Lace & Violins

A few more pictures.

These two arrived yesterday.  The Mainly Lace Bookmark Collection is a comb-bound self-published book that I ordered from the U.K.  (They have a free downloadable bookmark pattern on their webpage.)  I bought just the first Bookmark Collection because that one is Torchon, and that's what I'm working on right now.  Book 2 concentrates on other types of lace.

The Torchon Lacemaking book is a library book, requested through inter-library loan.  I have this one in Kindle format, but that makes it difficult to see the correct size of the patterns in the book.  I need to print out a few patterns in order to properly size the patterns I print from the Kindle version of the book.  One thing I saw on another book was a scale line - the line next to the pattern was supposed to be 10 cm when printed.  That allows the user to increase or decrease the size of the print-out as necessary to achieve the correct size.

The next two photos were taken at the Renaissance Strings shop when I picked up my violin yesterday.  Such beautiful violins!  I looked at several violins yesterday, but did not think to ask if he had any other t-shirts for sale.  I'll have to check on that.

My violin is home!

My violin is back! Huge thanks to Jim Robinson of Renaissance Strings in Nottingham, NH for the wonderful work!  I brought the Cecilio violin to him yesterday, and he had it ready to go this morning!  He replaced the tailpiece (and fine tuners), replaced the strings with Dominants, put a new bridge in place, and got it all set up correctly.  It sounds so much better now, and I am delighted to find I have such a resource so close by.

Renaissance Strings has some gorgeous instruments for sale as well.  I will definitely start there next time I am looking for an upgrade.

I also found out that I have a "string tube" in the awesome ProTec case that came with this violin!  My instructor had one in her violin case when I was there this week.  It is for new strings.  Instead of leaving the new strings coiled in their envelopes, you uncoil them and store them in the string tube.  That way they have a chance to relax and are safely stored until needed.  I didn't even know until today that I had a string tube in this case!  Now I'm just waiting for an order from FiddlerShop, which will include a new rosin to keep with this violin.

New used violin

I picked up a used violin on Monday that was fairly inexpensive.  It is a Cecilio CVN-600, and it is gorgeous!  Unfortunately it was not well cared for.  It had extensive rosin build-up on the fingerboard and under the strings between the fingerboard and bridge.  The pegs seem to be slipping, and I think the strings are wrong; the A string is as thick as the G string, and I believe those should be reversed.  The fine tuners were cranked all the way down as well.  I think it might benefit from a visit to a luthier, for possibly a sound post adjustment and maybe a new bridge.

My violin instructor said the tone is good, however (despite the incorrect strings) and it came with a shoulder rest and a fabulous ProTec case that probably cost close to what I paid for the violin itself!