Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Christmas Felting - What?

So Drew bought a fun game called Machi Koro that's a Japanese version of Monopoly, if you will, and was quite fun to play in our pre-Christmas anticipation. (I decided to treat every day like the day before Christmas, although I have not cracked open the eggnog even as we speak, and you should ignore the faces of the children.)


I also started preparing way ahead of time for the dinner at our house...not that I was cooking anything important, mind you, because Dean was all over that, but I did plan to set the tables....which meant putting Drew to work polishing silver. Because he polishes his shoes so well for AFROTC, see? He loved it!


Then the family arrived, and a glorious time was had. But first we actually went running and did pushups. No, I'm kidding, that was part of the awesomeness - several of us got up and went for a 9 AM run followed by pushups and situps.


Because it was like 70 degrees on Christmas Eve - nice!


Here's my work of art, accented by my sister's artistic touches...

and the other table accented by my mother's artistic touches.


And here's the kitchen accented by Dean's artistic touches! I cooked exactly one of those dishes. Thanks to Dean and the family for all this food!


And of course the huge Christmas dinner had to be followed by more Christmas exercise, so this is my nephew attacking the horizontal rope.


Sadly, my sister was defeated in her attack.


Then all the ladies took to the streets for a walk...not together, mind you, just to go for a walk. Just kidding - we were walking together the whole time till this hill separated us out.


Okay, now for a funny thing. Do you remember this beautiful Alpaca sweater, that was the second thing I ever knitted?


Well I know you can't tell from this picture, but I washed it in cold water with other items on delicate...not hand-wash and alone like it wanted. So it shrunk up, but I could still force an arm down the sleeve. I was upset, but not devastated because it is REALLY warm for our weather here, and I just wore it last week when it was freezing. It was a little itchy, and my set-in shoulders are honestly a tad wonky.


This is an attempt to show how the stitches are melding together a little bit.


So it was thicker and too small, and I decided to maybe salvage a skirt out of it. I figured I'd felt it one more time so it'd be safe to cut. Can you pick out the ribbing now?



And behold the wonder of a warm-water wash with towels on an alpaca sweater - whaaaaa?!


So now I need suggestions for where to go from here. Boot-toppers? Coasters? Coffee cozies? So many possibilities - and obviously a skirt is no longer in the works. Let me hear your ideas, and also how your Christmas went!

9 comments:

Pam said...

OMG! I'm so sorry about your top -- that is ridiculous! You could try to wet it and reblock. Otherwise, yes, maybe you could legitimately felt some art:) Haha! The other thing you might do is just frog it (unknit it) and keep the yarn for another project:) A hat seems appropriate BUT if it is itchy I'm out of clothing wear, Even hats:)

Pam said...

P.S. Also, look how much you've learned about washing sweaters:) It's always good when we learn new things. I'm saying this in a slightly sarcastic tone:)

Dr. Fun (AKA Sister) said...

You're right, Pam, I learned a lot, didn't I?! I seriously look at it as a very educational felting experiment, and I'll definitely use it for something. We missed you at GCGSW - I'm holding out hope that you'll make it out here one of these years. Happy knitting and sewing in 2017!

Pam said...

Happy New Year and I think I'm back and ready to start living, sewing and knitting publicly:) Haha! Love to make GCGSW!

Anonymous said...

You could cut some flowers out of it to embellish another sweater, or ask Nancy. She is the felting queen. I'm still searching for my knitting bliss. I started my Hobby Lobby scarf over the 4th time yesterday. If it doesn't work this time, I think I'll give knitting a pass.

You Christmas looks like loads of food, uh, I mean fun. We went to the Flora Bama pot luck and had lunch with 350 of our closest friends, and Santa! He sat with us and told us stories about the Blue Angels escorting him all around the world the night before. The more bushwhackers people gave him the wilder the stories became. Cute little old man, his name is Gunsmoke, really!

How did your breakfast casserole turn out? Robbie

Dr. Fun (AKA Sister) said...

Oh, now don't give up on it yet! I'll be over there next month - we'll have lunch and knit a little bit...if the restaurant doesn't mind. Your Christmas sounds like a hoot! You always seem to meet the most interesting people.

The casserole is delicious (I'm finishing the leftovers right now). It cooked for just at an hour and everybody loved it!

Have a happy New Year and don't throw your needles away...oh, my boys finally went and got the needle set I wanted at Mobile Yarn, PLUS my staff had gotten me a gift certificate there - what a bountiful Christmas!

BeckyW said...

Looks like you had a great fun big family Christmas! We just had my mom over. We did have the college student first Christmas home this year. That has been an experience!!!!!

I finished my cowl. It turned out great. I am loving the knitting. I still have to conquer being able to hold my yarn. I've not started my crochet project yet. Hopefully, I will get to it soon.

I did go a little crazy and bought a couple more Craftsy classes while they were on sale over the holidays. Probably not the most frugal decision since there are classes that I had bought last Christmas and have not gotten to yet. We won't speak of that.

Dr. Fun (AKA Sister) said...

Congrats on your cowl, and we'll keep your Craftsy habit on the DL. I still have a few Craftsy classes I've never opened, though I did watch the intro to Draping with Paul (somebody) before abandoning it 2 years ago. And I set up my sewing room again now that the Christmas company is gone, and discovered 3 DVD's on fitting that I forgot I had...and never watched.

Junior said...

Further proof that my physical strength is seriously lacking 😯