Some Ridiculously Few Amount of Days Till Christmas

Well, It's been an interesting summer for me.  My hands were fixed.  Turns out it was a little brain met pressing where it shouldn't.  A short trip to Winnipeg for radiation (wonderful machine that doesn't bore holes straight through your brain) fixed that and my visual problems.  Unfortunately, I then got a bacterial disease that tried to eat my leg- the night before surgery the best case scenario was that they would clean out my foot the best they could with damaging tendons and then there would be a series of skin grafts.  They asked permission to take the leg to the knee if they needed to.  The good news is there were no skin grafts, just 6 weeks of wound care, and I still have my leg although it is decidedly black in color still.  At the same time I also got Kidney stones, and a clot in my left leg that went from the back of my knee to just above my belly button.  Still working on that one.

When I was well on the way to being repaired

Onto good news!  I completed all the socks and mittens for the museum fundraiser.  Once those were stitched you painted them with white glue front and back, and then glued on felt.

I hope they raise a fair amount.  For next year I want to do little felt animals.  Mom made them for me when I was a kid - Mr. & Mrs. Skunk, Possum, Fox etc.  Put some little Christmas outfits on them and they should be cute.

I am almost done the nativity scene as well.  If I had known how much work that was going to be I would have saved my $50.00.  They are full of colour changes and..... as a result look absolutely spectacular!  My favorite is the Camel.  I've stitched them all, traced and attached the felt backings and stuffed them all.  Now I need to add aquarium rock, so they don't tilt over I suspect, trace the bottoms onto felt, cut those on and then whip stitch it all together.  I think another 3 weeks to a month will see them done.  

Then it will be time for Christmas cards......

More Miles in Minutes

So.  It's been awhile.  I've been having problems with my hands.  They like to curl up into little balls, or the thumb will slowly fold inside the palm while a couple of other fingers slowly slither (it's disturbing to watch - they do slither) together, or all the fingers spring apart into 50 different directions.  Then they all freeze in their chosen positions for up to  a half hour.  Then if I'm lucky I'm good to go.  Sometimes a minute later they will go through the whole performance again, trying out different shapes.  I'm hoping its thyroid problems because that's the easiest to solve.

Anyways,  I've managed to make another blanket.  It's another Annie's Attic Mile a Minute.  Apparently there was a bunch of birth control that was sold without enough baby stop infused into it and we have friends who are expecting :)  I haven't taken a picture of it yet but here is the picture from the instruction book.  Imagine it in the same colours as the other blanket I made because I used the left overs.  I'm cheap.

Didn't quite make it

I finally finished my afghan that I started 2 years ago.  It is a tartan blanket and I was hoping to finish it for Robbie Burns day last week.  Alas, it was not to be so and I finished it at 10 last night.  Speaking of Robbie Burns - our local scottish association did a big "do" for it.  There were several scotches, tatties, neeps, and haggis and shortbread.  You didn't go home hungry!  2 of Saskatoons pipe bands performed separately and then finished off the night with massed bands.  There were highland dancers from professional dancers down to little 2 year old men in their black boots and little kilts.  AND lots of nice legs in kilts :)

Anyways, my tartan blanket is McKeown.

This one is made from Briggs and Little yarn in 5 colors.  What you do is make an open grid using double crochet and then you make many, many, many chains and weave them into the open grid and voila! A tartan afghan.  They are very heavy and extremely warm because you are essentially combining two afghans into one.  This is my 5th one.  I don't know if I'll make another - our wool supply in Saskatoon leaves something to be desired.  When I was in on Friday she didn't have enough of anything to finish a project, nor did she have any appropriate colors, or enough different colors to be able to make one. 

So now onto many projects.  I need 2 birthday cards, some Valentines day cards, and an anniversary card.  And I want to finish a pillow I was working on, before the end of March.  So I'll need to get working on that one right away because I'm going to have to order tapestry yarn from Ontario (our local is unable to special order - if you manage to get the order, it is never correct.  Mostly it just never happens despite all reassurances.  And, my little socks, mittens and the nativity came in last week so I'm itching to start those.

Ring, ring, rings......

I am so tired of rings.  

I love this particular blanket and it has always become a favourite of the kids that receive it.  It's made of many rings with many holes to stick tiny fingers into.  Unfortunately, the rings are made of different colours and I get tired very quickly of making them.  But, I think the end result is worth it.

                                                

                           

My picture taking skills are not the best but I think that you can imagine what it looks like.

I know that we don't need the blanket until June or July, but I just became addicted and this blanket is all I wanted to work on.  Unfortunately, my brown monkey also wanted to help and she ate about 6 or 8 inches of yarn before I caught her at it.  This is the first time she has eaten yarn and it is always around the house.    It's also the first time I've used acrylic since I've had her; maybe she has an Acrylic fetish.

She got a couple of syringes full of hydrogen peroxide.  She looked rabid with all the frothing around her mouth but she would not vomit.  So we fed her a big spoonful of vaseline to help the passage along.  She does not like Vaseline.  At all.  Nor does she really like Hydrogen Peroxide.  Now we wait and see if it tangles in her intestines.  

I received my tax receipt for my Museum donation last year.  I made a set of 5 christmas cards cross-stitched with a series of 3 repetitive pictures across each - a star, a penguin, Rudolf's face, a snowman, and a santa I think.  I made them awhile ago and I must admit my memory is not what it used to be.  I did not even think to take pictures of them - I really need to learn to take pictures of what I make.  Anyways, I got my tax receipt and they went for $50.00.  Awesome!

Now I need to start making Valentines day cards, birthday cards, and an Anniversary card.  Time to start thinking of designs.  Hmmmmm......

Happy New Year

I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.  We went to BC to visit family.  In the month before Christmas I made many, many bags from scrap fabric to "wrap" presents in.  They were color coded; Mom had red velvet, Dad had green velvet and my brother got blue with white snowflakes.

I made very simple quilled cards this year.  A small snowflake in the middle of the card.  Unfortunately,   I mailed them all before I thought to take a picture.  The snowflake was made from 1/8" white quilling paper with a metallic blue edge.  It was placed on a small white circle which was bordered by a metallic blue of the same color as the edge of the quilling paper.  This was mounted on metallic white or cream cardstock - I only had so much white card stock as it turned out and needed to substitute the cream.  This is at least the second time I have used snowflakes as the focal point of Christmas cards in the last 4 years.  I need to start thinking about this years christmas cards now I guess.

I get the Mary Maxim catalog and have finally decided to order something.

This nativity is sculpted cross-stitch and my mother-in-law will absolutely adore it.  

These little guys are cross-stitch.  I plan to break them up into sets of 5 and donate some to a museum Christmas Silent Auction Fund Raiser.  Some may end up on our tree and I imagine that some will be presents.

We are also having a birth in my husbands side of the family and I am madly crocheting a baby blanket for the occasion.  It won't be needed for about another 6 months but it is such a finicky blanket with many colour changes and takes awhile to make.  Look back in a couple of weeks to see the finished product.  I promise to remember to take a picture of this one :)