A Little Yarn On The Side

Yesterday was a bad back day again, which is REALLY frustrating as I thought I was being really good this week AND it meant missing a Christmas party last night.  It turns out that there are lots of things that can cause my back to freak out while I'm trying to heal, including changes in the weather.  I won't know for about a year if the weather problem is permanent or not, but for right now, it is possible that snow combined with a zippy 4 degrees can throw my back for a loop.  Fair enough--the rest of me doesn't care for that kind of cold either.  So today while getting ready for our party, I am taking regular breaks to sit on my new massage cushion.  The therapist told me that when muscles knot, one essentially has to re-injure them to get them to relax.  Fortunately or unfortunately, my new back massager believes in this program as well.  The packaging calls it "Shiatsu action," which sounds much more friendly than "back pulverization with heat,...

The last party we had was about two years ago now.  I had already sent out invitations for a Christmas party, and luckily had made it a "Share your traditions" party where everyone was to bring the food that was most traditional for them for Christmas, before landing in the hospital with my back.  So, we went ahead with the party with me drugged heavily and my friends had decorated the house for me and all the food came with the guests.  But since then with all the back issues, we haven't had a party since, which is my longest dry spell EVER.  So this Sunday we are hosting an Ugly Sweater party, which explains the lack of blogging.  The decorating is almost done, including the swags which I was thinking might be the hardest on my back.  We got some shorter light strings, however, and this took about 15 minutes and didn't hurt at all.  YAY! I did have one bad day this week, so I spent it making my Ugly Christmas Sweater, since I have never owned...

It's December 1.  Our Ugly Sweater Christmas party is a week from TODAY.  What happened??????????? Hope everyone had as much fun as we did on Thanksgiving.  I got to go somewhere!!!!  The last 2 Thanksgivings I have spent in bed drugged to the gills, so I would have been pleased with anything, but we had THE most delightful time with our friends and everyone had a lovely time, so it really was a great day.  And, instead of the Black Friday greed stampede (which in all honesty I have even been tempted to participate in), I worked on gifts  including a new approach for a bowl.  The bowl started the whole idea, as after working on the base Thanksgiving morning before retiring to the kitchen to make stuffing, I came back Thanksgiving night to find the base curling upwards.  Or downwards--it was pretty flexible on that part, it just didn't want to lay flat.  So, if you can't beat them, join them. Usually I use the sewing machine side as ...

When one has been making Christmas decorations for 11 months, it's kind of a strange realization that Christmas is actually coming soon.  All year it's been a very distant sort of idea, and BAM!  Here it is--the week the trees actually go up! So, since there is really nothing I won't put off until the last minute, I have been soaking and drying the rather large stack of free-standing lace ornaments.  The gold stockings and treble clefs are actually left over from LAST year--guess I didn't feel like washing and drying them last year either. I've been wrapping gifts, as well as trying to make some.  Theo hasn't been interested in sewing for a while, but  there wasn't rope to lay on previously.  It seems to be right up there with laying on patterns and fabrics a human is trying to cut out.  Needless to say, there isn't a finished bowl just yet. And speaking of unfinished projects, I worked on another WIP yesterday.  I'm closing in o...

It turns out none of us really like Mondays around here, but at least it's a holiday week - and in my experience the week that almost all real work in America stops until January.  I don't think it's a coincidence that Cyber Monday--THE biggest online shopping day of the year--occurs on a work day.  Of course, when you're getting ready for the holidays, healing from a back injury, and not in possession of a "real" job, one day can be pretty much like all the others.  Of course, my back does a nice job of keeping things fresh and new.  I was a bit sore today, so there was extra knitting time, and NO ORNAMENTS.  Instead, I finished Andy's socks!!!!  That's WIP number 4!  Okay, that still leaves 18 knitting WIPs to go, but at least it's progress!

Today while working out our Christmas gift list, I decided to do full sets of lace icicle ornaments for two people instead of just one, which strangely enough meant, more lace icicles.  Most of the white ones I made were from last year and have already been used to decorate trees here, so I need to do the other 3 tomorrow for the second set of six.  These three brought me to 364, then I finished two more dog ornaments this evening, which makes 366!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And scratches one full gift off my to-do list.  I even started my new ornament idea for an engagement gift.  I'll frame this on red felt, which will hopefully be finished up tomorrow so it can go out in the mail.  Then I can get on with some of the slower projects........... Of course, I'm still not actually "done" as I want to make 3 more terrorized gingerbread men for my youngest niece and nephews and can't use the existing ones as they all have to be slightly differen...