Test Drive

Yes - she turns!

And quietly, too!

Sneak Preview

She is almost ready.

No cord or brake yet, and a few screws still need tightening, but here is the sneak preview!

A Few Things

I just found some beautiful buff colored (on sale) Bamboo from Classic Elite Yarns at my LYS. I thought the Fiber Trends Streaming Leaves Scarf would look nice in this.

I also picked up some new DPNs so I can finally knit the Pomotamus socks I have been pondering. Except for my first disastrous attempt at socks, I have knit all my socks on 2 circs, I had no #1 or #2 DPNs. Now I do!!

The Traveller came unfinished:

And I have since rubbed in 3 coats of Danish Oil in a light Walnut:

(The finish doesn't look quite this dark in real life.)

The next step is to rub in and buff a few layers of Wax finish to give her a satin gloss and protect the wood. This has already taken 1 week to do, I think but the finished wheel will look great and is well worth the effort. Unfortunately I won't get her waxed and assembled until next week ~ out of town symphony for the next few days.

FO's and More

Here are the Embossed Leaves in a nice buttery yellow:

I used Katia Mississippi and Addi #1 circs.

After I finished the socks and my sleeves!!! (sorry, no pics) I found some of Mom's leftover afghan yarns and made these for the preemies:

And then upon arrival home last night, here is what I found:

Time to go to the hardware store and pick out a nice light colored Danish Oil stain and get to work on this baby! I can hardly wait~

Taking my sleeves to NY

Here are 14" of the sleeves. The directions call for me to knit to 46cm (about 18") and then begin shaping for the sleeve cap, but I think I will begin the shaping a bit sooner. The finished sleeve length minus the crochet edge is 56cm (about 22"). That hits the middle of the back of my hand! Too long for these arms.

I tried to get these finished last night, but work got in the way again. This morning we played on a recital in a private home. There are a number of social music clubs in this area that meet monthly. I belong to two others and our pianist belongs to today's. It is really nice to play chamber music in the settings that Mozart and the rest played in. It reminds me of a gentler time when people performed for each other without the rigors of telephones, email, etc.

We played the Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano by Madeleine Dring - a British composer whose husband was an oboist. It is a tonal (melodic) piece with nice interaction between all the parts. The other women who played are very competant and lovely individuals as well. It was a pleasant morning.

Tomorrow I will be on a plane for Monticello, NY to see Mom. If it was only a week later, I could make the Rhinebeck Festival since that is fairly nearby. Oh well... We should all be seeing spectacular leaves anyway.

The wheel news is that Customs finished fumigation and whatever else they must do and it should be delivered on Monday! Too bad I don't get home until Wednesday!!!

Have a great week - see you when I return.

Sleeves, Symphony and Severance Hall

Sleeves

Here is the progress on the sleeves - they are now past my elbows!! Sorry this picture is not so good. The grey yarn shows better on darker carpet - unfortunately the only dark carpet is in my studio and I cannot take a picture until I vacuum!

Symphony

The concert last night went well. We got a good review in today's paper and I was comfortable with my own playing (that doesn't happen all that often). It has been a very taxing week, playing both Beethoven Symphonies Thurs, Fri and twice on Saturday! And why not compare Beethoven to heavy metal, Marj? There are certainly some places that could merit such comparison...

Severence Hall

Mr. Mack's former students have been invited to perform in a comissioned piece "Sinfonia" for choirs of oboe and English horns dedicated to JM and premiering at the John Mack Memorial Concert at Severence Hall in Cleveland on Nov. 4. My husband and I are going and I will be performing in the work.

The solo part of the concert will certainly be a who's who of oboists! It will be quite a gathering of all of us nerdy, neurotic, obsessive, and intense musicians! (Isn't that right Mer - you talk to the oboists in your orchestra, no? - we oboists are a bit of an enigma - even to ourseleves.) And my dear husband (a celllist who puts up with me while I am PMS-ing on bad reed days!) will have to endure us en-masse.

I did get to JoAnns today to use my 40% coupon and picked up this:

It looks to have good instructions for assembling sweaters (among other good help) - something I know nothing about. Thanks everyone for your great ideas on the 2 sleeve at a time method. And yes, I will also do that for the front of the cardigan.

My New Wheel

Oh so sad - it is in some crate somewhere awaiting Customs to clear it! The Woolery estimates delivery to be around 18 October! That actually works pretty well since I have to perform a difficult piece on a recital this week (need to be practicing, not playing with a new wheel) and then will be at Mom's for 5 days. It should be here when I return - maybe.

Have a great week......

Caps for the Capital

Here are 2 little preemie caps (so far) I will be sending to Washington:








These will go to Save the Children for the newborns. Here is the link of you are so inclined: http://www.savethechildren.org/capstothecapital/

Beethoven

This is a symphony week. We are performing both Beethoven 1st and 9th Symphonies. I love the juxtaposition of these two. And what could be better than playing Beethoven~

Here is the sweater I began back in April:

It is the Drops Design no. 94-27. I finished the back and began on the front, but realized I should probably do the sleeves first.

Why? - well, I will need really decipher the directions for the fronts since they have the cutaway at the bottom and the scoop at the neck - in mirror images. The directions are probably clear for someone who has used these patterns before and who has knit similarly shaped items - but they a bit complicated to me!

So I began the sleeves instead - thanks to Sharon's thoughts on her fabulous Central Park Hoodie and some other knitters too, I decided to knit the 2 sleeves at the same time to make sure they were identical:

Here is the sleeve detail:

So fellow knitters, in your vast array of experience, is it also a good idea to knit the 2 front pieces simultaneously as well? This is the first time I have knit anything like this ~ any ideas are always welcome.

Thanks ever so much - have a great week.

Thank You to All

Because of all of you,

I have had the inspiration and courage in my almost 3 years of knitting to try new techniques, new patterns and learned so many great hints that my FO's are beginning to look pretty decent.

Thanks to all your great blogs and forum entries, here is what I have knit:

7 pair of socks
2 pair wrist warmers
3 Irish Hiking Scarves
Branching Out Scarf
Tiger Eye Scarf
Lacy V Scarf
Fern Lace Stole
Amsterdam Stole
Liesel Scarf
Mini Shawl
Baby Sweater and matching Hat
2 pair Baby Booties
3 pair Felted Clogs
Over a dozen face cloths
Green Gable Top

On the needles are:
Sweater (Drops Design)
Embossed Leaves Socks
Town and Country Scarf

Thank you dear knitting friends.

I appreciate your wonderful ideas, your sharing your trials to get to your beautiful FOs and most of all communicating through our blogs and forums.