First WiP Wednesday post of the year! What are y'all working on? I've got so much to tell you!
In ceramics, I've been testing glaze colors for my first Mug of the Month. I've mentioned the Mug of the Month previously although maybe only in passing; I intend to make one new mug every month, ten or twelve of the same thing, and that mug will be a limited edition. While I will take notes on what I do (because part of the reason of me doing this is to test out new mug designs and new glaze colorways) the mugs will only be available until sold out. I plan to release them on the first Friday of the month... so stay tuned for the day after tomorrow because I just fired up the kiln about half an hour ago with January's ten mugs inside it! This means of course that there will also be a February mug... I've already decided on the design I like, and narrowed down the color a bit (I've tried one glaze and am trying a second in today's firing, and I'll choose between them). Now I just need to finish throwing them and get them in the kiln!
I'm also working on, for lack of a spiffier name for it, a Pizza Plate. A few months ago one of my dearest friends mentioned almost having a meltdown in the grocery store... her favorite frozen pizza has changed packaging, and the package that also used to be able to used for a plate is no more. The pizza is an odd, over-sized rectangle, and wouldn't fit on any of her actual plates. Well, what's a potter to do but come to the rescue, am I right?! She loves the plate I made for her, and in talking about it on Facebook, many many other friends popped in and said they felt the same way and also needed plates. I tried a run of them right before Christmas, but had an unfortunate kiln explosion, so I'm back to the drawing board. My original target date to have these up in the shop was the 15th, but that may get pushed back a week now what with having to start over from scratch. I'll keep you posted!
Lastly in ceramics, I've been bitten by a magnet bug. Expect to see a lot of these pop up in the shop over the next couple of months. This is a great way for me to play with stamps, textures, and colors... three things y'all now I love!
In soap, I'm plotting out the Year of Soap, and have a few fragrances on order to surprise the people who signed up for it with some new, special fragrances just for them during the year. Some of those, depending on feedback, may become new stock fragrances in 2018. I also made a few bars of soap last week and am working on getting them wrapped; if I don't have a small update by Friday, it'll be Monday or Tuesday of next week.
In yarn, I'm about to have a small Tiptree and Yolen update, and I'm making a list of anything else I'm out of and will need to dye next week. This week is all about yarn club! I've gotten both January and February yarn dyed (although I think February might need a slight overdye as it didn't come out 100% like I wanted it to -- I blended two colors to make a third, unique color, but it came out looking too much like a color I currently offer... so I may need to throw it back in the bath for another soak). Today I'll be dyeing March yarn, and tomorrow I'll start winding January (and taking another look at February).
As an aside about yarn - did you know Emma and Windling are both headed for retirement and thus are 20% off? You can find them here. Windling is a heavy worsted weight, lusciously soft alpaca/Blue-faced Leicester blend (which is not superwash, and thus is feltable) and Emma is a jumbo, double-sized skein of DK weight alpaca/silk. These will be on sale through the end of January, at which point I'll pull any that haven't sold, and keep them for craft show specials.
In other things... I'm knitting a great pair of socks, Child's First Sock in Shell by Nancy Bush, in a club colorway from a couple of years ago. I'm also working on a felted cat bed for my ungrateful employees, and I'm kind of getting a tickle of an idea for a new sock pattern. I'm going to play around with that over the next couple of weeks as I have time... we'll see how it plays out. I've already gone back to the drawing board on it once, so we'll just have to see how much patience I have for it.
That's about it for me this week. What about y'all? Any stellar New Year's resolutions or goals you've set? What are you working on? What's going on with your lives? Are you happy about settling back into routine after the holidays?