Scenes from Last Week

By far the biggest and best thing that happened this week was the birth of this little chubster, my new nephew. I promise not to subject you to rolls and rolls of photos, but I do have to show you just this one, in the gnome hat I knit for him (just in time, too, I only knit that last week!). We’re all very glad to meet him, I’m scouring Ravelry for more cute things I can knit for him, and we’re also really looking forward to practically my husband’s entire family coming down to visit in both February and March. They all live too far away to see all the time, but trust me that I’m not just saying this — if we all lived closer, we would see each other all the time. I won the in-law lottery when I married into this family.

I did get some knitting finished up — some old knitting, for some socks that I cast on back in… perhaps May of last year? I don’t even remember — I know we were going to a movie, so I needed some simple stockinette socks to work on, but then we didn’t go to another movie for months and months, so these socks sort of … languished. I finally finished them up because I needed the needles.

Last weekend and this weekend was the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire, and guess what I made it a point to see? The Swampfires Pottery booth! Susan and Gwenn are sisters who have so much talent and sense of fun that I’m sort of glad they don’t live close — I would embarrass myself with how much time I would want to spend hanging out with them. I’ve been shopping at their booth for three years now, and I always enjoy Susan’s throwing demonstration. This year, since I’m taking that throwing class, I got even more out of her demo than usual. How she holds her hands compared to how my teacher holds her hands is fascinating to me, and I went to sleep last night dreaming of getting some clay on the wheel in the next couple of days so I can compare the two ways. Oh, and I told myself that I could get either a new yarn bowl *or* a new mug… but I may have come hope with one of each. And a bread bowl for That Poor Man. Oops!

Speaking of me getting some clay on the wheel, here’s a sampling of what I’ve done this week. I tried to get some throwing time in each day, and while it didn’t happen each day I did get some throwing done five out of the last eight days. I wouldn’t say I’m anywhere near good yet, but I can see an improvement from the first one through the last one. Now that I’m getting the hang of getting the clay centered correctly, and breaking in on center, I need to start practicing trying to make the same thing each time, to work on my form. Stay tuned…!

And that was my week, in a nutshell. How was your week?