Pottery Life

I'm still getting a little work done. Nap times and an hour or so at night. I'm a lot more focused than I used to be. I'm often amazed at how much I can get done in an hour.

For many years I've worked in long cycles. When I make my to-do list it always adds up to about 3 kiln loads. That's the most efficient way to work anyway, so I've been firing 3 loads at a time 3 or 4 times a year. This time however I have almost no inventory and don't want to wait 3 months. So I'm working on making one kiln load of pots. Harder than it seems. I've thrown about 40 mugs so far. That's enough for a kiln load, but not nearly what I'd like to have finished. Those will last a week by the time I restock a couple of galleries and fill the individual orders. Yikes!
But I'm giving it a try. Hopefully I'll have some finished pots by late summer.

Harvested my garlic yesterday, about a dozen heads. My studio smells!

Someone found an old Halloween costume this weekend. Some people trap or spray their carpenter bees. We just confuse and amuse ours.

Knitting Update

I'll just take the projects in the order Blogger put them up.

All links are from Ravelry

Mondo Cable Cardi
Yarn Cascade 220
Made April-August 2010

V-Necked Raglan
based on Barbara Walkers Top Down Raglan
Cascade 220

Monkey Socks

Zarzuela's Fiber Shiny Sock
October-December 2010
Sadly I wore these so much this winter that I blew out the heels in a few months. Got to remember to reinforce!

Laurel's Sweater
My standard baby sweater pattern based on
Barbara Walkers top down raglan
Yarns I hand dyed
January 2011

Twin Sweaters
also based on Barbara Walker's Top Down Raglan
Yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy
February and March 2011 and of course already outgrown

Revival?

I'm feeling the urge to blog again more regularly. I don't know if it will actually happen, but I'm giving it a go. I've got several posts in my head. It's just a matter of choosing the blog over playing Words With Friends. I'd love a comment so I know who might still be reading!

Going to start with a kid update for today

The little guys turned 1 last month!

First present

First sugar

They are both walking now, still wobbly, but making progress. Everyone keeps telling me how hard it will be once they are more mobile, but really it just keeps them from being frustrated about being left behind. It's not like they couldn't go anywhere crawling and pretty fast too.

The big kid helped me make cookie dough to get ready for the studio tour. We had to bake a few before freezing the rest! He's doing the summer program at the Montessori school and really loving it.

New Video

At least the boys can entertain themselves!

Spring Break

After asking for the 10,000 time if he was going to school tomorrow the big kid finally decided to enjoy his spring break. He spent some time with Grankat and Grampa Mike at Wildacres and we went to feed baby goats again at Mountain Farm.

This picture is from the first time we went several weeks ago. The goats are about twice as big now and we fed from outside the fence to keep the rowdy pack from bowling us all over.

The little two liked it just as much and find goats almost as cool as they do small dogs. Lots of giggling and finger nibbling. I'm sure there would have been some nibbling in return if we'd let them close enough.

Quick

John Cusack impression

Both sleeping at the same time!

Meet Martin
Martin needed a home, we did not need another pony, so of course we took him. He's off at boarding school for a couple of weeks and doing great! This was yesterday, my first time on him.

I hope to ride him again next week before he goes home to Wildacres to live with Skunk.

TWO Baby Borthers

We've got one really excited big brother around here!

The boys are here!
Born on Monday Morning May 17 at Spruce Pine Hospital
The first was 5 pounds 10 ounces
and the second was 4 pounds 15 ounces
Both are doing great and we got home this afternoon
We have to wait for tests to know if they are identical,
but they are pretty hard to tell apart especially as they gain some weight.

No catching up now!

It's been almost 5 months since I've posted. It's not like I haven't spent way too much time parked in front of this computer, or that there has been nothing to say. I guess I'd just rather read blogs than write them. Besides, I haven't finished much knitting and haven't photographed what I have.
So a life update instead.

Like most of the east coast we got lots of snow the week before Christmas that didn't all melt until last week.

After two years of resisting, the boy finally decided on his own that he'd like to ride a horse.

And of course the big news, two more boys will be joining our family in the next 10 weeks or so!

This picture is almost a month old! I'm even bigger now. So yeah, I've been a bit distracted and busy.

New Color

I've fired three loads of pots in the last couple of weeks, and have spent lots of time sorting, packing, shipping, and delivering. There's fresh pots at Toe River Crafts, both TRAC galleries, Deep Water Pottery in Ocracoke, Gallery of the Mountains at the Grove Park Inn, and as of yesterday Boone's Creek Pottery in Johnson City. Whew

I've been working on a new glaze combination. It's the same base as my dark blue glaze with a cobalt accent. I haven't managed to take any 'good' pictures of it. And it's the hardest color I've ever encountered to get accurate. So I hope you'll excuse these quick snap shots.

For now I'm not planning to put this in any of the shops, so you'll have to get in touch with me if you'd like to add this color to your collection. Maybe in the spring if I can get enough in inventory it will show up at Toe River Crafts.

October

We were all standing in the yard a few minutes ago and happened to look up. This rainbow was directly over our heads! I've never seen anything like it. There was a little haze beside it, but for the most part the sky is clear this afternoon.

I actually got a few shots of the boy since there was other things to pay attention to other than grabbing for the camera.

And I finally got a shot of my latest finished knit. Top down without a pattern, I just tried it on a million times as I went. It's made of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. My hands didn't like the cotton yarn at all, and I would have finished it a month sooner if it didn't make my hurt for a week any time I worked on it for more than 20 minutes at a time.