WHEW!!

July= out of town family wedding, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie, visiting relatives, seeing "What the Butler Saw" in Williamsburg, seeing "The Laramie Project" here in town, lots of overtime at work, dealing with finding contractors/repair people for some house issues, the 5th year anniversary of buying said house.. et cetera

This weekend, We've had the main part of the house repairs done, and I attended a Pottery workshop.



I love workshops, you get to see how different people work, pick up new ideas and new things to try, and just get a fresh perspective on things. This one was no exception and we had a good time. It was nice that it was small, although he did a lot more demos and we did a lot less hands on stuff than I was anticipating, but I think I learned some good tips for improving my work. He left pretty much all the stuff you see in the photo for us to divide up amongst ourselves and finish glazing and such. The center is getting the BIG carved platter, and the faceted vase in front of me. (striped shirt) Individually, I received the Pitcher in full view, the smaller "zebrea bowl" (which is the one with the porcelin base with the stone ware stripes) (qeltic aka "Lola" got the Stoneware base with porcelin stripes next to it. the opposite of mine) We all got one of the smaller stoneware bowls and all have mugs that aren't pictured. I will probably only bisque fire the "zebra bowl" so that the colors stay. He wood fires his work, but we only have an electric oxidation kiln at the center. I did throw a bowl, in the style of, but not as big as the one you see in the photo here. My bowl started out bigger than it ended up, but when I tried to do the rim technique he's shown us, I messed it up, and ended up taking almost two inches off the top to "begin that part again" as it were. So now, I have a BUNCH of things that will need to be glazed and fired. since I'd been saving some of my bisqued pieces for the workshop.

Lest anyone thinks I've stopped knitting, I did a scarf in the last two weeks for a co-worker who was leaving and going to colder climates. (no photos there. I didn't manage to get any before giving it to her) but I've started the Noni Prism Bag. (the large one.) here is the start of the base.



The color isn't really correct here, but it is Noro Kureyon color 182 a rainbowish color palette and Cascade 220 color 4002, which is kind of a charcoal gray. I was hoping for a stained glass kind of look, and so far, the base hasn't disappointed me, although I'm aware that when I start the body of the bag in the round, the color pool "stripes" will be more narrow.