Experimenting with Memes

What do you think?  Is it true?

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.  :)