I don't feel like I've spent that much time working on anything this month, but I do have some progress to show!
The Ennis pullover is 3/4 pieces done:
That's the back and both sleeves; all that's left is the front and then finishing.
I've also been working on a piece of tablet weaving (both front and back of the band pictured)
The pattern is from Lady Elewys of Finchingefeld's interpretation of one of the pieces found in Oseberg. Apparently this pattern is not fully historically accurate: it should be squares on both sides. But I like the zig-zag, so that's the front I'm using. I found a cute purse pattern and fabric, and will be using this as the trim. It's about 1/2" wide, and so far I have about 18" woven (the goal is ~2 yards, but we'll see how that goes...). The trickiest part is sitting down to weave, which honestly, isn't that always the problem? But less existentially, I'm doing a kind of modified backstrap weaving technique, which means using my own actual body as part of the loom. Which means I have to commit to being stuck in place for whatever length of time.
Part of my crafting slump this month was because I was still trying to reorganize my stitching supplies into a new sewing box. I have pictures of one I was building in a tin; I got the bottom level done and it did exactly what I wanted. But I couldn't get the 2nd level to work how I wanted, I didn't like my fabrics and other materials, etc etc. So I gave up and bought something:
Hark! That is not intended as a sewing box AT ALL. It's actually designed by a gaming supplies company, to hold collectible card games (think Magic the Gathering, or the Pokemon card game). But look at how great everything fits:
I have an old pencil tin that fits nicely in that long section and corrals my pens and other long tools. The deck box has two drawers under a top tray on the right, which are designed for game tokens but work perfectly for my smaller scissors and needle packets and so on. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with those long narrow pockets along the top there, but for now my fabric scissors fit nicely enough.
It is a little ungainly to carry, but the long narrow design fits perfectly on my desk. I can line it up along the back edge of whatever table I'm working at and have all the workspace I need directly in front of me, while still having every tool I could possibly need easily accessible. Took it along to this month's EGA meeting as a proof of concept, and it worked perfectly. Ultimately I wanted to have access to all my tools both at home and when traveling for classes, and I think this is it!
