Prezzies!

Oh, Natasha, you spoil me! She's been working on a box o' prizers to send me for awhile now (hee), and it arrived on Friday, like an early Christmakkuh! I wanted to save the post about it 'til Monday, when I have more readers.

That's me in the fly vintage butterfly apron she sent, holding the lovely painting "The Mechanics of Hope" she made me. Here's the explanation of the meaning behind the piece:

"There is not only faith and strength from another place, but also technical how-to's to growing into the person that you want to be. so that it is mostly you, but partly spiritual things. and hope and positivity. and love from those around you."
(from the artist's description)

It's a collage using acrylics, oils, vintage ephemera, pins, and a "UTEE" (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamal) button. Love it! Going to hang in my craft room and bring me some moms-from-beyond energy. ThankyouThankyou N! I love it more than I can tell you that you were inspired by what I wrote about my mom to make me something beautiful.

Check out the other loot in the package! There's a handmade fiber batt of wool and mohair, and some silk noils from her shop, Luxe. And 2 packs of sequins from Cartwright's (my new favorite online shop!). A bunch of different plying materials (looove the 'ugly' 70's yellow slub yarn), some wee bells, tinsel, a handmade art card, and some Now & Later sugar to round things out. How lucky am I? Looking forward to spinning up that batt.

On the non-schwag-braggy front, here's Cole holding our yet-to-be-carved Jack o' lantern. Isn't he a cutie-patootie? He brought that home this weekend from Potter's Produce, my friend Miki's folks' pumpkin patch. Been meaning to go to the corn maze there.

I think the universe is trying to tell me that the sparkle-factor in my life is too low. Last week, I knocked over the box that holds the dozen quart Ball jars with my button collection in them, and the one that broke (read: shattered EVERYWHERE) was the one containing my vintage rhinestone buttons. They just had to be free, so they jumped! I'm inspired to knit this, 'cuz I already have a rectangular rhinestone buckle for it. Just what I need, another knitting project.

Which brings me to a knitting update: finished the Monster Hat, and I am in love with it! (That's it on my noodle in the picture above). Did a few mods: took out the sequin strands because they were scratchy in places you wanted soft, and then sewed them on after. Insubordiknit's recipe called for kitchener stitch to bind off the last 12 stitches, but the bulky yarn balked at that so I used a 3-needle bind-off instead, which worked like a charm. And the Soulless Pucker felted face just seemed to distract from the hat's natural interest, so I decided to save it for another project, maybe a plainer version. Love the way the helmet-style covers my ears; toasty!

Cole fell in love with the watch cap I made for our friend Jeff, so he went to the LYS all by his lonesome and chose the Lava colorway of Manos, and I set about making a center-pull ball out of it. Have you seen the video "Dick vs. the Yarn" on YouTube, where a dude is wrestled by an orange skein of yarn on a bus? That was me with this yarn, sans bus. It was like playing cat's cradle with myself, and all I needed to make a total mess out of it was an actual cat. Took me 45 minutes to get a useable ball out of it, but now I have 3/4ths of a completed hat.

Looks like I have 2 solid weeks of hat-knitting ahead of me, as he wants to wear his at The All Hallows Heave, our annual Halloween disc golf tournament the 28-29th. So I've got to whip this out and then get to work on some beanies for the same weekend; I always donate several as raffle prizes, and this year I'd like to have some on hand for sale. So I'm off to hit the needle(s). Ta!

Tags: prezzies, presents, gifts, knitting, spinning, Halloween