Felt ornaments

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So our Christmas tree is up but not decorated.  I want to make some felt ornaments so the twins can help decorate the lower branches of the tree.   I actually ventured out to a few stores Friday afternoon for some supplies.  No Black Friday mobs in the afternoon.  

Future felt ornaments

The white cutouts are some of my paper patterns that I’ll need to transfer to cardstock or thin plastic so I can reuse them.  Not shown are assorted beads and embroidery floss.
Starting new projects always gets my heart pumping and my creative juices flowing.  I have a few projects I need to finish before I dive into these…listed in no particular order:
    1. Musica mitts: one down, one to go. Deadline: December 22.  I’m using fingering weight yarn and think sport weight would have been better for a larger mitt.
    2. Three Spud & Chloe earflap hats: one finished, one waiting for strap, one waiting to get started. Deadline: December 10 for these two  and December 22 for the third one.

    Toddler size hats

    3. Buttons for the above mentioned hats.  Deadline December 9.
    4. Seamless slippers for Dr. Professor: finished except for sewing on the rest of the sole. Deadline: last week.

    Teal and heather green seamless slippers

    5. Soakers: One halfway finished, one still in a ball.  Deadline: December 10.
    6. Ms Ida mittens: One thumb to go.  Deadline: December 9 (though the recipient wanted them yesterday).  This is an old progress picture. 

    Ms Ida CLM right palm

    I must confess that these are not for the meek.  For some reason I could not get the thumbs right so abandoned the pattern and figured out another way to decrease and keep in the pattern.  Sort of….  If I’m brave, I’ll post a picture.

Advent and Christmas Wishes

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Growing up our family always did something special for Advent and I started this particular “Christmas Wishes” tradition a few years ago when I heard about it from a friend.  She would collect things throughout the year and give them to her children (now adults with families of their own) starting December 1st and ending Christmas Eve.  Her “rules” were that the item had to fit inside a business size envelope and cost less than $1.  She collected free pencils, pens, emery boards, samples, shiny coins, balloons, etc.

My rule is that the item has to fit inside a standard brown lunch bag.  Sometimes the item is a freebie and sometimes I buy them.  This year I printed the date (1-24) and person’s name on a round sticker to secure the top of the bag with the treat inside.

Packed up and ready to go

I didn’t get the Wishes bags ready when my son and his family were here last week for an early Thanksgiving dinner so I mailed the box of goodies to them and my daughter’s family. 

Some of the Wishes are edible: packs of cookies, tea bags, puddings, applesauce, popcorn, a piece of candy, a bottle of Frank’s Hot Sauce.  Some are usable: postage stamps, lint rollers, shoe polish, note pads, candles, hand lotion, Christmas ornaments, picture frames.  I don’t think it matters what it is as long as it’s a surprise.

It takes a lot of time to get it all together and I have to think about what each person likes or dislikes throughout the year.  When I see something, I pick it up.  It’s hard coming up with 24 different things times five people so I have to resort to crisp $1 bills to fill in some days.

The year my daughter and her husband bought their house, I gave one of them a bottle of wine and the other a $20 bill on the day they closed their loan to help them celebrate. 

Of course I forgot to include some things I forgot about until the box was sent.  Oh well, those things will be stocking stuffers.

Do you do anything special for Advent?

A new direction…with wine

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When I started this blog, I planned on writing about knitting.  Hence the name: Knitting in Flashes.  I’m expanding my writing to include not only knitting, decluttering, redecorating, sewing, and other crafting delights, but the rest of my life, which I thought was going to end last night.

Mr. Aitch and I have friends.  We have friends that drink wine.  We have friends that occasionally give us wine.

Last night we tried one of the wines we recently received.  It’s made by some hippies in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Mr. Aitch poured generous glasses for both of us. 

The bouquet was flowery with hints of raspberries and honey.  It also had touches of  “fragrant” tea and raisins.  Whatever.  I like raspberries and honey.  I drink tea.  It was ok.  Sweet but ok.  For the first few sips. 

I was enjoying our lovely dinner of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes,and corn and sipping the wine when all of a sudden I grabbed my chest to pull out the burning arrow that I was sure pierced my bosom and set me on fire.

My friends, this was not your everyday heartburn.  This was heart inferno. 

Mr. Aitch, the ever attentive husband that he is, noticed my extreme discomfort and rushed to get me some strong antacids.  Fifteen minutes later the flames were extinguished and I knew I would live.

I should have known that when Mr. Aitch took one sip and wanted to give me the rest of his glass, that something was wrong.  One sip for Mr. Aitch  was one sip too many.

One down…

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…one to go.  I finished the left Musica mitt last night and started the right one.  Since both have different patterns, I think the next one will be as quick and the first.  No boring knitting.

Left Musica Mitt

The yarn color is very close to the border on this page, kind of a dusky blue.  The photo is much brighter.

We started our Christmas decorating around the house and Mr. Aitch wants to put the lights up outside this afternoon while it’s sunny and above freezing.

I have some more FO’s to show you later this week.