It’s a new year

Wishing everyone the time and ability to identify and find peace and joy throughout the year.

As I get older, I do find it easier to let go of (most) negative things, see the beauty around me, and be truly grateful for all that I have.

I plan to get back to my much-more-regular blog posting this year. Sometimes I’ll have things to share, sometimes I may just blather, but I’ve found that the blog is somewhat important to me and have actually missed recording my work and my thoughts on a regular basis. So this is the first of a yearful.

I made & sent lots of Christmas cards from the weaving I did last January, but didn’t get a photo of even a single card. Too busy.

Then I set about making some gifts. Which I obviously couldn’t show you till they’d been given. And then, of course, I didn’t get photos of them, either. Still too busy. But here’s a photo of the prototype I made for myself.

It’s a bowl cozy, making it possible to heat your soup or stew in the microwave without burning your fingers when you retrieve it. I made them using the template and directions from sewshecan. I actually made 16 of these. People who got an apron from me last Christmas got bowl cozies this year, with one side made from their apron fabric. I also gifted a good friend and neighbor, as well as six of my besties from my line dance group with cozies.

Then I saw something else that I thought was too cute not to try. Although I definitely think they should have a different name since they are nothing like dragon boats, these wrapped ornaments were fun to make and look much more complex than they actually were. I got the directions and template from CraftSanity. I gifted 8 of these to people, but only managed to snap photos of these 2. The one on the left is purposely not made of ‘Christmas colors’ so that the recipient can display it for longer.

The last few I made were much easier than the first few, and looked nicer, too, IMHO. (The photo is of two near the end of my work.)

As a Christmas gift, my daughter gave me this jigsaw puzzle.

She’d given me one for my birthday in June that I hadn’t opened yet, so I figured I’d better get on it! I chose to start with this one. It’s an interesting concept, in that the picture on the box isn’t what the completed puzzle will look like. Inside the box there is some printed material that gives you clues to the finished image. At least that’s the concept. It didn’t do me much/any good. But I realized that the box image itself provided some decent clues.

I know myself well enough to know that once I start a jigsaw puzzle I really can’t do anything else until it’s completed. For 2 reasons: I am obsessive-compulsive about this kind of thing; I want to finish the challenge. But also, it takes up my entire kitchen table, leaving me just a tiny corner for eating, so it really can’t take months, or even weeks, to be done. Once I started, I completed it in five days. Here are days 1, 3, and 5 for you.

Fair warning – if you might want to do this puzzle, don’t look at the next image; it’s what the completed puzzle looks like.

Then it was time to get back to some weaving…use up some more stash! Although I don’t have a single towel for sale, my heart told me I needed to prioritize making a warp of my handwoven hugs. After all, I hadn’t been able to weave any since October, and I definitely wanted to use up some of my rayon chenille and now was the season. So I warped up the loom in earthy colors and set to weaving. I finished the hemming yesterday and have sent out the photos to the next 3 people on my wait list.

This is the first one I wove and it turns out to be my favorite. Rayon chenille in both warp and weft, the weft is mostly dark brown with random stripes of golden brown along the length.

Next I wove one with a cotton weft. I used a 20/2 mercerized bright orange cotton. It is the lightest weight of the three.

Finally I returned to rayon chenille weft. Mostly dark brown, I wove a few subtle stripes of reddish-brown, symmetrically at the ends.

I expect all three will be leaving my house to hug someone within the coming week. I only have 1 more person on my wait list, despite the outreach I have done, so this year will expand my target audience. I will continue to offer a handwoven hug to individuals and/or their families dealing with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, and I will also offer one to a person suffering from depression or his/her loved ones. If you fit into either of these categories, don’t hesitate to contact me to get on my list. I plan to get back to weaving 3/month.

Next up, however, I will weave another batch of Fibonacci towels. I enjoyed making them and people enjoyed seeing them, so that’ll be fun.

In the not-so-fun category, I managed to complete my dreaded year-end inventory AND all my record-keeping for the accountant. As soon as I receive my 1099s I’ll be ready to send things off to the tax professional. That makes me REALLY happy!

Closing with another shot from my yard of the beautiful snowfall we had on Friday morning. The quality of the light and the way the snow outlined everything…ahhhhh.