Christmas Wishes

Well, it is Jackson's due date today, but he has decided to take his sweet time and is not coming today. I really hope he doesn't pick December 25th to arrive. It may seem like a good publicity stunt in the beginning, but not a fun birthdate to have for the rest of your life.

In preparation for the day - be it his birth one or a few days later - here is his official First Christmas Hat. It was a free pattern on ravelry and was fun to make. I will hopefully get to share a picture of him wearing it after he gets here.

Meanwhile, here in the woods, it has been snowing, snowing, snowing and snowing. I can't remember a December in 20 years up here with this much snow. Even the local folk say they don't remember this much falling all at once. And if it has, it has been much later in the winter.

Here is my front door.  My poor hanging baskets look like they were sprayed with shaving cream. You can even see the giant flakes falling in this picture. Yes, I know it's pretty - but when you have to move it around every single day, the joy wears off, trust me!! lol

Tomorrow we head to Toronto, to make camp at our friends Elaine and Harvey's home, as they are heading to Florida for a couple of weeks. It's a perfect arrangement - we house sit for them and they provide the house for us to "sit".  We will entertain our daughter until stork time. And then we will be nearby to lend a hand to the shell-shocked new parents.

So, here's wishing you all a very special holiday time. May your days be merry and bright. And may 2014 be filled with joy and wonder for all of us.

Babe Watch

Can't believe it is nearly a month since my last post, but there you go.

Things have been busy getting ready for the holidays - or not - since everything is up in the air waiting for the arrival of little Jackson James Richard Saville. My daughter's last day of work was Friday, so she is ready to welcome him any time. His due date is December 18th.

Despite iffy weather conditions, the students are still managing to get to the studio on Wednesday afternoons, including two new hookers who came to try their hand. I made simple, festive little mats for them that involved mostly straight-line hooking and they really rose to the challenge.

They came for one lesson, worked for one week and came back and finished the hooking last week.
Unfortunately, they have decided that hooking is not for them at this time of their lives (with teenage kids on the go), but they are grateful to have learned how and think they will probably return to it one day.

Winter has settled in around us and the snow has been falling steadily for three days here. Luckily, I escaped to Toronto for the weekend and missed a lot of it. Part of the reason for the trek was to take a Shibori Dyeing Class at the One of a Kind Show.  It was made even more amazing because we used indigo dye!!! The class was a Christmas gift from Jennifer and was an incredibly, thoughtful, useful gift.

Each of us walked away with a unique cotton scarf and a sample square of some of the other "resist" techniques.

Here are my two projects:

This is my scarf. I used pennies and chick peas for the circles at the ends and scrunched the centre.

My sample square using simple fan pleating.

The other event on the weekend was the presentation of a "more than friendship" rug to my mentor Barb D'Arcy. A group of her students got together to make a tribute rug for her. Each of us hooked a square that represented a piece we had done while in her classes. Needless to say, there were tears - and not just from Barb. The rug is truly amazing, and she figured out almost everyone's square with no prompting.

Here is a picture of the rug with lots of the artists' feet present. I will have more pics to share later, with fewer feet and shadows.

But for now, I must go and help rearrange the snow.