Amigurumi, again from Hansi Singh’s book.  Incredibly life-like, and actual size.  A one-night project, and a fun one at that.  And it taught me some more new techniques.

It’s been 16 months, no, maybe longer.  Really, David and I stopped counting somewhere along the time of the home equity loan… but we’re so excited and pleased with the results.  Sure, we still have a few small things to take care of, but who thought we would ever start bringing furniture into the basement?

VIRTUAL TOUR!  Let’s start by walking down the staircase from the main entry to our house…

Which brings us into the new apartment…

The bedroom is to the left of this entrance…

which has next to the exposed brick a large closet for clothes (and eventually a washer/dryer, hence the hook-up)…

…as well as a utility closet…

Which is next to the exterior door which takes you to the street, which is next to the next two utility closets, the first for the hose hook-up and the electrical panels, as well as the first sump-pump which is connected to the French drain which protects the perimeter of the building…

…and the larger utility closet for the boiler and the hot water heater…

But who wants to see those?  Let’s keep those doors closed…

We wouldn’t want to distract from the beautiful bathroom next to it (just opposite the door you came in from as you entered from the central stairs, for those playing the home game)…

…with the fantastic tile work in the shower…

..and coming out you’re faced with that door again up the central stairs, and two more closets down the hall space…

The first is another clothes closet…

…the second, an elaborate pantry we designed with U-shaped shelves to allow maximum visibility for the storage…

A nice pantry for a nice kitchenette, just opposite…

…with the marble counter and the glass tile back splash…

…and those adorable small appliances, the dishwasher…

…and the four burner gas stove…

…which transitions us into the living space next to the old cast iron stove we reclaimed and have now refinished (thanks, Steph, for giving us the head’s up about it at a garage sale years ago.  It’s been sitting waiting for its debut all this time, and was well worth the hernia-inducing process of toting it fifteen blocks, and then carrying it down to the basement!)

…which we thought originally would live in the fireplace, but when we redid the tiling, we just couldn’t bear to cover it up (plus we have an electrical outlet inside the fireplace in case we ever install a flat screen inside, as well as for some subtle accent lighting)…

The fireplace is all cleaned up now, and someday could be made functional again (look up inside it, so clean!)

But right to the side of the fireplace is the bar area, with the leaded glass doors we designed…

And the shelf designed to store the wine refrigerator and the wheeled bar table with stools for an intimate eating nook…

And note the long-needed full-sized window we had installed.  A real boon (along with the retractable screen doors in the front and back of the building, a real life-saver for cross breeze).

Outside through the back door…

…to see the barbecue area with the railing and gas hook-up on the deck…

But back inside, okay, for the living area…

with a huge storage area underneath the stairs behind that pocket door…

That’s the apartment, or the summer kitchen as we think of it.  And a lovely home for some of our Mission furniture…

We’ll have a bed put in soon, and then you’re all welcome to stay!

From Hansi Singh’s amazing new book of amigurumi knitting, meet Smucker the Jellyfish.  I lot of new techniques for me, all brilliantly explained by Hansi.  I’m in awe of her talent, and can’t wait to work my way through her patterns.

Not for infants, this one (sorry, Mia.  Maybe Ben will let you play with it when you’re older.  And, no, this isn’t a set-up.  Sheesh… so suspicious, you parents of remarkably cool children who should only be so lucky as to meet each other and fall in love when they’re of age…).  Well, I suppose I’ll just have to keep making them as my beach-loving infants mature.

During a particularly unnecessary meeting yesterday (I sat for 90 minutes before my two minute item came to the agenda), I found myself writing down various words, apropos of nothing.

And now, in some way trying to find meaning in the activity, I ask you to read the list, thus justifying those 90 minutes I will never see again…

Infarction

Evanescent

Piccolo

Starfish

Carbuncle

Spaetzle

Coruscant

Flapjack

Proboscis

Febrile

Dendrite

Bootlegger

Snogging

Gratuitous

Braggadocio

Avuncular

Diddling

Funicular

Haberdasher

Juncture

Lubricious

Meritricious

Namby-pamby

Quotidian

Retrodict

Salacious

Tchotchke

Venal

Zippy

Undulating

Wamble

Since Steph guessed correctly, here are the photos.  Another creature from the Australian wildlife book of patterns from Cleckheaton.  Oliver measures 18″ from bill to tail (the bill hides a squeaker, naturally), 5″ tall, and 8″ from webbed toe to glorious webbed toe.  I placed him atop a soup container to give better swimming poses

Let’s look at the close-up of the webbed foot again, shall we?

Now, Oliver is a bit larger than my usual projects, so it may be awhile before I knit his mate, Sylvia Platypus (thank you, Jim!).  I’m sure I will in time, but for the next project, I’m looking towards a smaller, more intricate companion…  but not right now.  Knitting with US3 needles takes an awfully long time, and those increases and decreases were causing calluses!

Ok, this is just a teaser shot… another completed stuffed creature, but unless Steph promises she won’t peek, this is all you’re getting.  I have to give some enticement for her to return from the glories of Switzerland, don’t I?  If you can’t wait, and you have access to Ravelry, you can see the complete details there…

So, all of the studio work for the winter session was fired, and we gathered en masse for the unveiling today (very exciting results from the new oxidation kiln… I’m looking forward to using oxidation next session.  All of my pieces were fired in reduction still, though, so these colors are one-of-a-kind.)

Here’s the whole studio’s output:

Out of which I was able to find my six pieces…

Now, before we look at each piece’s close-up, don’t you think we should compare them with how they looked before the firing?  Let’s go piece by piece, shall we?

Remember this piece?  The last of the symmetrical handled pieces…

Add glaze:

Then we started going asymmetrical…

More on that theme…

Glazed simply…

Another asymmetrical piece…

Notice especially a happy accident which happened to the bottom of the handle on the left side…  I wasn’t paying much attention on these early pieces to the internal connections within the ribboning.   Look what happened where the handle separated slightly.  I love it!

It actually adds support and an airiness that I like…

Then we did the over-the-top, God-reaching-for-Adam vase…

Glazed (notice how there’s some movement, or slumping, of the handles, which change the relationship a bit, and how the ribboned handles hold glaze, sometimes enough to create a nice glaze drip or bubble)…

And finally my studio mates convinced me to break away from the linear plane on the handles…

Which glazed seems to auger well for the pieces I left for glazing next session, don’t you think?

So there we go.  Thanks, everyone, for the input on glazing.  Let’s see where this new direction takes my work, okay?

Ok, not something I knit, exactly, but can I be the only person NOT allowed to post picture’s of Mia?  No.  So here she is, excited to receive the possum (probably not pictured)…

Wait, I think I see the kiwi somewhere in this photo.  That justifies the post, no?  Note to self: knit animals can’t compete with mylar ballooons.

From the wonderful, out-of-print Cleckheaton Wildlife in 8 Ply, from Australia, an entire set of patterns for Australian wildlife knit with yarn, comes my new friend, Hello, Possum!

With a squeaker in both his belly and in his face, Hello, Possum is a very vocal new friend, though he can also roll over and play dead…

I look forward to making his friends, the koala, the wombat, the bilby, and the Tasmanian devil… so many friends to knit!

Next session I may switch to porcelain for a challenge.  Also, I want to start making these vases in smaller form (these below are currently over 15 inches tall, which is difficult for firing…)

Let’s go through the process together one more time, shall we?  All together now, we start with the rough pieces…

Then we trim them…

Then we fuse them together…

Then we look through the handles we made the previous week…

And we let our imaginations run wild…

But now we do something new!  These pieces are not exactly the easiest to turn upside down to look for my signature, so I’ve made two signature stamps.  I pressed out a bunch of stamped signatures…

And then had to decide where to put them.   First I tried on the front of the pieces, near the handles or near the base…

But that didn’t seem right, so I removed them and then found the perfect spot… inside the upper rim!

These will be glazed in the spring session for firing with the new oxidation kilns, so it remains to be seen what color palette I will be using.  Hope you enjoy!