On the Third Day of Christmas...

Today I felted a bag.  I knitted a small bag out of wool yarn a few days ago.  I put the wool bag in the washer this morning and let it agitate in hot water for some time.  The original size was big enough at the opening to fit my head (yes, I tried it on :D).  It was about twelve inches tall and eight inches across.  Now, it's about seven by seven inches. 

The bag is very stiff.  It's weird to have knitted something that is now so stiff and sturdy. 

It can even stand up on its own!  :D

As you can see, the bag was very hairy and fuzzy.  It kind of reminded me of Sulley from Monsters Inc. 

"Kitty!"

To keep the locals from thinking that I was carrying a big blue behemoth, I decided that the bag needed a haircut.  ;)
This is the hairy mass left from the shearing. 

 I machine-stitched a leftover strap from a previous project. 

I also added a zipper. 

At this point, I decided that the bag needed some pizzazz,  '90s style.  Enter the pin craze!

This beauty came from a discovery on the sidewalk pavement one day up at campus.  I was walking along and suddenly I was like, "Is that the TARDIS?!"  It was awesome.  :D

This next one is an American Girl retired pin.  It's my homage to my passion for the theater. :) 

This one I got from American Life League about four years ago. 

The Peanuts are a personal favorite.  :)

I hope that none of the pins will fall off while I use the bag.  It happened to me once and now I'm afraid that I will lose one of them.  Especially the TARDIS one.  ;)

In other knitting news, I am working on a sock. 

I have a problem though.  That bit of yarn that you see?  Yeah, that's the end of the skein.  Already.  :/  Usually I can make one skein of Patons sock yarn last for one sock.  Oh well.  I'm not about to rip it out, so I'll probably buy another skein. 

I'm also working on some new legwarmers that will actually fit this time around.  They are going to be made from colorful leftover wooly yarns in a striped pattern.  I love striped patterns.  I know that they are quite simple, but something about them makes my lil' knitted heart go pitter-pat.  :D

God bless!

On the Second Day of Christmas...

Well, it's the second day of Christmas!  We woke up this morning to six inches of beautiful crisp snow.  We haven't had a snow like this for at least two winters (I think).    

My mom mentioned that having snow today goes with this song.  :) Today is the feast of St. Stephen, and the snow is indeed crisp and even.  

 Of course I had to take a picture of some snowy wool.  :)

Have a blessed day!

Christmastime is Here!

Cue the music

Hello everyone!  

It's good to be back on Blogger after so long.  Thanks for sticking around and waiting for me to finally start posting again.  :) Christmas break has been pretty good so far, even though it's hard to believe that Christmas is so close already.  My unrealistic to-do list is much too long, and I'm having a hard time realizing that some things just aren't going to get done.  :S  Maybe that's a good thing, though. It forces me to take a step back and relax after being on full-speed during the semester.
Anyway...

Last night my family spent the evening at my grandma's house. 

I took a few moments to take some pictures of the Christmas displays.   Some Most of the pictures were pretty bad, but I've discovered that PicMonkey can make even the most mediocre photos look halfway decent.  ;)

The weather forecast is predicting snow in our area on Christmas Day.  Wouldn't that be wonderful? 

The upcoming Christmas liturgies are going to be beautiful.  I love how there are different readings for Christmas Eve, Midnight, and Christmas Day Masses.  It reminds me of just how deep and colorful the Catholic faith is.  

Have a blessed and merry Christmas to all of you!

Oh, and for all of you who have noticed that Someone is missing from this scene, the manger is empty because Jesus hasn't been born yet.  :D

Au revoir!

Unfortunately, dear readers, I must say a temporary goodbye.  The fall semester begins in a few days, and my life (such as it is) will become full of obligations.  

This summer has been very full of both fun and work.  A lot has been accomplished, and all the items my checklist has been checked.  :)

So apart from maybe the occasional short post about a new costume or some such thing, this is farewell until Christmas break.  It has been great learning how to write a blog and to share fun things with all of you.  
I hope and pray that you all have a good rest of the year.  

God bless, 
Elaine

 

Labelled.

Sometimes a skein of wool yarn is labelled "virgin wool," implying that the skein was made from the first shearing of a sheep.  The first shearing is considered the best because it is the softest.

If this is true and factual, then I ask you, what in the world is this?

Bigger on the Inside.

As some of you may remember, I wrote a post a while back featuring my Doctor Who inspired scarf.  It was a great way to show off my fandom and was a lot of fun to make.

For those of you who may not know, the Doctor travels around in his TARDIS, which is a time-travel space ship.
Essentially it looks like this:

Picture from Wikipedia.  That's credible, right?

The TARDIS is an iconic piece of "Doctor Who" for fans everywhere.  It is instantly recognizable. 

I'm not sure where I got this. Oops.  (I love the Tenth Doctor, by the way.)

The other day a wild idea popped into my head.  "If I can't make a real TARDIS, why not make the closest thing to it?" I thought.
Yesterday saw the idea take form.  Eight hours, three empty spools, and a broken needle later, I have this.

Quite possibly the Coolest Thing Ever Made.

It is made of twill fabric and is quilted in the design of the TARDIS's panels.

I kept the design relatively simple.  I didn't want to go overboard on the details; I just wanted the basic, instantly-recognizable look.

I made an adjustable strap, which (embarrassingly) took me forever to work out how to put it together. :}

Here is my TARDIS bag with my Doctor Who favorites: the mini scarf and my journal that looks like River Song's journal (Spoilers!).

And for those of you who are wondering if it's bigger on the inside, come and see for yourself.  :)

Just for fun. :)

Either people will laugh, or I will get beaten up for this... ;)

Camera Cozy and a Dress for Tiny Felicity

Some of you might remember my first post called A Window Into the Past... which described using vintage fabric as a sort of portal (not literally) into a specific time when the fabric was made.  I have recently been messing around with this fabric once more.  

About a week ago, I decided that my camera needed a new case.  The old one was also handmade, but it was very much, shall we say, a prototype.  Not very well done at all.

I decided that, like the previous case, this new-and-improved one should also be quilted.
I quilted it much more tightly  so that it would look right.

The new case was also meant to show off my knitting skills.

I knitted a simple stockinette stitch sleeve and used a knitting spool to craft the wristband.

The quilted section I put on the inside with the knitted sleeve covering it.
The two layers are connected at the wristband and button only.  The rest is left open.  They fit so snugly together that I did not need to sew them into one piece completely.

A picture to show the inside.  The case (amazingly!) fits like a glove on the camera. :)

The second project I completed this week was a dress for my first sister's doll, Felicity.  I should mention that her Felicity doll is a mini one.
It was like sewing a dress for Thumbelina. ;)

First Sister was ecstatic with the results.  Doesn't Felicity look cute?

And yes, this is the second post this week with dolls in it.  Hey, I'm a girl.  I'm allowed.  ;)

Meet Me in St. Louis

Warning: Excessive amount of doll pictures.  If you are offended by  an unusual number of dolls photographed, you might not want to read further. ;)
This Sunday my family and I went to St. Louis for the day.  It is one of our favorite places to go because there are so many things to do in St. Louis for free that appeal to everyone.
This Sunday was an exception to that appeal for everyone, at least for a little while. 
We went to the American Girl store.

It was a true dream-come-true for myself and my younger sisters.  :D

The store opened in March of this year, and from what I can tell, it's been going great for AG.   :)

The amount of dolls in that store was stunning.  They had dolls in the displays, underneath the displays, and on wall-to-wall shelves.
It was incredible!

They even had armies of dolls!  ;)

The store had a mini Bistro, which was really cute.  I took a picture of the light fixtures.  The bubbly one in the center is my favorite.

I had to take a picture of the Josefina display.  Josefina is my favorite.

They had the tiny weaving loom on display that I've seen in catalogues for years and always wondered what it looked like in real life.
It looks like it would be rather difficult to set up for a young girl, in my opinion.

I also took a picture of the Kaya display.  You can see her horse, Steps High and her dog with his own travois for carrying things.

To be honest, I kept hold of myself pretty well until I saw Kaya's tepee.
This was the best picture I took of it. 

When I was 13, I received a mini Kaya doll for Christmas. I consequently made tepees out of chop sticks and brown fabric for Kaya.  It was one of the best Christmases ever. ;)

I didn't realize that AG is still selling mini dolls of the retired characters like Kirsten and Samantha.  You can see them on the far right.

After a while though, my dad and brothers were done with standing around awkwardly while we girls jumped up and down enthusiastically.  I am so grateful that they waited patiently for us.  I can imagine what it was like for them.   They told us all the hardship and ridicule they received from other customers. All. The. Way. Home.

Afterwards, we went to the St. Louis History Museum.
It's a pretty impressive place.

A statue of Thomas Jefferson in the main entryway.  The museum was made for the St. Louis World's Fair  and was a part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  Jefferson was President at the time and a necessary driving force of the Purchase and the subsequent Lewis and Clark Expedition.

There was a small exhibit on weaving in the back room.
This is pretty much the only picture I took of it because my camera's battery died.

The history museum was followed by the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica, which was beautiful as always.  Later we stood underneath the Arch and walked through the underground museum.
It was a great day.