I know I'm a little late to the party on this one, but I just was shown by my friend Chuck how cool the fiber trends felted slippers are.... He made a pair for a relative - so after seeing his, I just had to make some... so I went this weekend to stitch cafe and bought some cascade 220 to make Gregg a pair.  He picked the colors for his shoes and I am excited about making them!  I have heard that they're complicated and I was a bit anxious about starting... but last night I decided to dive in - I got my yarn and wound it into little cakes...

The best treat about the pattern is that it's NOT difficult!  Just read and follow the pattern... work slowly and after an hour or two or three (I don't know how long it took; only that I was tired at 10:30 when I finished the first one) you have what looks like a giant slipper!  I have to make the second one and do the magic felting part, but it looks like a slipper! HOORAY!

Once I get his done, I have plans for a second pair for me - these are easy and fun - depending on how they turn out, I might be making felted slippers for everyone! :)

We plan to have a calm new years... visiting with friends, staying near home - counting our blessings as usual.  I just wanted to share a tiny bit of knitting content since it seems I have been talking about everything BUT!

Happy almost 2009!

Just a quick post to wish everyone the best of holidays - we're not even awake yet - haven't opened presents - I wanted to send a photo of my tree bedecked with its white boas as garland... and show you what it looked like this year.. 9' tall and fake (thank you, Target!) - my fav. ornaments this year are still the 2 collars from my childhood doggies, Otis and Sugar - two peekingese doggies who filled my family's lives with joy and love for many many years...

This is Gregg's tree - vintagy and fun - he calls it his crazy tree... we only put up 2 this year (only?) - and we have enjoyed them every day.  We don't know when we'll take them down... probably a few weeks into the new year.  The last photo I'm putting in here is the one of my nutcrackers... I have quite a few now... we add some each year - they're fun and silly and it is so easy to collect them.  The biggest problem with holiday decorations is storing them - they take up a lot of space!

Have a wonderful holiday - take a minute and call your relatives to tell them you're thinking of them - it's getting close to the new year - it's time to focus on the good we're all going to do together in 2009!  Thank you for sharing part of your time with me and for reading my ramblings.  It's so wonderful to have had the chance to get to know so many amazing people through the internet!  OK OK - time to go open presents!!!

XOXOX  

Kyle

Finished 2 paintings last night - this one 32" x 32" to emulate the art of Andrew Wyeth... it's of my bedroom window - the house is over a century old and in New Middletown, IN (about 30 miles from Jeffersonville, IN and near Louisville, KY) - I want to do more to this one but it had to be finished enough to turn in... so here it is...

and this one - a self portrait that I didn't want to do... both for school... I'm pretty happy with the first one but the self portrait will probably be painted over (after it's graded tonight!)  the stairs are from a mansion in Louisiana (I've never been) and I'm sitting on the stairs knitting.. I think it looks like I have makeup on... but for my first portrait in acrylic (ever) and painting of a human form in years (over a decade since I tried!) I think it's pretty good.  I'll try again but this one isn't something I feel interested in saving... unless I'm convinced otherwise...

On the way to acrylic painting class last night, I took a detour to go by the ceramics lab.  At the same time as my painting class they have a raku workshop that I'd LOVE to be in - the instructor (who had taught ceramics in the LAUSD system for almost 30 years) was about to start firing and doing the final reductions on some wares!  I came back with a friend later and we witnessed the process - absolutely magical!  the wares (ceramics) are heated to around 1800 degrees for a few minutes... then the kiln is opened, and they remove the red hot wares and put them in metal trash cans full of paper, leaves... anything flammable... a big flame erupts and it burns for a while.  they put the lid on the can and let it smolder for a while... then, pull the piece from the ashes, clean it up and voila - a gorgeous unpredictable piece of pottery! 

While I looked around I checked out the shelves to see if I had anything done... and I did!  one of the extruded bowls I had made was out and I LOVE it! - ceramics is a process in experimentation for me - not knowing a lot about the glazes sometimes produces happy accidents - and this one I am very pleased with!