Wow...Time Has Flown

First... sorry about the long delay in posting... I guess my brain has taken a bit of a vacation.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was very quiet around here. The kids all had other plans, jobs, obligations..etc. So we went out to eat Thanksgiving Eve..grin... and enjoyed Thanksgiving Day with just the two of us at home.

While the sons worked on my laundry room door and the grandsons worked on Avernum 2, I painted eggs. All in all, I think I got about 5 finished. I started using darker backgrounds and I think they are better all around... but that's just my opinion...grin

Sometime during the day, DGS and I decided to finish the card weaving piece that I had "in my loom"..grin He tried several different turns and came up with a couple of nice patterns. We then cut it off and he took it home..grin I really think I need to build a loom...

My New Naalbinding Needle

A couple of days ago while Bev was here, I had DH cut me a sliver of oak. I got out the trusty old file and went to work. I love my new needle... It makes a real difference in what the stitches look like. I will have to learn some new stitches, but the Oslo stitch is the one that I used to make the small amulet bag. I made the beads using Sculpy clay. The finger weaving that I did using #8 crochet thread will work as the closure for the bag, but it is a little too stiff, so I think I will use some embroidery thread to make another one. In another post, I will put up a pic of the bag I made using a regular metal darning needle...grin It's a real hoot!

Tablet Weaving

A couple of days ago I finished the Cheerios... then decided to cut up the boxes and make cards for tablet weaving... and it amazingly worked! Not a wonderful first try, but wonderful enough to surprise me...grin There are more pictures on the Fabric Follies site... Then I tried my hand at finger weaving... and made a wonderful tiny cording that is extremely strong (see pic below). I can see both of these made using Kreinik gold or silver threads and being quite lovely. I am trying to thread my cards now to see if I can do a pattern that will allow me to put whatever words I want on the strap... More on that later.

DD Bev surprised us with a call and an "Are you busy?" a couple of days ago. Of course, the answer was "No.. come on down!" We went yesterday to an antique mall downtown. What a place! Three floors packed full of beauties! It's always nice when the kids come home....

Soda Straw Weaving ... and things...

Yesterday was back to the dr. day... no news... wearing a Holter monitor for 24 hrs. and go back this afternoon....

Anyway... I decided last night to try soda straw weaving... works great! Using baby yarn, it makes a very soft weave. Will have to see what can be done with it.

Naalbinding

Since I don't have enough hobbies and interests already, I thought I would try a new one. There have been "socks" or slippers found at Viking archeological digs that were done with a process called naalbinding. This was the precusor of knitting and crocheting and is more durable... with the added benefit of being actually "knotted" so when the fabric is cut it does not come apart. It is done using a wooden or bone needle that looks very much like the "toothbrush" needles used for making toothbrush rugs. Since I don't have one, I used a large darning needle and some Wool Ease to see if I could even come close to the stitches. These pieces are the result. This video is so easy to follow that the basics were not too difficult to figure out. Perhaps with a little more digging into the online instructions, I will figure out how to make those wonderful socks and slippers...grin

It's been a crafty kind of day...

I finished 3 eggs today, but can only put up this one that I put the hat on and how 'bout that flower..grin This girl wants to make a real statement. The bead in the middle is one that I made on the first day I quit smoking. The other eggs are for gifts so can't put them up yet...

I found a little do-da online that shows how to make a lapel pin by making the knitting needles out of tooth picks and beads, so I decided to make one. This is the first time I have ever knitted with thread instead of yarn, and what a difference. Much harder... Then I decided to make beads to put on the needles instead of the plastic pearls... so I did. There are now 3 sets of the knitting needles and with the elongated beads, I think I will make stitch markers. Will have to see..

Pictures for Patty...grin

It's always a good thing to talk to good friends. It's been mentioned several times now that I really need to pick back up on my blogging...grin So here it is...

Smiles and waves to the state of Virginia... and congrats on new puppies! Here is the picture of the fringed shawl I promised. I hope the color shows better in this one. The yellow and blue is the alpaca blend shawl that I am currently working on... It will be quite long and have knotted fringe on each of the ends.

The days have been a bit gray and gloomy over the past week or so with a couple of afternoons showing sunshine and a little breeze. We so needed the rain and it is wonderful to look out and see green.

DH is on Day 12 of not smoking. I am soooo proud of him. He is also using the patches, but he started with the 14mg. He had a harder time of the first 4 or 5 days, but it seems have let up some.

Today will be filled with trying to get some things done for the Christmas stash so I won't be able to put many pics up... but I will try to increase my posts...grin

Holiday Season is Sneaking Up!

It seems that none of us have really gotten down to the nitty gritty of planning what to do and with whom for any of the upcoming holidays...hmmm Guess it's time to do some planning.
I was going through my jewelry box the other day when I doing some Victorian stitching and came across this pin that I just had to have a couple of years ago... love it...grin

Hitting a Blogging Snag

It seems that a while back I hit a blogging snag. And it's still snagged. I sit down to blog and my mind immediately blanks... ughhh So here goes in a very probably quite disjointed way...grin

My wonderful DH is on his 7th day of NO SMOKING! How cool is that! Since I am now at past 2 months, he decided it might be safe to try to quit... we have only had a couple of very, very nit picky days when we sniped at each other ... that never happens, so I guess we both feel like we can tolerate it for a bit...

Chuck is supposed to be back today to catch his plane tomorrow headed back to Iraq... sigh We will be counting the days until the end of January when he will be home for good...

(Click on the picture!!! Too cool!)