Broken fiber rack and some frogging

 Here's my leaning tower of Splendor, braced against a canvas rack.  If you look closely, you can see the signs that I have taped to the "turning handles" on the side of each section of the rack.  I asked people to not turn the rack.  Since the shop is small, anytime someone approached it I went into full attention and ran to personally turn the rack.  Sort of a lurch and hold and then tilt toward the solid canvas rack.  I was waiting until business really hit the summer doldrums this week when my two able assistants, Stuart and Lynn, were available for the repair.  On Thursday morning Lynn removed the 360 shades of Splendor to drawers in some excess DMC cabinets Needle Nicely owns.  (Some others of which have been sold to Erin of NeedlepointLand in Stuart this summer.)  Friday, Stuart appeared and we proceeded to open the "cage" and remove it so we could get to the center pole and its base.  I thought that the problem was a broken "doughnut" that held the pole in the base, but that was not the case.  In case you're a sadist, I last dealt with this rack when it broke in May of 2012.  Enjoy!

This is the 4-piece cage folded in half and stored in a front area of Needle Nicely.
It will reside there until a new part arrives from California.

 This is the culprit.  It's the cap to the hole in the base into which the pole is wedged.  The doughnut fits around the pole and turns, but the pole rests in this "widget".  You can see the left edge where obviously the seal has broken loose.

 And a bottom view of the base, showing the gaping hole where the "widget" used to be attached.

I think you can see the outline of the base and the depression in the center caused by the pole no longer being encased in the "widget".  Of course, I had no idea of this until we disassembled the entire thing.  And I am again reminded of that old saw:  "I wish I worked in a needlepoint shop where I could sit and stitch all day."  Me, too!!

Another thrilling discovery of my week.  Somehow I miscounted on my Serendipity stitch in between these two "bubbles" on my Susan Roberts tree.  The only thing more difficult than stitching the Serendipity stitch on red canvas with a red fiber is picking it out.  Big, big sigh!  And I have no guarantee that it will go back in correctly.  Trust me, the next time I stitch this area will be the last time.