Pepo Passion: Flowers mad (don't make them)

Decompression post-door has taken the form of frenetic lace shawl knitting. The problem with knitting a triangular shawl, I have found, is that the further along you get, the longer it takes to feel you are getting anywhere. Each row is now taking me five to ten minutes. But I am faithfully, mindlessly knitting. I have faith that it is actually bigger than it looks, I have faith that it will look less like a jumble when it is blocked, I have faith that it is much better knit on my rather too short cat glass knitting needles just because I so rarely get to use my own needles I really don't want to give in and switch to longer needles or circulars. Stitches squish. See:

More has been accomplished as well. Those spinning wheel parts Dave and I stained previously are now assembled into a small herd of Kiwis.

This gorgeous girl helped.

We bundled the five wheels into my car and delivered them to the Craft Center a half hour before the first spinning class. Hopefully the spinning teacher wasn't too nervous.

My weaving class and tiny glass sculpture class had their first meetings. My weaving students all seem very enthusiastic and we plotted projects during the first class. Tomorrow hopefully everyone will have their yarn and we'll start to wind the warp and dress the looms. My tiny glass sculpture class met earlier in the week (I have to keep repeating "tiny" because my manager teases that that's the only reason the class filled up so fast; everyone loves tiny). I had four fairly experienced students and one completely new student which made teaching a little more difficult, but my experienced students were great with going on their own and my new student was enthusiastic and not afraid to experiment so it worked out ok. I keep going back and forth on whether to add in a prerequisite for previous experience or emphasize it as a beginning class since that changes what people will be able to make. Requests for next class demos include a flamingo head. A century plant was mentioned too and one of the students said he'll bring pictures. Hmm...I have some homework to do.

I was thinking of demonstrating a human figure and something with multiple parts to be attached...like an orchid. I met up with some friends to go to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park last weekend; there was a special show of carnivorous plants called "CHOMP." Who could resist?

First we couldn't resist the chocolate bacon bar at the counter of "Say Cheese" where we stopped for me to try Ayesha's favorite sandwich. We noticed it, thought about it, walked away and a block and a half later turned around and came back to claim it. It was delicious.

I was surprised to learn that another delicious flavor, vanilla, is from an orchid. There weren't any in bloom at the Conservatory, but there were plenty of other sights from the unusual: