Holiday Zenitude

I’m feeling very Zen about the holidays this year. I decided early in the year that I would not stress myself out over gifts or become over committed; the most rewarding gifts are family and friends – so why get all wound up (and go in debt) over a gift list? Setting realistic budgets and focusing instead of spending time with those I love has made this one of the most relaxing holidays seasons I can remember.

This morning I sealed up two boxes destined for distant relatives. Combined with the box sent yesterday to the distant son, this completes my gifts-that-need-to-be-shipped list and allows me to focus on the gifts-to-give-local-family list.

I also wrapped most of my gifts last night!  (this didn’t take very long since I don’t give a lot of gifts but HEY! I have a little stack of wrapped gifts on the table!) No ribbons or bows this year due to the The Kitten, which kept the wrapping quick and easy.

There are three family members on my list for which I would like to find a gift; it would help immensely if I could figure out what kind of gift I want to give each of them, but so far I have not had any epiphanies. I’m keeping my eyes open for inspiration and am mulling over some ideas to see what sounds right. I’m sure something will fall into place.

Knitting: I am down to one knitted gift to complete and it’s more than halfway done so I know I’ll get it done before the weekend. And that’s it, all other knitting is for myself or next year’s gift list.

Baking: In the holiday baking arena, there is very little to report. I decided not to make much this year – a bit of fudge was made on Sunday and I’m considering some bread or marshmallows this week but haven’t committed yet. I’ve been working with my soap wholesale account on some changes for next year and it’s hard to focus on food when you are surrounded by soap…

Sewing: Hm, just remembered I have a couple of sewing gifts to finish… I’m feeling pretty optimistic about those, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I didn’t get them done by Christmas, could always just be a late gift.

Nose + grindstone

Time is accelerating and I’m losing my ability to keep up.

Knitting: have a stealth project going, finished up several Christmas gifts (blocked and everything!), knit a hat that is too large to fit anyone I know but is a perfectly nice wool hat and will likely go to the first extra-large-headed person I run across even if that happens to be a complete stranger on the street because there is no sense frogging a perfectly nice wool hat even if it is on the big side, have made good progress on a gift for a small person but ran out of yarn for it, and need to tally up my gift knits to see whom else I may need to knit for. Or not knit for, as the case may be.

Shopping: did some. Have greatly scaled back my purchases over the years and I try to do handmade gifts, but there are always ‘things’ that need to be purchased and so I’ve done a bit of that. Probably ought to get a couple more ‘things’, and definitely need to re-purchase an item that was never received though the carrier says they delivered.

Work: buried to my ears in it. It’s our fiscal year-end, plus the IRS is paying us a visit next week and this just adds up to a whole lot of extra work for me.

Soap: lovely wholesale account has requested a new soap, which makes me happy happy happy. I love the opportunity to create a new scent blend. Now, to find the time to do it…

Sewing: have several projects cut out (meant to be Christmas gifts) and ready to put together, just need to spend some time (ha!) out in the sewing room.

Family: is hungry, as there is very little food in the house aside from rice (which we have an unusually large amount of, in several varieties). No meat, no bread, no milk, no fruits or veggies – but we have twenty pounds of rice. And maybe a couple cans of beans. Need to find time (and money) to go to the grocery store so the kids do not develop scurvy. Or rickets.

 

Brief and random

It’s raining the proverbial cats and dogs out there and it’s a holiday week. Hooray! I’m looking forward to having four days off with very little to do – aside from eating copious amounts of turkey tomorrow and hosting an open house soap sale on Friday. I foresee lots of knitting and movie-watching and maybe a bit of sewing.  Oooh, maybe I’ll finish spinning up the wool/mohair I got for my birthday!

In other news: I learned a new word yesterday: spatchcocking. It’s not as naughty as it appears – go ahead and Google it. I’m going to have to give it a try soon.

And: I have to reiterate how great it is to work next to the Pike Place Market. While the throngs of tourists annoy me with their sidewalk-clogging ways, it is awesome to have such ready access to fresh produce, meats, and seafood. Last night I picked up a couple of rainbow trout for dinner and they were mmmmm-delicious with a light breading and pan-fried.

I’ll leave you with this little bit of cuteness:

It’s in the bag

My commuter projects continue to be knitting, but my at-home projects have become sewing.  Since Friday evening, I’ve been making small, zippered, box bags. Folks who knit and crochet call them project bags, because they are just the right size for a small project (hats, socks, scarves, etc.).  I keep one under my desk at work and fill it with granola bars and protein shake mixes. The bags would also be cute toiletry bags.

While I have made these before as gifts, this weekend I decided to whip out a bunch of them in the hopes of putting them up for sale – perhaps on Etsy or at a local craft show. One must have an inventory before one tries to sell stuff. I had a good assortment of fabric and a few zippers in my stash, but had to pick up some additional materials, and then I set to work. Cutting and ironing, folding and sewing, making mistakes and fixing them. I figured out how to assembly-line most of the process and ended up with 14 bags by Sunday afternoon (I was not sewing the entire weekend – I do have a family!).

They turned out great! I posted pics to our knitting groups on Facebook and several people put dibs on bags. Another knitter offered to put some on her table at a local craft show this weekend. Totally made my day! Last night I popped back to the fabric store for more supplies and cut out several more bags. I should be able to get them sewn together tonight and have a good assortment for the craft show. Fingers crossed that they sell well. If they do, I may work on a couple different sizes.

 

Skirting the issue

Ever on the search for The Perfect Skirt, I ran across this tutorial today and promptly turned out FOUR skirts, with fabric and t-shirts I already had on hand. All cut on the bias for stretch and drape, falling about knee-length. Three in cotton and one in a fake suede; once I got the pattern drafted up each skirt only took about ten minutes to sew with my serger (would take slightly longer without a serger). I think The Girl would like these as well.

(brown ‘suede’ and blue cotton)

 

Pins and needles

Here are the four strips of feedsack scraps, ready to have a solid background fabric added in between each. The strips are much longer than they appear in the picture (they are folded in half) so I think I can get a twin-size quilt out of them.

On the knitting needles, a pair of Simple Skyp socks nears the halfway point. The one on the left is ready for the foot, while the one on the right still needs the gusset.  I like how the striping yarn formed thick stripes at the back of the heels – it will do the same at the toes.

Camping and quilting

I spent the weekend “camping” with our Girl Scout troop.

They weren’t really camping – they had a heated cabin in which to sleep and eat – but they were pine bunk beds with thin cushions and sketchy plumbing, dormitory-style. We were in the woods, and there was much singing and hiking and playing of games, and of course: a campfire.

The weekend was kicked off with Opening Flag, which our girls performed (sans uniforms).

And early-morning sunshine filtering through the trees, embracing everything in gorgeous sun beams.

After a long day of fun and games and lots of great food, we retired to our cabin and the Troop Leader wrapped herself in an old, worn quilt that her mother had made. The kind of quilt you can tell has been much-loved and will one day just simply cease to exist because it has been washed so many times. As I admired its tattered softness, the Quilting Bug settled in.

It had been buzzing around for awhile; so much so that I had recently purchased some vintage feed sack quilt squares on Etsy and had been contemplating finally finishing that quilt top I made for my nephew about a year ago – but seeing her old quilt set the Bug a-buzzing and now I find myself leafing through quilt books and haunting Google for ideas on how to best use these squares (I have 80 of them and they will need to be supplemented with more fabric in order to make a quilt large enough to use – I have no interest in making “wall quilts”). I’m thinking a simple strip quilt so I don’t waste a single thread of the squares I bought, something like this perhaps:

Last night I laid out my squares and admired the soft blues and reds, the butter yellows, and the grass greens. So many pretty colors! I think they would really stand out on a light background, maybe a nice cream color. I’ll have to take a few to the fabric store with me and see what speaks.

Quilting diversion

I don’t do a whole lot of quilting, but I got totally sucked in by some colorful fat quarters at the fabric store and, well, let’s just say will-power failed me.  Some simple strip-piecing with ten fat quarters yielded a nice-sized top approximately 41″ wide by 60″ tall:

Now I need to go back to the fabric store to choose a border and backing fabric…

Full steam ahead

Goodness sakes, is it really going to be October next week??  Eek! During my commute this morning I started to list the handmade items I want to get done before the end of the year (most are for Christmas gifts, but not all). It’s a little daunting at the moment. The items include:

Fruit cake (the real kind, not the fake gummy glow-in-the-dark hard-as-a-brick kind sold at the grocery store). I have a great recipe that takes a solid month of marinating in copious amounts of rum, so I generally make this the weekend after Thanksgiving in order to gift at Christmas.

Jams & jellies. I’d like to try a couple of new flavors this year – perhaps a pepper jelly or a lemon curd. mmmm…. Grape jelly is always in high demand at my house, as are berry jams – but I need to borrow a seed remover thingy from someone.

Jewelry. I plan on making a lot of earrings and necklaces, and perhaps a couple of bracelets. My own jewelry is in need of an overhaul, and I have some really lovely beads that would make fabulous earrings for gifting.

Baked sweet breads. These are so easy to make and they freeze well – so I can bake up a bunch ahead of time and save them for a few weeks. I shredded up my excess zucchini over the summer and froze it, and I have a couple of overripe bananas in the freezer as well so I’m all set.

Sewing. I’ve been collecting patterns for bags and purses and I desperately want to make myself a couple of new totes. My fabric stash is quite eclectic but I’m certain that with a little help from my creative daughter I can pull together some fun and funky combinations. I do need to get some heavy interfacing first, though.

Knitting / crocheting. This list is eternal. The things I *know* I want to make in the very near future include: several pairs of socks, a couple of shawls (I have two on the needles that I need to finish), a lace scarf to wear at work (I think I’ll use the gray alpaca I recently spun up), felted slippers, mittens, an illusion scarf, some baby items like booties and mitts, and a vest for moi. I still need to sew the shoulder seams on the Celtic vest I finished a few weeks back (I just ordered a shawl pin for it from a lovely lady on Etsy), and my red cardigan needs just a couple hours of my time to finish it up as well.

I love giving handmade gifts, and I hope people like receiving them. What is on your list this year?

Random Thursday

’cause I can.

New socks on the needles. Blurry photo because I was on the bus.

Sewn bags gifted last night to three birthday ladies because who can’t use a little organization in their lives? Check out the fun linings:

And a sneak preview of four more that are in the works:

Freshly baked bread is one of my very favorite things. I’ve been baking every other weekend, trying out different recipes. This batch had honey and ground flax seeds in it. Yum!

I walk through the Pike Place Market at least twice a day and never get tired of seeing the vendor booths and people (though tourist season is on the upswing and I do get a little cranky about how they tend to walk four across on the sidewalk at slo-mo speed, so nobody can get past -  especially those of us who work in the area and are trying to catch a bus that comes at 5:12 sharp).

The cat thinks that now would be a great time for a nap.