HAPPY HOLIDAY-ING
Things will be relatively quiet this Christmas at Chez Earin's. No hordes of children either grown or tiny. We have our branch and so far no furbot has been seen swinging from it's branches with an ornament between its teeth. I've come to like the branch a lot. It's easy to decorate yet still gives me that special feeling as I unwrap some of my favorite decorations and transform it from a piece of greenery to "our tree".
We wake up to frosty mornings yet the garden still has a few flowers, enough to make up one of my beloved boo-kays. So far it has been a very dry winter with no real rain in the forecast. I dream of snow. One of these days I hope.
Geraniums, blanketflower, dusty miller.
The Christmas cactus that almost died. I inherited this from my dear friend Katrina who died a couple of years ago. I put it in my unheated greenhouse for the winter and a cold snap just about did it in. Two years of nursing and I now have a healthy, flowering plant. We now have a string of Christmas lights to help raise the temperature up above freezing.
Knitting
After running into a cable mistake one night I cast on for another project. I find I get bored so like to go back and forth on things. I am liking this quite a lot. One of Wendy Bernard's patterns (Cameo) from her book, Custom Knits. I even had the yarn, RY Cashsoft DK in stash. I'll make it a little longer and not so tight which will suit me a bit better. So far the fit looks good and I think this is going to be a winner of a garment.
I will go back and fix my cable mistake. I will, I will.
Sewing
I decided to make my Canadian cousin a pair of soft boots for around the house. First off, working with shirring is a very fluffy affair. I had hoped to use an old dog coat for the leather bottoms but it turned out to be faux leather. I looked several times at what my LYS had in stock and just didn't care for them. I finally bought some deerskin on-line and having been forcing my poor sewing machine to punch leather.
Before I got to the leather option I thought I would try some felted alpaca. It actually made pretty good soles but looked very rustic. Or as I emailed The Enabler, "...it looks like I should be trekking over the alps with my hand woven reed basket and my bone knife..." The Enabler said she wasn't sure this was a bad look.
BTW - felted alpaca sheds little tiny hairs that get all over the place. Just thought you should know.
I bought so adorable fabric from my very favorite fabric store, Fabrics on Mill St. which, alas is closing. There will be a website but no long will I be able to wander in to just see what's new and to lovingly trail my hands over the bolts and dream of things I'd like to make. It is beyond sad. I am not happy about this.
Cats
One has to have at last one cat photo. Ollie and Olive sitting on the dining room table looking out at the world below.
posted by Earin Marybird @ 11:39 AM
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