Works-in-Progress Wednesday (10/26/16)

Works-in-Progress Wednesday (10/26/16)

What are you working on this week? I'm finally getting time to work on my beloved ceramics (not that I don't love everything I do, it's just, ceramics is like the Wizard-of-Oz Scarecrow of my crafting life... first, best, always) and I'm throwing some Call Box and Zipper mugs now that I've finalized some color plans for permanent stock. I'm also playing around with some mug shapes... wait, I should talk about this in the ceramics paragraph!

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In ceramics, like I said above, I'm throwing some mugs. I've somewhat decided on regular/standard/permanent colors for Call Box and Zipper mugs, so I'm throwing some new ones (I hesitate to say they're 100% permanent because anything can change at any time based upon what sells, what doesn't sell, whether or not commercial glazes I use are reformulated or even discontinued, yadda yadda). I'm also playing around with some shape ideas, with an eye on the "mug a month" thing I want to do next year. 12 different mug styles (which can mean shape styles, color choices, decorations, whatever) that I'll only make 10-12 of for each one, and I won't remake them once they sell out. Exciting! I've also fired my small kiln for the first time, and I'm hoping to fire it again, maybe tomorrow or Friday. And I'm glazing enough to fire the big kiln, too (at a different temperature than the small kiln, hence the different firings).

In soap, I've made about 35 bars this week (that seems like nothing compared to the last couple of times I've made soap) in preparation for holiday shopping and gearing up for a couple of craft shows this Fall. I also still have the restocks of the Earthy guest set to wrap that I didn't have time to finish wrapping before the Open House.

In yarn, I'm making a list of what I'll next need to dye, including restocks of my new colorway, Golden Years. If you're on my yarn newsletter list, you probably remember I sent out a newsletter about six months ago with a list of everything else I was going to do this year - I'm afraid I've backed off the November and December yarns I mentioned then. I will still do them, I just needed to dial the rest of the year back a bit because I could tell I was headed for burnout. So if the ideas of Coffee Berries or Brindle peaked your interest, stay tuned for 2017!

In knitting, I'm fighting it out with a pattern I fell in love with, with yarn and needles I wanted to use for it but that don't quite match up the pattern. As written, my armwarmers came out way too small (the cabled pattern really pulls the fabric in) so I tried it with thicker yarn and larger needles, and they fit but they're very thick and warm (and also not the color I wanted, although they look lovely). So I'm back to the original yarn I wanted to use, and I've upped the stitch count... and now I'm at where the thumb should go and I have no idea how I'm going to math that because it's much different than the pattern. So I did what any self-respecting knitter would do... and cast on a new pattern! Hah! Take that, math! I'll come back to you later.

That's what's going on with me this week... what about y'all? What are you working on? What's on your needles or hooks or wheels? What are you plotting? What are your upcoming weekend plans? Anything Halloweenie?

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