Saturday, December 22, 2007

Merry Santa Stocking

I finished a very cool Santa Stocking for Deb. It was so much fun to work on, though I did adapt the pattern quite a bit. Added a few inches to the stocking, modified the shape of some of the arm and leg pieces, added more stuffing to the belly, and embroidered stars and ornaments on the trees. Still, it was a "meant to be" project. My Mom found an old yarn bag of mine from high school with a few skeins of Christmas yarn and some half-done ornaments. I didn't even remember that I had it. That evening we went over to my aunt and uncle's place, and my uncle asked me if I would like all of his mom's knitting and crochet pattern books. Oh, what a dream!!!! These were gorgeous lace books, doilies, Christmas books, afghans. I was thrilled. One of the books had a Santa Stocking pattern, and I just happened to have the exact amount of yarn in the correct colors in my forgotten knitting bag. This was the result.

Friday, December 7, 2007

How to Fight Off Boredom

I'm in Minnesota right now...and will be for a couple weeks. I thought that I'd have all the time in the world to knit...totally forgetting that I'm here because I have to work on deploying a project nearly every night that I'm here. But apparently that didn't enter my mind when I was packing. I must have been under the impression that I needed entertainment....lots and lots of entertainment. "Camp Betsy" or "Cruise Director Betsy" entertainment.
Contents of 1 large red suitcase....
Knitting -
Leda's Dream stole and extra skein yarn.
2 skeins wool for Dave's hat

Crocheting -
24 squares and yarn to edge and piece a SD fire blanket.
12 skeins (assorted sizes) of acrylic yarns to make squares

Bobbin Lace-
2 boxes thread
Kickboard pillow (now covered!)
2 books

Notions -
Scissors
3 boxes pins
Tape measures
Knitting notions kit

And the books I brought....
4 puzzle books
2 mysteries
1 fiction

And the music I brought...
1 ipod with 1200 songs

And the movies I brought...
Hot Fuzz
Oceans something...can't remember name
Season 1 of 30 Rock6 other DVDs of mystery movies that I burned and forgot to label.

And the games I brought...
Peggle
Deck of Cards Goofy. :-)