December 19, 2003
Kooky Kristmas Krafts
No entries next week. Time for me to take a holiday break and try to knit up something more interesting than self-striping, excruciatingly matched socks!
-------------------------------------------------
(What I Learned on the Way to Work This Morning: Nothing smells up your car faster and better than two dozen deviled eggs. Exhaust fumes and sulfur—yum!)
By way of Kooky Kristmas Krafts, here be two unusual ornaments and a knitting project.
First, the infamous tampon angel which, rumor has it, has often been seen hovering over the equally infamous TamponHenge, quite distracting the TamponDruids. Anne Brannen of Creating Text(iles) sent this gem to me months ago and has been very patient about my insistence that I couldn’t post it until the holidays!
Second, the Clothing Optional Angel Ornament. I purchased this brassy and immodest darling at a store called Fireworks which sells unconventional handcrafted items, and sent it to my brother, who would have appreciated this sort of thing, for Christmas one year. When he passed away, it was returned to me. It is Extremely Special, so it is always a Big Moment when it comes time to hang her on the tree. It's always a crapshoot whether I’m going to laugh, cry, or get moodily silent when I pull her out of the ornament box but laughing usually wins over. How can it not, when you are holding in your hands an anatomically-correct cross between a zaftig stripper and Glenda the Good Witch, with a dash of Rapunzel and prima ballerina thrown in for good measure? Don’t miss the halo or the wand with its higgledy-piggledy sparkling stars!
Taking a photo of this ornament was a hoot. As you can see in the “full frontal” picture, we had to tape her leg to the kitchen counter to make her stand up. Then things at the R & K Photography Studio completely came a cropper when it came time to photograph her Rubenesque derriere. Lordy, how we were laughing!
Lastly, here is a great knitting project I stumbled across yesterday, a Santa hat. Could it be that chenille has finally found its true calling?
Knitting Knews
As promised, a report on the Guild Christmas party.
Both Mary and Janine approved heartily of the tofu chocolate pie, although Mary refuses to believe there IS any tofu in the pie. Again, the recipe. See, Mary? Chocolate chips, honey, vanilla, Kahlua, and One Entire Box of Silken
Tofu. T-o-f-u. Tuh-oh-foo. Tofu.
This was my first Christmas party at the Guild and it was quite lovely. I make a point of not participating in “white elephant” gift exchanges because I hate to watch people be disappointed by imbecilic gag gifts, and I made no exception for Guild. However, to the last, every gift that was exchanged Wednesday night was creative and thoughtful. Beautiful or fanciful needles, yarns, votive candle holders, candles, buttons, and books abounded. Next year perhaps I will have to leave my more-Scroogeish side at the door and participate.
The other half of the evening’s events was the distribution of door prizes. I don’t have good door-prize “karma” so I didn’t pay much attention as the numbers were being called out. I just kept knitting away on my Opal socks, hoping the next stripe was the one that wouldn’t match (so far, no luck). As expected, my number wasn’t called. To everyone’s surprise, however, after the gifts and door prizes had all been distributed, the “emcee,” the Guild president, announced she had one more, extra-special door prize. Eerily, a little voice inside my head said, “Pay attention! They’re going to call your number!” and, sure 'nuff! I am now the proud owner of a $50 gift certificate to Churchmouse , an LYS or, more accurately, a YSLOAISYNTTAFTGTSIABQTA (Yarn Shop Located On An Island So You Need To Take A Ferry To Get There So It All Becomes Quite The Adventure). Coincidentally, a week before the Christmas party, I had loudly declared to The Mysterious K that I wanted to go to Churchmouse for my birthday, never having been there and having heard only good things about it. Apparently, the gods approved of my plan and sent a gift certificate winging my way. (Of course, it's also highly possible that there wasn't anything slightly hand-of-God-ish about this at all. It's quite likely they had called so many numbers already that mine was the only one left, but I'd like to think otherwise...)
Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah to My Dear Readers Amber, Anne, Barb, Barbara, Bea, Bill, Blu, Bren, Calissa, CarolineF, Ced, Cheryl, Cindy, Cousin Sarah, Cousin Tom, Dale, Debra, Dot, Fran, Janet, Janine, Jean, Jenna, Justin, Kim, Kit, Lisa and Emily, Lubna, Maggi, Mary, Maus, Melinda, Melissa, Michelle, Mira, My Niece, My Sister, Myria, Opal, Pam, Perclexed, Prudence Fiddletwist, Rachael, Rebecca, Robbyn, Ruth, Sheila, Syliva, Tami, The Mysterious K, The Other Rebecca, Theresa, Tipper, Vaire, Vanessa, Wendy, and, of course, all My Lovely Lurkers!