I have lost my loom room for a little while one of the kidlets needed to come stay with us for a while. Needless to say I was depressed that I can't weave for a bit on the big loom ;( But since I also knit, I decided to tackle a new sweater. The pattern is Checker Lace V-neck Sweater . It's a great knit challenging to keep me on my toes but interesting enough to keep it from being too boring.
I also finished this Panda Silk Shawl 
I have to think of a way to keep it from unravelling before I cut it off the bead loom. I'll be experimenting with a small piece and see if I can hemstitch a border or weave thread between each bead pass. Not sure, but it's a new challenge to figure out.
Oh well it's a learning experience no matter how annoyed I am for the fact that it didn't work.
In the mean time I'm hunting for some more cross stitch patterns to make a new beaded project.
Along with the inkle weaving I also started a new bead loom project that will be incorporated with this inkle band. I haven't really worked out all the details, but I'd like to make the beaded portion the focal point of the bag.
I changed the colors of the flowers to compliment the inkle strap's and interior coloring and am having a ton of fun with it. Hopefully the vision I have in my head will work out into something tangible.
I choose a cross stitch pattern from one of the many books I have on that subject, that was small enough to translate to this tiny loom.
Once I got the hang of counting out the tiny beads and how to attach them to the warp, I was on a serious roll.
After a few hours and lots of tiny beads later I had this! I really enjoyed making this little piece of bead work and plan on using it in one of the small bags made from my inkle strips. I have some more ideas on what can be done with this little loom and love that an impluse buy turn out to be a creative muse.
I started on a new inkle loom weaving for some new pocket purses. I used the material that will be the inside of the bag to govern the color I would use for the exterior. I'm really enjoying the weaving and love the exercise of pulling the colors from the fabric itself.
I gave up and conceded defeat on the scarf, it kept breaking down and I just could not deal with it any longer. I started warping for the simple baby blanket and that should give me some easy work for a bit.
I also had the reeds sandblasted to get the rust off them, after a few months of trying and not really getting to far I decided it was the best route to go. I need to clean them and take a steel wool pads to smooth them out they feel a bit rough. Hopefully I'll be able to use them without any damage to the warp, if not then they will be tossed and I will have to acquire new reeds.
So far that's what I've got going, I hope you all are doing great. Once I figure out what's happening with my access to blogger I plan to visit with everyone for a bit.
We visited the Maritime Museum in Welaka, it was truly dedicated to wooden boat restorations and building. Mr. Richard Speas was the man behind all the boats and the reason the museum exists today. Walking through the museum I got the feeling the Mr. Speas had an incredibly well lived life, someone who enjoyed his passion and as a result left a legacy to his family. 
With the remains of the wood from his boat building and restoration, he made these vases. The are bits of wood that have been epoxied together, then sanded and varnished. Although the boats were gorgeous it was the vases that captured my total attention. 
Close up of an unfinished piece 
This one vase is 11' high 
and this one displays the art of his carving.
This was a pleasant surprise among the Spanish moss and tranquility of the St. John's River am although I would have loved to have met Mr. Speas in life, I'm grateful that his family has preserved his memory and artwork for the rest of us to enjoy. 
In the interim I went on vacation and had a great three days off with my hubby, I'll show you all some pics later this week. I came back refreshed and decided to try again before I just cut the loom loose of this warp and have a ceremonial burning festival. I rolled my beam and started fresh with a new determination. I figured my tension was the cause of the breakage plus that the beat needed to be more gentle. After about an hour I wove 18", this might just get done without much more delay this week, I'm keeping my toes crossed because Lord knows I need my fingers. As an incentive to finish, I started warping for a new baby blanket. I have these funky fuzzy yarns in baby colors and want to weave them up for a cushy, soft blankie, in the most simplest of tabby. After the current warp I need something mind numbingly simple, ahh the luxury of simple tabby dances in my mind's eye, woohooo only two shafts, two treadles and a stick shuttle, basic, simple, yet refreshing. These are the moments when I wish I would still have my RH loom, and regret selling it. 
Don't those colors just scream baby, spring and Easter? 
Ingredients:
1 lbs of Lean Ground Sirloin
½ lbs of Ground Pork Medium each fine chop of green Pepper, red Pepper, Vidalia or Yellow onion
1 tbsp of minced garlic 6 tbsp of Badia Complete Seasoning or ( 1tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, ground cumin, crushed bay leaves, parsley)
Place a piece of 
aluminum on the table and dump the meat mixture on it, pat it into a rectangle. Place the 3 hard boiled eggs in the middle and wrap them with the meat sort of logroll style. Take another piece of aluminum and wrap the log in tightly. You can pressure cook this in a water bath for 45 minutes or leave it in the crock-pot with water at med temp for 6 hours. I don’t use a pressure cooker to I go with the crock-pot method. Once it's hardened let it sit and cool for a good 30 
mins or so. 
Cover and simmer letting the slices pickup the sauce and flavors for 15 mins or until meat is heated through. Serve over white rice, mash potatoes or with a salad. If you have any slices leftover they are great in a sandwich the next day. 
7 items I want to share about me:
I started weaving last night and wove about 8" before I threw in the towel, The mohair was making my arms itchy and I could only get through that length without scratching my skin off. My hands not so much but the fly aways getting on my arms whoa, that was amazingly itchy and uncomfortable, I admire folks who find it soft and wonderful, of course they're not sensitive to it, which is why I'm happy for acrylic, cotton, bamboo, silk, linen, cashmere and alpaca. 
I like this pattern it's simple to weave and gives an interesting movement to the fabric. I had to drop 5 threads to the end to make the pattern work, I guess I needed to keep a more accurate count while warping. I will next time.
There is no rhyme or reason to the warp, I just picked the colors and randomly wrapped only counted the threads at the two ends for finishing symmetry the middle is whatever I felt like doing at the time.
Since the colors remind me of the ocean I thought this draft would be interesting to work. (blogger has put the pic sideways, ah Mondays they're tough on everyone) I like the fact that the draft looks like waves and the theme just continues. Will it work on this warp? I dunno but I'm planning on having some fun and finding out.
