autumn check in and goals for the end of 2025 🎀

 Hello, hope all is well 🍂

It's time for my semi regular check in where I make goals to finish projects and try to avoid over-buying!

Thoughts on spending from now 'til the new year

• I suppose it's nothing revolutionary, but I have enough yarn to work on several projects; therefore I don't want to buy any more!
• I even have some sock yarn (some handspun, some bought) which I can use for gifts if I feel I need to make some for the coming festive period
• I'm not going to get more art supplies; to be fair I haven't gotten new art supplies in a while; my art practice at the moment is just sketching here and there at night; I do want to change this though, more about that later!
• I have a few household expenses that I will allow myself:
• A small amount of paint (ideally reclaimed/recycled) for the bedroom, 1 wall
• A duvet cover, 2nd hand or new if I can't find something suitable ✅

Goals for the rest of 2025

• Finish some pots for gifts
• This is well underway, I need to stop myself from giving away pots before festivities though!
• Finish my linus shawl
• I did it last week while visiting family, woohoo
• Finish Emily's hat (gift)
• I have almost finished the hat, I need to make a bobble and attach it though. I'm putting it off because it's been ages since I've done one and I'm not sure how good it'll be
• Mittens for Steph
• All I've done so far is roll up a ball of yarn. Patterns scoped out but haven't started.
• Start Japanese classes again
• I fell off the wagon and I don't want to lose my Japanese!

Stretch Goals

• Work on Charlie's jumper project (about 30% done at the moment)
• It's big, but it is worsted weight yarn so maybe it won't be too bad?
• Start a poncho for myself
• This is definitely a stretch goal, as I have other stuff to work on that's higher priority 😌
• Sell a few bits on eBay before postal service gets hectic
• Just decluttering a bit; I had a wedding I went to and I wore a dress I'd bought for a previous wedding to be a bridesmaid. It's a wrap dress and it's beautiful but I hate wearing it! So I will pass it on to someone else, hopefully 😌 and then maybe someday I can invest in something that I feel much more comfortable in, or make something, or simply abstain from getting anything...

dropping by to share some glazed pots 🍯

Just popping by to share some of the glazed pots, I still have four waiting to be fired as well!

These are some from the throwing class I posted about previously. I've been experimenting with different glazes and underglaze and cobalt carbonate (the blue on white).

Some learnings are:

• Black underglaze works well not only with the transparent glaze but also the translucent green and amber glazes. I reckon it'll work well unser the green in the bottom right too.
• The studio's shiny white combined with translucent green makes a minty colour that I quite like.
• I need patience and clean dry hands for glazing. It's really easy to leave accidental marks on things.
• Beware of wet tongs - if water transfers onto the pot surface it can disrupt the application of glaze.
• For non potters, we use the tongs to hold pots while dipping them in glaze - we can also hold pots using our hands but have to be careful about unintended finger marks etc. There are also brush on glazes that you can apply with a paintbrush but the ones available to me in the studio are all dipping glazes!
• Specific to the studio's glazes - I feel like the green glazes could use a longer dip.
• I also suspect the clear glaze could too since it's so thin, but I am wary that it might start to make the underglaze look cloudy. Need to test this; not enough time!

Some more trimmed pots 🍯

 

Trimmed these fellows in the most recent class; we have our last one tonight, glazing!

I've enjoyed doing this 6 week throwing course, felt like I've learned a bunch and also made a load of pots I can give away as gifts (I'll keep one or two I guess). I hope I can keep throwing afterwards...

As an aside, O has been sleeping terribly lately, so I haven't had a lot of energy outside of work and childcare; hence the lack of posting. I have been able to sketch here and there, and have plodded on with my various knitting projects. 

The only thing that's really coming along is my reading every (ish) night! I've read 3 of the Stormlight Archive books, and am currently trying to make a dent in my 'to be read' pile (also known as the bookcase). I'm taking a break from Stormlight to read Safe Area Gorazde, a non-fiction comic about the Bosnian war, by Joe Sacco. It's gutting.

throwing class week 3 🎡

 

Not got anything smart to say here, except we trimmed pots! Now the pots are slightly more dry we removed some of the excess clay from the bottoms to make the pots more neat, balanced and lighter weight-wise.

Some of mine are still hefty, like the centre front pot which is like a paperweight! But that should be fine if it has enough time to dry out. These will be dried then biscuit fired before I get to play with some surface decoration.

I'm happy with how they look and am looking forward to glazing, seeing how they turn out and then of course giving them away to friends as various birthday and possibly Christmas presents. Perhaps I'll keep one or two 🤔

textile project audit

Just a little look into what's on the needles and wheel...

We are not here for beautifully staged photos

Charlie's Jumper

Superwash merino yarn because I wanted to have some nice BRIGHT variegated yarn to enjoy watching the colours change. I know that I can get non superwash yarn with lovely colour changes too but I didn't know a non-indie yarn that provides this (please share if you know!) - and the budget was a bit tight since Charlie's an adult man and requires larger sizing.

Pattern: Worsted Basic Drop Sleeve Sweater by James N Watts

Charlie's Socks

Non superwash 4 ply yarn from Telling Yarns, which is spun by John Arbon (another favourite), both UK companies using UK wool. I'm over halfway through but it takes aeons as Charlie's feet are a lot larger than mine. I expect to be mending these repeatedly as well as they are not only nylon free but nylon or not I'm finding that my mending pile just keeps growing.

Pattern: None, improvised

Small foot in the corner

Shawl in Marina Skua Yarn

Marina Skua dyed some lovely non superwash slightly variegated 4 ply yarn. Again another company who use UK wool and fibre (as far as I'm aware for all of the yarn bases). This used to be a kerchief designed by Aimee from La Bien Aimee (yarn company in France), but I found that I didn't really wear this triangular shape. So now I'm doing a bias shawl which is a bit of a longer shape - it's the free pattern, Linus shawl.

Sweater Spin

I bought a special merino fleece for myself a little while ago, admittedly it's from the USA (something I won't be doing in the near future, but I won't rule it out as there's some amazing shepherds in the USA breeding wonderful fibre flocks). I've carded batts with some sari silk for extra interest. I'm spinning it all up as a 2 ply yarn, quite bumpy and varied in thickness at times. I am fighting the urge to be precious with this special fleece, because otherwise it will simply not get done. And I need to work with what I have. I'm treating it as a 'sampler' spin, thinking in the vein of cross stitch samplers. A batt here which is dark, one that's variegated, one that's light, all with varying sari silk percentages. And then I will craft something that honours all the variety - at least that's the hope.

throwing class #2 🎡

 I'm back on a 6 week throwing course at the studio! 

My first discovery on the course was that I think I had forgotten I'm meant to have the pottery wheel turning anti clockwise, and that could probably explain why my attempts haven't been going super well at home.

So my attempts at centering last night went better. And it appears that when I'm centering I often get a bit of clay right at the bottom (closest to the wheelhead surface) that doesn't get centred (cause it's just a tiny bit under my hands that's not going to be thrown). And then this wobble coming from the bottom makes me skeptical about whether my actual throwing clay is centred or not. So I need to be conscious of this and maybe remove some of the extra gumpf at the bottom of the wheel after initially trying to centre.

Anyway, here's 3 pots I started. I made a 4th but it died 🥺

The first one I had fun with making a different shape, and then also messed up picking it up off the wheel.

A general cylindrical shape.

I messed up the top on this one so I decided to see what would happen if I kept constricting it further and further, and I managed to close it off - it's a bit wonky though! Also I have no idea how much water is trapped inside, so I will try to drain it next week.

clay updates 🔥🥣

I've taken a break from throwing practice on the wheel - last time I went to the clay studio I worked on some slab building and coil pots...

I started working on a dosing cup as requested by Charlie. I rolled a slab of clay and cut out a circle from the base, and then used the offcuts from the slab to form some of the walls. After that I used coils (clay sausages) to build up the rest of the walls. I'm not sure if this is Forbidden behaviour in pottery or perhaps Inadvisable, but we will find out when I revisit the pot and see how it's been drying... It's a little lumpy and bumpy and textured, but that's ok. I've decided that I make Cursed Pots and this one is called Affront to God (below).

This pot below is a pinch pot, after a few pinch pot bowls I think I got a better handle on it - not great, but not 'beginner from absolute zero'. I also trimmed the top (poorly) to try and make it a bit more regular shaped. 

Lastly here's a work in progress. This one is a Proper Coil Pot, well - at least, I didn't secretly use leftover slabs for this one! Just lots and lots of sausages. I think I'm getting more used to rolling out clay sausages... I think I'm making them a bit too thin, and the walls of this coil pot are thin... we will see how they hold out!

What else can I say - when I learned to make a coil pot for the very first time (at least as far as I remember), I just rolled sausages and smooshed them together, smoothing and smearing the inside (then outside) of the pot in a downward motion. I don't think I did any scoring (and addition of slip for adhesion) to the bottom edge of the sausage and the surface it was being applied to - I don't know if I'm meant to or not? I saw someone else doing this, but then again in my clay book it isn't mentioned at all. So I'm just going to call this an experiment as well, and see whether we have any cracks or breakages lately.

Anyway, those are my three ongoing pots. I have a couple heading to the kiln at some point, one very cursed circular tray thing (small, misshapen, somewhat embarrassing sitting next to the other makers' pots on the drying area) and a simple pinch pot (inoffensive, will make a good surface for trying out fun decorations). Looking forward to playing with surface design when they're ready!

General Other Updates

• I've been drawing at least 5 minutes every night - this is a big deal for me, trying to just get a daily practice in that I can build on later. I want to be able to paint and such again. Or do I want to want to paint but don't actually want to do it? We will find out.
• I've been spinning yarn so much lately; I have at least 2 sheep fleeces (one now partially spun up) to get through. I want to get to a place where I only have 1 outstanding spinning project or so, rather than at least 2 giant spinning projects. Fleeces take me like over a year!