January Goal Progress Reporting

This is a serious post about the work we've done this month.

Seriously.

Not really. It's about knitting, natch...and spinning. Knitting, of course, being the most important of the goals for 2011. (Actually, we've also been working on another goal: feeding Sugar homemade food pretty regularly. She mostly gets whatever we're eating - meat and potatoes, oatmeal, waffles. I don't think we're at 25% consistently, but I expect we'll do better in the summer when we have veggies.)

First - I've been practicing my spinning and dying so that I can knit a sweater from yarn I've spun. Here's the rovings from the previous post spun up:



I also dyed some more roving - this is decidedly more girly.


I'm nearly 4/5 done with my monthly mystery package January shawl.


Bill picked a new package this weekend for February. Another ruffly shawl! Tornando dalle Cascine in a Mohair/Wool blend from Rhinebeck.


I also worked on a house goal! We've decided that February is the time to tackle: Make upstairs landing into library nook. Toward that end, I did very important work. I took "before" pictures.

Step one is clearing the landing. Then, we'll paint the walls and floor, make a curtain and install some bookshelves.



But right now, some girly roving is begging to be spun...

Humility woodworking??

Whoever built my staircase was the most insanely talented woodworking wizard west of Seneca Falls. Like most of the wood structures in my house, it is put together with some mystical round peg system:




(Between the arrows is a SINGLE PIECE OF WOOD!)

All these little pieces were cut so that the design could continue around the curves.

It's all just crazy shit.

So after all the time, effort and precise measurements needed to create this giant work of art....what is up with this??

This disjointed piece is what you see, front and center, as you walk down the stairs. Could this possibly be an unintentional mistake? I suppose our woodworking wizard could have gotten lazy or bored, or their spouse became sick of the project and started nagging for completion. But that is just not romantic enough for me.

In quilting lore, there is talk of a "humility block" - a part of the quilt where the colors are reversed, or a block is turned sideways as an intentional error. The reasons for humility blocks range from superstitious to religious, but the point is a reminder that we aren't perfect.

Unfortunately, the idea of humility blocks is newer than my house...but this is the story I'm going with: an wicked cool, self-confident woodworking master passing along a useful nugget of intelligence - relax, have fun, don't take yourself too seriously.

Any other ideas??


(You can see the disconnect on the second loop from the left)