Finish, Goal Check-In, and New Goals

The capri sun tote bag for my 17 year old daughter is complete and she couldn't be more pleased!

 It is made completely to her specifications - 4 foil bags wide by 3 tall.

 Nice sturdy zipper to close it with.

 For some reason, I just love the inside of this bag!

 From the side.  I placed the foil bags on the side, to give a little bit more width to the bag.  They do not quite go all the way to the top, but T is fine with that.

 For some reason, blogger decided to put my photos up not in the order I designated so sorry if this post appears a bit disjointed.  I did not finish sewing together the squares for this blanket.  I started them but ran out of time.

My new start for February as soon as I get it on the loom.

 This is the warp for my new scarf.  It measures 3 feet and there are 122 ends.  The scarf will have fringe, 4 inches of even weave followed by a row of leno lace and then several rows of danish medallions and another row of leno lace.  The center of the scarf will be a twill and the other end of the scarf will match this first end.  WHEW!!  I hope it all works out.  This will be the first time I have figured out the whole thing from start to end - the math for the warp, the design, the colors - everything.

 These are the squares.  I only got a few of them sewn together, but at least I worked on them!

 This loom I had hoped to tune-up in preparation to get it warped.  I would like to make a table cloth for our table and this one is wide enough to make a piece of fabric that will not need to be pieced.

 This is the yarn that I have chosen to crochet my sewn squares together with.  I love the lime green!

Here is a WIP that has been languishing around for literally years and years.  It is call Summer Breeze Bag (I think) and it was part of a KAL in a Yahoo Group I had been in.  All I need to do is sew it together - I am thinking to use something to make the sides a bit sturdier, so will be experimenting this month.

I did not complete my goals for January:

Make up one mug rug:  No

Sew squares for quilt:  I did get a few of them done

Tune-up floor loom:  No

Warp table loom with own scarf design:  I did design the scarf and measure the warp

Finish Capri Sun Tote for oldest daughter:  YES!!!

New goals for February:

Finish Summer Breeze Bag

Get scarf warped and started

Tune-up floor loom

Sew all the squares together for the quilt

Make up one mug rug

To see many other projects and ideas, click on the buttons on my sidebar.

Kitchen Towels!!

My kitchen towels are finally off the loom, washed, ironed and ready for use.  I am so excited!!

There was another little warp problem right at the end.  One of the warp threads jumped off the roller at the back.  I have no idea how that happened, but I just attached one of my handy dandy little weights to the thread and merrily went on my way until I had finished.

This is the waffle weave in the very center.  I love how this looks - it's the whole reason that I picked this pattern.

This is a closeup near the end - you can see, near the middle up there where one of the blue threads somehow missed when I was weaving.  Every one of the towels (and there are 4) have a little "extra" design element like this one.  Not the same design element - there are floating threads both warp and weft, missed stitches, and a portion of one towel where I forgot the pattern for the waffle weave so it is short one weft thread every pattern for a bit.  But all in all, I am very happy with these.

I hemmed them by turning under the ends twice.  First though, before I cut them apart, I zig zagged the ends to keep them from unraveling.  I'm pretty sure they would have stayed, but I still live in fear that as soon as I take them off the loom, the are going to somehow spontaneously explode and all I will have is a pile of thread.  Silly, I know....

Doesn't it look lovely hanging on my oven.

We are using them, but for right now, they can only be used for freshly cleaned hands.  No wiping up spills on the floor yet :o)

AND... don't laugh ... I am making more tesselating fish!  I finished my blanket awhile back and I was missing making the fish, but didn't want another blanket.  Then it hit me!!  We need more pillows!!  I got out my sock yarn (the yarn I am using for hexis) and started knitting up these cute little fish for the front of a pillow!!  Aren't they just the cutest??!  I think I'm going to try for something that is about 18" X18", but I'm not locked into that.  I am going to play it by ear and see how it goes.

Click on the side bar to see more fabulous projects!

Playing with:  On the Needles, FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday, Creative Friday, and I've Made Friday.

New bags for new knitters...and a little more

I didn't get a whole lot done this week.  I was preparing for the first class of my next session of knitting.  I had 6 new students and 9 returning students.  Whew!!

 I made 7 bags and since I have two new boys, I made 2 of them with capri sun handles instead of ribbon.  The class was on Wednesday and it went really well.  The returning students were very excited to show me what they had been working on and the new students were very quick to learn.  One of the boys (a kindergartener) had the most trouble and I was worried that he was going to be frustrated.  So I asked his mom if he could meet me Thursday after school for a little bit so I could work on him one on one.  She said yes and after about half an hour, he is knitting!!  You should have seen the lightbulb go on in his brain - he was practically vibrating with excitement!

 This is something new I picked up while we were in Monterey.  Wherever we go, I just HAVE to visit the LYS and see what is there.  The Twisted Stitch was a little sparse.  Not very much yarn.  The owner was very nice and she was working on several lovely project, but did not have the yarn or the patterns for any of them.  Ditto for most of her samples.  I knew that she most definitely could teach me something and I always want to support the LYS.  She was working on a very pretty white on white shawl - I started asking her all about it and she told me who she was making it for and since I had never seen the stitch, she explained all about that as well.  I then asked if she had any appropriate yarns in her shop, that I would like to experiment with that stitch.  She helped me to pick two yarns - a very fine lace weight - and a chunky variegated yarn - and I learned a new stitch!!  "Scribble Lace" - I'm not sure it can be considered true lace as this is  the garter stitch, but it is pretty and when it gets a little longer, the weight of the chunky yarn will pull down and open up the rows of lace weight yarn.  It should be very pretty.

I finished this little circle loom hat for a new little cousin born to our family.  She is just the cutest little thing - 5 months old - and so smiley and cuddly!!  The proud parents let her be passed around to all the kids and boy could you see the love and admiration just rolling off of them!!  Kudos go to the new first time parents for letting 7 children play pass the baby - although I kept a close look out to make sure nothing went amiss.

Sharing with FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday, Creative Friday, I've Made Friday, Keep Calm and Craft On, Fluster's Creative Muster, and Patchwork Times.  The links are all on my side bar.

New dress for Chrissa

Chrissa, my daughter's American Girl Doll needed a new dress.

And this is what I came up with.  A simple sheath.  It was super simple and took almost no time at all.  I love these quick, simple projects that make my kids smile!!  It really makes my heart sing.  I think Chrissa needs more dresses for Christmas!!

Lots of great finished objects over at Tami's, Fiber Arts Friday, Linda's and Lydia's, and Mindful Mothering.

Noon Art - Little Treasure Boxes

A new school year, a new noon art.  I organize (with the help of some amazing ladies!) noon art every other Thursday at our elementary school.

 We set up the tables - 9 of the 6 foot variety and lay out all the necessary supplies.  This year we made tablecloths to cover the tables and boy what an improvement that has been!!  Now when the glue gets all over the place, instead of having to scrub and scrub and scrub the tables, we just pull the tablecloths off, bring them home and throw them into the washing machine - easy, peasy!

 Lots of sequins, beads, markers - can't go wrong with sequins!

 Someone donated these little "specimen" containers for noon art.

 The kids loved this activity.

 Boys and girls alike - we had as many boys as girls in attendance.  That has been my goal the past two years since I started doing Noon Art -- to find projects that would appeal to both boys and girls equally and it has to be something that grades 1 through 5 can do in 20 minutes.  WHEW!!

 Lots of sparkle on this one :o)

 More than 100 kids came.  Many of them made several of the boxes - we went through about 350 of those little boxes.  It was fast and furious in Noon Art this day!

 This boy made about 12 of the boxes - he made one for all his siblings, parents and grandparents and of course the custodian - how sweet!

 If a little glue is good, more is better :o)

 We also put out left over Mardi Gras coins from a party my friend had thrown.  We absolutely did not anticipate how popular those were going to be.  One huge box of coins - GONE.

 So sweet.

 This girl thought she had "made a mistake" on hers and came to me in tears.  I asked her why she thought she made a mistake and she told me because she had glued things on the inside of the box.  I let her know that there are no mistakes in art - you can do whatever you want and it's perfect.  Then I asked her if she would like to make another and she nodded her head and got back to her art - glueing things on the insides of her boxes.

 This is one of my son's boxes.

 This is another - he loves to make 3-D stuff.

 I love the combo of pen and glue on this one.

This one is interesting - the student colored on the bottom of the box a solid color and then drew balloons on the top - you can't really tell here, but it does give a good shadow box appearance.  I tell you, these kids are fabulous!!  I love laying out supplies and seeing where their creativity will take them.

I can't wait for the next one!

Sharing at:  Fiber Arts Friday, Tami's, Creative Friday, and I've Made Friday