Christmas and dead fish

It just wouldn't go away, this Christmas sewing. Even after New Year's, it kept hanging over my head like the smell of rotting carp. I did NOT want to go down in my sewing grotto in which thirty-year old ceiling panels are falling down and the bathroom's walls and ceiling are still torn apart from when we cleared out the sewer line. The room is cold and the lighting sucks (big surprise in this house. Beside, it is in a basement.) The crickets are skittering about openly. And my cat--the only one I have left now, so stay healthy, Miss Thing--thinks it's a crime against felinity to keep a door closed between myself and her at any time. So she whines. And cries. And swears. And runs around up and down the stairs to express her ire. If I give in, she's all over me all the time. Like 24-hour news if I'd dispatched someone and divided the body into sippy cups.

[Deep breath...]

Ahhhh...

In the end, I just turned the TV up and kept my eyes down on my work because the blessing of my stash has a far greater pull. And I made these:



The last of the red hot/cold therapy bags. Heeding a few comments about this SewMamaSew tutorial AND learning from my experience with the first set I made, I strayed from the instructions a skosh. For example,


-->Someone suggested that a pillow sham opening could be made for the back, instead of the Velcroed opening. I tried this for my first bag cover, creating an opening parallel to and dead center between the short ends of the big rice bag cover. But a fully packed muslin rice bag does not bend, not without the encouragement of a shoe horn. Finding myself shoe hornless, I just greased the bag with a few choice words. With the last two bag, however, I shifted the opening closer to one of the short ends.


-->I also sewed a couple lines up the rice bag to create three channels. This reduces shift in the bag. The friend who received the first set of therapy bags tells me her mother loves the stability they give. I'm guessing my friend will never see those bags again, and I'll be making another set in the near future. For all my griping above, I don't mind. They're quicker than quilts and more popular than a paramedic in Pamplona.


-->I didn't make the eye pillow for the last two sets. Didn't have time.


So that's what I've done with the last couple days of the new year. Oh, and I've started another pair of Fuzzy Feet, in Patons Soy Wool Stripes. Natural Navy colorway. Photos pending. It turns out that the red and gray pair I made last month shrank to a size that fits the husband perfectly. (They fit me, too, but are a trifle roomy.) So, I'm going to see if I can get the Soy Wool pair to felt to my size. I'm on the gusset of the first sock right now.