Each year the quest for 10 sheep presents is never far from my mind. My sheep group has been meeting for 37 years now, and I have been a member for about half that time. The group has renamed itself a number of times, but the most colorful name is the “Flockettes.” As the years have passed we have now become rather good sleuths at finding sheep Christmas cards and sheep wrapping paper and ribbon. I kid you not, this is major holiday sheep hunting and can make or break my mental stability!
So let’s start with the sheep tableau at the porch door to my house. They are a recent gift from my good friend Susan, who is not a member of the sheep group. She just knew how much I would enjoy this little flock.
One of the most popular gifts for our sheep group is tree ornaments. Most of us now have a ‘sheep’ themed Christmas tree somewhere in our houses. Our mantles, front doors, and dining room centerpieces are usually based on sheep. After 37 years of getting 10 presents each year we have a LOT of sheep!
This year, as Thanksgiving approached, I was getting fairly nervous that I still did not have my sheep presents OR any appropriate sheep wrapping paper and ribbon. What’s a sheep lover to do??? In a panic I may have come up with lamest gift ever–but at least I was not running around all the shopping venues in my area, or trolling the internet. I was home having a bit of fun with one of the gifts I got years ago from “Flockette” Karyn! I made a desk calendar of “Lambie” doing various weaving and handwork projects for 2016.
Here are a few images of Lambie doing projects. In February she is working on some bobbin lace hearts.
Lambie at the loom working on a boundweave project
Lambie learns to dye from some expert mushroom dyed gnomes (dyed and knitted by mycologist Susan Hopkins)
And Bob made Lambie some reading glasses so she could do close work like embroidery.
Do you think I’ve gone a bit overboard??
And in other holiday fun that did not involve sheep–but did involve kitties which I also love– I made a several of these little knitted bags. My oldest childhood friend Lea Ann (oldest as in in how long we’ve known each other, NOT how old we are!) gave me a kit for this precious little knitted bag. You can get these kits at Creative Fibers in Windsor, CT. The shop owner designed the pattern and calls it “Button Jar’s Chump Change.” You can also just get the purse frame from this shop and use your own yarns and fabrics to make these little gems. The only other thing you might need is Nicky Epstein’s book Knitted Flowers.
This is the first bag I finished for a gift exchange in my bobbin lace group.
These are the other two. The red bag is from the kit my friend gave me, and the purple one is for my sister. It’s a great little bag for knitting tools (I put a collection of stitch markers in my sister’s bag) or it could be a little project bag for small things like tatting.
LeaAnn included a little kitty pin to embellish my bag. The kitty is encrusted in ‘diamonds’ and is playing with a ball of yarn. Initially I attempted to embellish my bag with knitted balls of yarn unraveling across the bag, but I wasn’t happy with that. Now he is playing with his ball of yarn in a flowering vine.
Front.
Back.
I hope each of you has bit of time for doing something you love during this busy, busy season. And although there is no snow yet in this part of the world, I hope your holidays are beautiful.
