It's been a while since I've graced the blogosphere, amazing how quickly time flies when you're all caught up in your tiny world.

I've been busy with some knitting projects and my inkle loom and I are the best of friends lately. I finished the Sky Wrap Shawl it was a really easy knit and went rather quickly.

I also finished this Panda Silk Shawl

which was also easy but had a lot of pick ups through out, each shell is knit separately through that method. My knit club did this one as a group project once everyone gets done we're planning on taking a picture of all the shawls together.

Last but definitely not least are my inkle bands and their respective fabrics. I'm still working on some more bands and once I'm finished I plan to start designs the bags that will go with each one. I have a few more to weave and am really enjoying the process of matching the yarn to fabric.

I finished the bead piece and inkle weaving this past week and am in love with it. I want to work on a prototype bag to use with these materials this week. I'll have to figure out how to attach and secure the beaded work to the bag and the basic design of the bag itself. In the mean time I'm hunting for some more cross stitch patterns to make a new beaded project.
I really excited with this work but feel guilty for ignoring my Macomber. Ah, so many looms so little time.. yet I keep hearing people tell me they can't retire cause they'll be bored to death. I'm really looking forward to having enough time to play around although I don't want to wish my life away, I do know that when the time comes I'll be ready and willing.

Tablet Woven Strap

The straps to the bag have been card woven, I used Sara Lamb's directions in Woven Treasures page 86. Took me a bit to get use to turning the cards in the right direction, but I figured a way to keep it straight and then it was non stop til I finished. The bottom strap is the front and the top the back, although I like the back better and is what will be the front of my strap. I'm having some difficultly with the selvages then again when don't I LOL.. but at least I'm enjoying myself.

I finished my inkle loom band for the Baja Bag last night and came up with a design for the bag that will allow for two pockets and the flap. I'm going to work on it tonight and hopefully post a finished piece tomorrow.

I really like the way the colors turn out after much debate on the hot pink I've settled that I really do like it after all and the yellow also does it's color change from deep burnt yellow to a faint hint of yellow which to me at least adds extra interest. I love to play with color and am going to experiment some with this vibrant pink and some purples and see how that works out.

In other news I went to the Urologist today, everything checks out fine, no cysts, no polyps, nothing, nada, zilich, so what's causing the UTI's no one seems to know other than some women are more prone to getting them as they get older. OLDER!! jeez I thought 45 was the new 35, according to the media hype LOL.. I now have to monitor myself as soon as I get the UTI, I need to go back and analyse what I ate, drank or did that may have triggered it. So I have a maintenance RX and an RX for full blown cystitis, so we'll wait and see hopefully I will not have an episode for a while, cause I have to tell you, I'm really tired of this nonsense and would not like to go back to them until my next appt in August.

Momma's gotta a brand new bag!

I finished the bag this weekend. I'd like to say that I really enjoyed making it but it was nerve racking! I did the fusible backing and that was the best, thank you all for that tidbit of wisdom I appreciate it. I cut my weaving with minimal weaving fallout and that was a relief. Would I make another bag after this venture? For sure, after I finished and looked at my bag I thought that wasn't so bad, some tense moments but all in all it came out really nice and I already enjoyed using it on Saturday night. The DD even said she thought it was really cute and might borrow it, so I'd say it was a successful project. The first pic is of the woven fabric pre-cutting with the fusible interfacing on. This is a shot of the fabric cut and ready to be sewn, it was thick and my poor sewing machine had some snags with it.Sewn and ready to finish with strap and button, I also hemstitched at the beginning and end of each weave for extra stability.Woven interior prior to ironing.Finished and ready for a night out on the town!
This bag was created with help from this tutorial at Lisa Lam's http://www.u-handbag.com/

website, if you haven't been there please visit it's a great site.