Mojo Restart and a Give-Away

Let's lead with the give-away. I had said that my Schacht Inkle loom was little used and unloved and should be sold. Well instead of selling it I am giving it away along with a very pretty bird's eye Maple shuttle.





 I'll pay for shipping but please, only lower 48 states entries for it.  If you want to be in the drawing just leave a comment saying so. Names will go into a hat and one will be randomly picked next Wednesday, 3/1/17. I only ask that you pay it forward to a cause near and dear to your heart or community.  Pay the adoption fee of a dog who has been at your local shelter too long, some funds maybe to the famine crisis in South Sudan, Planned Parenthood, maybe a few bags of groceries or a generous gift certificate to your local food bank for grocery items they may need to round out their banks. Volunteer some time. Your choice on the feel good act of kindness and generosity. :-)

Okay, the mojo kickstart. A new pattern always seems to help.



I did a really crappy run through for the first one. I didn't like the multiple treatments for the neck on this pattern. Some of you will. For me, the flipping and fussing didn't suit, so I streamlined my 2nd version to take a self bias binding for the whole neckline.



 I paired down the armholes some but in the end, I need to go down a size on the top portion and keep it graded out for the lower portion/hips. I also want to put inseam pockets into the next one.



Version 2.0 is perfectly wearable and being a dark color will likely see a lot of use. Plus, well foxes! Version 3.0 will probably be linen.

And speaking of linen, I have a lot of good sized linen scraps around since it often comes in a 58" width. I really wanted to do something to get some of it out of the scrap stash.



 So a pretty much unmodified Scout Tee pattern became the perfect vehicle for a fun morning of color blocking and sewing.



All in favorite shades of green and with a slightly shaped shirt tail type hem.



A new inkle band was started on the Cendrel loom.



Time was also spent this week in spiffing up my little desk area. I am a sucker for art tiles. I have one hanging on each of my looms on Command hooks ( along with small scissors and wing nut tools), and I finally rounded up some of the tiles I had been collecting to hang en-masse.



 There's still a bit of room for a one or two small treasures.

Winter is still holding a pretty firm grip in these parts.



 Over the weekend we had 10" of wet snow that melted quickly and yesterday about another 10. Things are pretty sloppy as we slid into mud season.

That brings us to:

Did That Just Happen?

Finally, people are getting involved in their government! Record numbers of constituents are turning up and speaking their minds. For us that is remarkable. There are many other democracies around the world and it would seem Norway has hit upon a nice balance. I have to say, ours could use some fine tuning and it certainly would be a different country if we had the give and take of the Norwegian system and the participation!

Even though our elected officials may be a group of greedy power grabbing asshats, there is still much good in our country. The Muslim community coming together to help fix the headstones tipped and broken in a Jewish STL cemetery and this from a flight last Saturday night.

Lastly, there has been a spate of dog food recalls, some pretty deadly. Those with pets might want to sign up on this site for the alerts. They are very quick to send them out. And remember, foods with Xylitol are poison to your dog. Check your peanut butter especially if you use it for pilling like we do.

Don't forget to leave a short comment if you want to be included in the give-away!

Parting shot: My own basket of adorable.