We have a piano!

I guess technically we always had one, it was just living in a different house. ;-) Brandon has been reunited with his boyhood piano that they got back in the late 70s. It was already 'old' before they got it. A little research says that its probably about eighty years old. It has been living with his mother, Judy in her house until today. Judy though sold the house and the new buyer takes possession on the fifteenth.

How is this knitting related? Well the new location of the piano is the family room area of the house that I had taken over as my crafting room. Long table for cutting out fabrics and a sewing machine setup. Table also worked for having the swift always up and available to use the ball winder with. My chest of drawers with sewing notions and fabric was also in that room. Then there was the former corner TV stand that Brandon had made that I took over with stashing some of my yarn stash. All of those plus my bins of yarns and fibers had to be moved out of the area.

This meant that the third bedroom we call 'the den' had to be reorganized to accept some of this overflow. I had really hoped she wouldn't move until William had moved out of the house, this would have all been so much easier then....  So the den had to be emptied out and rebuilt. A couple bookshelves came into our bedroom to make way for my fabric chest and allow for better flow in the room. Then things put back in. Bonus? Lots of cleaning out of books and donations made to Goodwill. I still need to get the books to a used bookstore for credit and what they don't take to the library for their book sale.

I also ended up cleaning and reorganizing my pantry because I looked at the floor under the bottom shelf and saw the possiblity of storing my bins there and still keep them easily accessible then under a desk in the den.

The baskets will come out and be artfully arranged near the piano so I don't have to worry about things falling into my yarns. I'm amazed at how much I was able to hide tuck away under there. ;-)

The piano sounds like it did while at Judy's. Not badly out of tune and still playable but I'm sure it will be happy to be tuned. I've been told that it needs to live in its new house for six months before tuning, so around my birthday I guess?

A boy and his piano reunited:

A rug is going to go underneath of it and he said something about making casters for the feet. So more decorating will happen. We also have a couple of pictures that William had but no longer wants that will look nice on the wall.

What kind of piano? Ivers & Pond from Boston is on the front. They were bought during the Depression, so that it was made in the twenties or early thirties. I think technically its a Baby Grand, though Judy calls it a Grand. It's a little over five feet long if that helps?

Leeloo in her Christmas t-shirt (says "Wreck the Halls") wondering what's up with all of this?

Fair results & other new things.....

The 'abstract' photo won third place:

From the knitted stuff:

The Bobbie Blue Falling Water Scarf (you can see the yellow Sunflower Tam above the 3rd place Adult Hat winner with the fugly fun fur.)

The Lillia Hyrna Shawl won in the knitted handspun other category. (You can see Rachel's Pearl Stole received second, and a peak of the blue shawl Carissa knitted took third.)

From the handspun yarns:

The yak-merino yarn in 2ply

The coopworth yarn in the 'other'

Mt Doom in the commerical dyed

Last category entered was under the miscellaneous and was my 'recycled' rabbit:

In Tour de Fleece I had entered, like everyone else in the Random Number group and was one of the people who won. I have this coming from My Heart's Exposed in the UK. I had hoped to see it today, but most likely Monday. She has some pretty rovings, check her out. ;-)

Craigslist had an 'antique replica spinning wheel' listed. I took the hour long drive to Estacada to check it out and came home with the wheel. It had been listed as $35 but she felt guilty about her dogs scratching up my car doors with their nails so took $5 off. As Shelia and I suspected, the wheel is a Great Wheel. Not standard size, but still pretty large. The rim of the wheel was cracked in a couple of spots when I looked at it and one spot was apparently a bit more than suspected because it broke through on the drive home. Brandon was going to try to glue it back together, but Shelia thinks it would be better to just make a new rim. It's been varnished, so that will also have to be removed. The quill is a bit longer than it should be, so a new one of those will be needed. Still over all a worthwhile purchase. It's a wheel that I'll be able to take to SCA events and be historically accurate for the period. Here's what it looks like now, you can also see my Lendrum for size comparison:

Can you see the break?

She went with me to look at another low price spinning wheel listed on Craigslist on Friday. I'm glad she came along because I might have taken a chance on the wheel. She pointed out that the flyer wasn't the right size for the wheel and even if there was a drive band it wouldn't have been a working wheel. Definitely a 'pure decoration' wheel. Not worth the $65 asking price. Thanks! Shelia for the help and for looking over the Great Wheel and giving it the thumbs up!

I finished the first pre-literate sock for Brandon this last week (the one started at West War earlier in the month). It fits him perfectly, and he's looking forward to the finished set. I'm well on my way towards getting the second sock done.  Knee highs are a bit more work than my normal socks:

I have to reorganize the den in the next few weeks so that I can move all my craft stuff out of the family room. Judy (B's mom) is selling her house and buying a condo. Brandon's piano that has been stored at her house needs to come here. The grand piano is an Iver's & Pond and Brandon thinks it was made in the 1930s. I haven't checked underneath for a model number to get a better idea. It's a flat black and not the shiny lacquer black I remember my mom's baby grand Steinway being. I knew she would be moving, I just had hoped to have a couple more years for W to get done with school and move out. Then I would move my crafts into his room. Life's more interesting than that, so into the den my stuff will go.  Upside, is that once we do move it and get it tuned (you always have to retune after a move), I'm sure B will be happy to be able to play more often. I enjoy when he plays, so something to look forward to.

What's new with you?