Ikat Warp shifter!!! Komebukuro, and some cooking

Warp shifter? More info in a later post

I asked DH to make an ikat warp shifter for me: I'm currently trying to learn how to use it. Here's a teaser photo! And when I'm weaving I'll publish a review and some notes. I suspect this won't be a good test as the warp was poorly dyed (by me)... but weaving it anyways.

The October cookbook was Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean... I choose a baked fish dish, covered with a tahini sauce and chopped hazelnuts; I'd cook that again. Paula suggested to eat it with pickled veggies, and yep, that's the right side dish. This cookbook is organized differently than most modern cookbooks, and may not appeal to everyone, and I enjoyed the stories about where she found the recipes... And the Eastern Med covers a HUGE area, which was fascinating as well. 

Pasta wanna-be

For DH's birthday, I made cheese canneloni and a salad with the last tomatoes from the garden... I took a photo at the start but failed to take one of the finished dish! I made a pan of 3 servings, and yep, they were all gone... but there are 2 smaller pans in the freezer to eat later.  We opened a bottle of 2007 Castello di Ama Chianti Classico that we bought at the winery on our 25th anniversary trip... it needed some time to open up and in act was a lot better on the 2nd day. We've noted that for the other bottle we have.

P. and I picked up a pattern and fabric kit for Komebukuro at Sew Creative in Ashland; awesome shop!!! Komebukuro are Japanese Rice bags, used to carry offering of rice to the temple... these bags are super popular for project bags or lunch bags right now. I bought a fabric kit for it but can easily see using leftover fabrics; these bags are embellished with applique, and sashiko and boro stitching.  So far I've sewn together the sides of two bags; the kit is supposed to have enough for three. I'll use scrap fabric for the lining and maybe get a couple more bags from the nice thickish fabric in the kit... (What am I going to do with a bunch of bags? Hmmm...)

On the weaving front, I'm working very slowly through warping with the warp shifter. I don't know what I'm doing and that makes me hesitate. I will likely warp up a runner on the other empty loom.

The beginnings of my komebukuro

Sewing wise, I have nothing currently planned other than the rice bags. 

I cast on the April Cardigan (a v-necked cardigan in blue cashmere) for travel knitting, repeatedly. I finally got the hang of the right facing and left facing increases and am knitting away. It's a simple top down cardi and it's going pretty fast in the DK weight cashmere.

Still working on the Modular Color Vest version 2, since I screwed up version 1 pretty badly. I'd unraveled it and cast it on a while ago. I'm about 2/3 complete. 

Craftsy! I'm using it!

I started this tote based on instructions in Christina Cameli's Craftsy Class (The
Scrappy Tote Bag). This is the 3rd bag I've made... the other two are in the trunk of DH's car and he regularly uses them for groceries. I made the two embroidered panels from another Craftsy class (Eileen Roche's The Machine Embroidered Quilt) when I first got the embroidery machine, and have been wanting to incorporate them into something since.

Craftsy, incidentally, is a learning service offering hundreds of video classes in mostly arts and crafts... Quilting, knitting, spinning, sewing, fine art, cooking, and a lot of other things. I joined during the pandemic; the first year is VERY inexpensive, and after the first year, a full subscription to as many classes as you can view is fairly reasonable. I do not use it to it's full potential, although I'd like to use it more often. I can give a free year to three friends so if you're reading this and want to check it out, let me know!

Grocery bag, all scraps; the embroidered
panels are a little wishy-washy

I like working on these bags because it gives me a chance to practice some basic skills on a small and low stress project ending with a lovely useful item. They are, however, not low effort projects; after piecing the panels together, they are hand quilted, then the bag is sewn together and lined. 

On this one,  I used Bernina's Pinpoint Placement for the applique, and the Stitch Regulator for the free hand quilting... I also used the walking foot for the bulky things like sewing on the straps, and a variety of other methods, tools, etc. All of the materials are scrap from my stash. 

This really refreshed many of the things I learned when I did the last bag in 2021... I really like to combo of colors and textures (you can't see texture in the photo). I do wish I'd used softer blues and reds to match the center panels better; they are pink on hand dyed indigo dyed cotton. But I didn't want it to be too feminine, and I suppose I have the election on my mind and am channeling our patriotic colors. The word Patriot, and things that are red, white, and blue, belong to both parties, although I suspect both sides forget that too often.

Construction wise, I need to remember to leave enough room on the straps to edge stitch the top after the lining is put in... that and relax and enjoy the quilting. I had one mishap with the rotary cutter (my nemesis!) where I destroyed one of the embroidered panels and had to do another. It's good to remember to be careful with very sharp things.

I do intend to make a bag for a charity auction in the spring... gotta get going on that... And the quilting is motivating me to do more quilting. Maybe finish a couple of the quilts I have in progress.

There's nothing on the looms right now. I started tearing strips of sheets for some rag rug weaving but wow! it's very slow. Meanwhile, DH has finally implemented the ikat warp shifter he's been thinking about for over a year now... it's ready and now I need to get a project on it!

I'll blog separately about the Knitting Retreat.

Now I know why they weigh the dough when
they divide it.. the runt tasted delicious !

I've been cooking a lot, too. I'm just back from a trip to France followed a week later by a trip to Ashland, Oregon for a knitting retreat. So I guess I'm "nesting" a little. Yesterday I cooked sheet pan ratatouille, and today I made slow cooker dal using olive oil instead of ghee, and Paul Hollywood's Ciabatta. All was tasty although the ciabatta didn't have the large airy holes it ought to... The bonus to both of the dishes is that I can store it in the nearly empty freezer for the next few months.  I did revive my sourdough starter and will try some sourdough later this week; I also do it to save the discard to make crackers for DH. It's nice to make him something he really enjoys :)