I've been busy!

Whew, January has been quite a journey (well, it did include a road trip from Vashon, WA to Wimberley, TX!), and though I did not finish everything on my UFO challenge for this month, I did most of it!

(yes, that's the palm desert, and a giant Saguaro, and a giant tumbleweed waiting at a stop sign, and snow in New Mexico, and mixed snow and dust storms in west Texas)

January finishes and flubs:
#1 - UFO finished - The 7 yard color gamp warp on my new loom is done and off the loom!   (that's the very end of the warp, just before I cut it off)

This project mostly stalled because I was sick off and on all summer and fall in 2012, and then it was the holidays.  

Then I signed up for a February weaving class and needed an empty loom, so had to put on the speed.  

I built up my weaving stamina slowly, but when I got up to more than 4 hours a day, the bottoms of my feet started to hurt (treadling barefoot helps me keep track of a pattern since my feet feel where I am on the 10 treadles).  So I had to use my sneakers, which helped my feet, but slowed me down (I had to look down to see where I was) and created mistakes when my shoes accidentally caught the edge of a neighboring treadle.  Changing to a different treadle tie up using fewer treadles and with space in between pairs of treadles helped enormously and I was able to crank it all out before the big road trip.

And here they all are (wrinkled and folded from being stuffed in a basket for a few weeks while I traveled and then came home and took my class) .  The color gamp warp actually made 9 napkins instead of 8!  The bottom right frame show #9 waffle weave (after washing) on top of #8 waffle weave (unwashed) to show how much it shrinks when washed!  The plain weave and twills will not shrink as much.  Later this week I'll write up another post with more weaver tech for those who are interested.

#2 - WIP - FMQ Challenge - finished (blog post with all the details here)!  Not only finished in time to link up To SewCalGal, but I won a prize and will be getting my own Kaleidoscope maker program so I can play and play!

#3 - WIP - Granddaughter dress revision - didn't happen.  Well, if I hadn't gone on a last-minute-ish 10 day road trip, this would have gotten finished.  But the sewing machine doesn't travel like the knitting does!  So this goes to the February list.

#4 - WIP - Rigid Heddle scarf - didn't happen.  Turns out I actually had 10 inches left to weave, and pinwheel pick-up is slow, slow, slow.  On to the February list.

#5 - NW - American Girl Doll mitts - almost done!  Thought I would get these done when it was my turn to be passenger on the long drive, but it turns out that I can't knit in the car at night (when dear husband does the driving) unless I bring a headlamp!

Plus, my stepdaughter requested a pair for herself, and I worked a bit on those!

So, 5 finishes may be a bit ambitious for one month, but some success all the same!

February challenges - in order of priority:

1. WIP - finish revising the 2year old granddaughter's dress before she outgrows it!

*Needs to be revised and have a tie or button and loop put on at the back of neck - she's a wee little thing, but she has a big active brain and needs a neckline that is small enough for her little shoulders, but big enough for her head to go through comfortably.

2.  WIP - finish the little American Doll mitts for other granddaughter!
(see #5 above for photo)  - a quick evening's knitting and finishing.

3.  WIP - finish second fingerless mitt for stepdaughter before she runs out of Texas winter (if it ever was winter at all - seems like it was in the 70's almost the whole time we were there)!  Second mitt is cast on and beads are loaded onto the yarn (see #5 above for photo) - good project for car trips (passenger only!), ferry lines, and meetings.

4. UFO - This is the big one - the challenge quilt that's due at quilt guild on March 19!  The challenge rules and the fabric were both given to us back in early summer, and I've made some lists, and done some design sketches, but have not really started construction yet!  So the plan for this month is first to simplify and finalize the design and make any pattern pieces I need (this week),  then to select fabric and cut and piece or fuse the quilt top (next week), and finally to layer the quilt sandwich and do the basic outline and stabilizing quilting (last week of month).  The rest will go on next month's UFO plan (I'll have 3 weeks in March to finish).
Sorry, no photos till it's done - just in case a guild member happens to see my blog!  So you'll have to trust me on this one!

5. UFO - Pinwheel Scarf on Rigid Heddle loom - abandoned in November - not as finished as I thought it was.

So it need 10 more inches woven, plus hemstitching and fringe twisting.  Can probably get this one done at the Rigid Heddle Study Group meeting!

And that's the plan!