers with tall stalks and the phlox, with a couple of tulips thrown in for early spring color. Next, the orange lilies that I just transplanted from a friend. There are also some poppies seeded behind the lilies, to the right of the bleeding heart, and a couple violets scattered in there for good measure. Finally, the part of the side garden that wraps around to the front, which is a huge bleeding heart, a couple still-too-big hostas, and some mint (and possibly now-destroyed catnip?) that I transplated from the raspberry patch.



This is the newly planted (mostly transplanted) garden inside the fence. I forget what the red/green plants are called, but in front of them is a row of hostas and in front of the hostas will either be cukes or 4 o'clocks, depending on what I decide to plant where. The other shot is a birds nest that is strategically placed on top of the outside light over the patio. Fortunately we don't tend to use the outsidelights much, or the nest would have to be removed - it's a fire hazard.



And the crowning glory (at least for early spring) - the large apple tree just outside the fence. It really is truly glorious right now. The bushes behind the tree in the first picture are the ones that we'll be ripping out in a few weeks. They're one huge bird hotel and the birds are truly a nuisance.

Later in the spring, I'm sure I'll post more pictures of the roses and the phlox and the yellow flowers. I'd post pictures of the cukes and tomatoes, which are just starting to poke up their little heads, but I think that can wait.

Right then, on to knitting..



First up, this one ought to look familiar by now. Rogue, with the first dozen or so rows of the hood completed. I worked on this again last night and now have the first hood chart complete, so it looks a little different now, but not enough to warrant another picture yet.



This is the yellow ribbed tank (also a little farther along than shows here) from Noro Lily. I decided to suck it up and finish it and block it and see how bad the woven in ends were. If nothing else, I can tug out the caught up parts and re-weave them in. I'm taking the train to Chicago for the AIR Forum Sunday so this one might actually be finished and in a suitable state to wear at the Forum.



The socks I restarted in Cascade Fixation. It's the lacy sock pattern from the Spring Interweave Knits, which I think looks much better than the pattern I was using originally.



And finally, the much abandoned of late Candle Flame Wrap, about two repeats in. I don't like having two projects going that I have to sit with the chart in my lap to work on, and right now Rogue is more interesting than this one, so it's mostly just sitting waiting for me to get interested in it again. *shrug*

I have yarn that I think will work okay for the brioche tank in the new Interweave Knits, so that might be the next knitting project. Or it might not. Only time will tell.

STOKED!

Okay, just a quicky, a teaser if you will, but I had to share.

I just found out that I'm getting my very own pottery wheel!!

I'm so excited about this. It's a little treadle wheel and I'm getting it for far less than I thought I'd be able to get a wheel for, which has me a little concerned (no, I haven't seen pictures or the actual wheel yet, but I trust the person who notified me about it to not lead me down a path of disappointment) about the condition it will be in, but given that it's a treadle (e.g., non-electric, hence no motor, which is the expensive part) I think it will be just fine. I have been warned that the legs will need leveling, but I'm really not at all concerned about the frame - that's just wood and easily repaired/replaced if needed.

ROCK ON!! Yea!!

I'll post more about the wheel once I get it (hopefully I can pick it up Friday, but I won't be home again after that until after Chicago, so you'll pr'bly have to wait for pictures for a bit), but I did manage to get lots of pictures of the various gardens and trees around the yard and *gasp* some actual knitting progress pictures taken this weekend, so I'll post those later.

My very own wheel..! This is so terribly kuhl!