Mid January status and new cookbook challenge, apparently I'm real busy

Slightly wonky basket, perfect for a beer cozy 

I made a basket in workshop taught by Barbara Shapiro. These are Japanese flower knots which are totally intimidating and seem impossible until you've made 4, then they're addictive. The base is a hexagonal weave. The basket benefitted from being sprayed with water, then allowed to dry with a pint jar inside; it's much less wonky now! Made from craft band, a Japanese recycled paper product. It was so addicting that I ordered a roll of the paper band (arrived) and a book from Japan (not arrived, and in Japanese) so I can try to make some more baskets.

Poor woven band

I finished a cardwoven band in 5/2 cotton (and a mystery fiber), started last year when I did the demo for a guild study group. For some reason I was incapable of counting to 8 reliably but I like the difference in the band as I varied from 4-12 or more turns. BTW, these always look better when ironed (this has been ironed). 

I'd intended to go to the Serendipity Spinners meeting this month with my little e-spinner, only to find that the drive band was busted. I thought I'd ordered new ones... and went looking... I found evidence in my email that I'd ordered bands and an extra motor, but could not find them in the studio.  I found them later, in the first place I looked, just after I'd ordered more (they're just O-rings) off the internet. I did go to the meeting, and I spun some on some blue wool I'd gotten at one of the SOAR conferences. I'm spinning really thin so I can weave with it....

Rice bag #4, Side 1... will it ever end? 

Still working on the Age of Aquarius Poncho; I'm guessing I'm about 16" into the 18" piece, which will be 1/2 of the finished poncho. It's going much faster than I'd anticipated. 

I'm taking another Molly Hashimoto block printing class but German has started and I'm fully occupied with that. I need to get organized...

I'm also working on that 4th rice bag; I have 2 of the 4 panels ready, and the base is ready to go.  I'm having fun with the stitches I learned in the first Alabama Channin class. When that's finished, I can put away the rice bag box; that's part of a (very) slow effort to declutter the studio.

There's a new cookbook challenge... I'll pick a cookbook this time, or ask DH for his recommendation, then cook from it, but only in months when I'm home enough. This month, I'm cooking from Madhur Jaffrey's Instant Indian Cookbook.  I made the Ground Lamb with Peas and the Stir Fried Green Beans in a South Indian style. and served it with rice and an 11 year old Gangloff Condrieu; the pairing was excellent.  I didn't cook the beans in the Instant Pot, and didn't precook them at all; instead I stir fried them in the spices and left them super crunchy. I could eat these beans every day.  In February, I'll go back to Georg Lang's Hungarian cookbook to try out the paprika I brought home with me.

What's up for the foreseeable future? 

• I have some prints to make for my class.
• Next Friday, I'm taking another Alabama Channin class, this time on beading. 
• I have to finish warping my loom and get that project underway.
• I'll work on the Poncho while watching TV in the evenings and while knitting in public.
• I'm giving a mini clinic on how to warp up for card weaving on Feb 1, so I'll warp up another band in 10/2 cotton. 
• K and I are going to play with Andean Pickup on the inkle loom while at our knitting retreat in early February.
• I have to get back to the mosaic studio. I don't think I'm ready to start tiling but I have to work on the substrate to make it rounder, and add the drywall tape to the border. I can realistically do the edging as well before I'm ready to transfer  the design and start laying real glass.

I've also got my Goethe class, the homework for my other German tutor, and I need to get out on the bike to prep for the bike trip in early summer. Yikes.