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!