A Darling Bull Moose!

Yesterday I arrived home from a foray out of the house...though at the moment I cannot remember why I had ventured out...and checked the mailbox for a parcel that was supposed to arrive over the weekend and did not.  There was nothing in the mailbox.  I asked Dear One if there was any mail...sometimes mail comes in when I am gone and is not easily visible...!  He told me a couple of ads came in.  There was a box at the table with a brown something wrapped in plastic.  He said it had his name on it but it was clearly mine since it was yarn.

WELL!!!  Wrong on all counts!  I could not remember ordering anything brown yarn, though I really do love brown yarn and fabric.  As I started to take the plastic off to unroll the brown yarn (I would rather spin brown yarn!), I noticed the word "moose" on the label and instantly I remembered the adorable moose our daughter-in-law had given our oldest son for Valentine's Day...and handed the package to Dear One to continue opening it.  He was mystified.  I pointed out that our son frequently sends birthday gifts and the lightbulb went off!

Here is that darling bull moose Dear One received as a birthday gift from our oldest son. 

Here he is outside on the front porch.  I wonder if we will have a name soon.  Bullwinkle is a bit...cliched...I suppose.

You will fall over dead if I tell you the next thing...but I have to let you know again what a kind loving generous man I have been married to for almost fifty-two years.  He said to me after seeing his moose and holding him for a moment, "You need to make a chicken for our son."  I believe I will!

 

First Try Bunny Faces

 Well, I finally bit the bullet and tried to make some faces on the Amiguri Pocket Bunnies.  Here they are:

These are not what I would call successful faces so I have started another pocket bunny.  Maybe that one will be successful...both in the knitting, sewing together, and embroidery.  We shall see.

Amiguri Pocket Bunnies

 Last week when one of my medical appointments fell through for a variety of reasons and I finally saw my person, it was too late for the appointment but it was very obvious that she was expecting a baby soon.  We made a better appointment for two weeks away (the day before my birthday! so it is easy to remember) and I decided to make her a baby gift for her little girl.  The last baby gift I made for a medical person did not turn out as I had hoped but as I have no shame, I gave it anyway.  Amazingly the baby is reported to love it.  That makes me happy.

When I got out into the car after the failed appointment I had a few minutes before the next engagement so I looked in my phone for saved knitting projects and found the perfect gift:  Amiguri Pocket Bunny.  It is a small project and seemed do-able.  

This is what I have made so far.  Still not happy with them and hope to try again in a few days.

Here are two faceless bunnies.  Usually I make animals with just eyes but this time I need to make faces which will be embroidered.  I am not completely happy with these but they will be fine for practicing the faces...so when I get a good bunny made the face will go better.

This photo shows the bunny tales.  I think they are kind of cute.  They are also less likely to choke the baby since they will be harder for the baby to pull off.  Pom poms are not good for babies and tiny children.  I made a hat once for a grandchild and took the grandchild on some trip or other, not a long one, and when we arrived at the store or wherever we were going, the pom pom no longer existed and the car was filled with wisps of yarn...lesson learned.

Knitting and Paper Crafting in One!

 The other day our dear neighbor called to tell us it was her birthday.  She was inviting us over for a big party she was having. She also hoped it would be okay if other guests parked on our lawn.  Dear One and I had already talked about it.  We also thought it would be easier for people to park in our driveway.  They could get four cars in there.  And they did.

Because Dear One is not as comfortable in situations where he knows virtually no one, we begged off.  Instead I spent half the afternoon knitting up a cloth for her and made the coolest box!!

This was a regular Grandmother's Cloth plus a new pattern I found for knitted scrubbies!  I love them.  

It is always nice to figure out some kind of container for a gift.  This time I made another hinged box.  The thing that tickles me the most about it is that I remembered to put in a thumb hole so it was easy to open.  These are not glorious but I did actually love the box.  It was a beige and cream paper with a lace pattern across it.  So nice.  Sadly, I did not get a good picture of it.  You can see a little of it on the keyboard.

With the imperfections, it was still fun to make and fun to give.

AND when I walked over and dropped off the gift, after a sweet hug, she reiterated her invitation but I told her we would not come over...partially because of the vegetarian issues.  She asked if she could give us some collards.  Well, yes she could!  I love collards.  Her collards were fantastic.  I could have eaten the whole plate at once but restrained myself and put most of it in the refrigerator.  The next day I ate the rest.  

You are right, Dear One is not a collards fan.  No problem.  More for me.  But one day I will figure a way to make some he will like.  Maybe on my death bed he will eat a bite or two just to please me...!

A Very Thoughtful Gift

The other day Dear One and I made a trip to a big box store to get a few "critical things" in case we need to hunker down for a while.  Things on that list were things like Vitamin B-12 and Vitamin D3. Peanut butter. Vinegar for cleaning surfaces. Also a giant box of nearly fat-free frozen French fries!  Guess who found that item to be "critical"?!!

While we were filling up our car with gasoline afterwards, we received a phone call.  One of the great blessings of being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that we all have the blessing and responsibility to minister to one another.  There are passages of scripture what tell us we should love one another and serve one another.  We take that commandment very seriously. We are assigned to specific people through revelation. We are blessed as we serve and we can bless the lives of those we serve.  Dear One ministers to families and I get to minister to sisters.  In turn we are ministered to by brothers and sisters.

Now back to the phone call.  It was my ministering sisters who wanted us to know that they had been to our house and had left a gift hanging on our door.  I love gifts!  I especially like surprise gifts.  This is the gift we found when we got home an hour later:

This was such a thoughtful gift: toilet paper, tissues, Tylenol, hand soap, and cough drops!  All in a lovely bag.  I am going to leave them together in one place so in case we need them, they will be right there and ready for use.

This gift made my eyes wet to think of their kindness and the thoughtfulness that went into providing it to us.

It made me want to go out and do likewise.

Unfinished Knitting Project Restarted: Peacock's Tail Tablecloth

Years ago I got the bug to knit a giant lace doily to use as a table cloth as a gift for M.  As it got close
to the particular end date I had in mind, I could see I was not going to get through all 126 rounds so I just stopped and made an ending.  It was okay, but not great, but I sent it to her anyway.

A few years later I was visiting and asked to have it back so I could finish it properly.  She did give it back to me. The bag it was in has been hanging from my mother's slipper chair ever since, until last year when we packed up for our mission. I thought there would be lots of knitting time, for some unknown reason...so I brought it with us.  Finally, when I finished the previous project, I pulled out the tablecloth.  It took some doing to figure out where I left off but I finally did and now am knitting on Round 110.  It is slow going because of the thread size I am using and the pattern stitches. I can't wait to finish this round because there are then three rounds of plain knitting!!  I look forward to those even though there are many stitches.  At the end of Round 110 there will be 672 stitches.  There are several more pattern rounds with plain knitting interspersed.  I long for plain knitting rounds!!!

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Yes, I realize you cannot see what it will look like, but if you Google Peacock's Tail Doily (I think it is a Danish pattern) you will see lots of different designs.  This one has 16 feathers in the tail.

Wedding Gift Wrapping, Finally!

Knitting is such a satisfying hobby.  Paper-crafting is a close second. I already showed the coasters I made for the wedding of friends.  Finally I finished the packaging.  Now I just need to get a good mailing address and ship the package off.

The box is the same hinged box I have made before, but I used a 12 by 12 piece of double-sided card stock.  The belly band is some embossed card stock.  It really is way prettier than it looks in the picture.