Cooking the Wash

That could be the title of a chapter in the book I'm reading, The Undomestic Goddess, but it isn't. It means I have just put my first coats of kiln wash on my kiln shelf and floor, and now I have the kiln ramping up to dry out the wash. When it's finished, I'll be able to melt glass in my kiln! Little by little, step by step, it's all getting set up.

There may be soon an opportunity for me to get a real torch. At the same time, I think I need to think about good ventilation before going to that next step - if I do. Installing a hood seems like a reachable goal at this point, where it seemed very daunting before.

Why is it taking so long to get back in the lampwork game? Partly because I have a cold, and partly because I have fallen back in love with knitting. During the summer, I sat in meetings a lot, which I haven't done in a while. To avoid going stir-crazy with all the sitting and listening, I started knitting again - and have gotten into a whole bunch of fun and fruitful projects. The first few are winging their way to my sister, who is one of the "displaced persons" from New Orleans. I just finished a cute hat for myself, and I have a couple of other projects ongoing. It seems like there need to be at least three active knitting projects going for me to feel happy: one big project, one medium, and one quick.

An outcome of all this is a really cute knitted choker that I have put up for sale on the Boutique. I just bought more yarn to make other styles of this sweet choker. Check back later!