A Little Yarn On The Side

Surprisingly, my back was fine yesterday even though it was hurting by the end of the party, so I got to spend some time working on the 3 (I think) remaining Christmas gifts.  With my trusty sidekick almost with me, I dug (not an exaggeration)  out a spot on the cutting table in order to have room to cut out a new bag, when I remembered the canvas bags I'd bought YEARS ago before I realized that one wouldn't actually be able to embroider on bags already made.  One CAN, however, embroider them after ripping out a seam.  These have webbing for the handles, which is probably stronger than fabric and yet another thing I forgot to get, so I'm hoping it's a bit stronger than the ones I make.  I have an idea for a modified sashiko design for bags that I've been mulling over, but that is going to have to wait until the gifts and holiday letter are done.  While Jeeves was busy embroidering, I dug out fleece football pillows.  I had cut these ou...

Finally! We were able to have an actual party!  I've had a Christmas party almost every year for the last 20+ years, so going two full years without a party was really strange.  And we rejoined the human race in style, albeit a really ugly style. Andy wasn't the only one sporting lights--our contest winner had both lights AND a singing hat, and is seen here trying (quite unsuccessfully) to get everyone gathered for a group photo.  It was hard enough to get people for individual shots--there was no stopping the party for a group shot.  We had some wonderfully creative sweaters, front AND back: and I'd love to show you pictures of all the fun stuff, but even taking shifts with the camera didn't capture all the creativity.  But we did have a MARVELOUS time!

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...