Posts Tagged ‘stocking’

Since last time

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

So there has been a break in the updating, but to a certain extent that should be at least slightly expected during the Christmas break. I have the finishing details of my stockings to show, a new hat/neck warmer/wristy-gloves set done (which I love and am somewhat worried about washing…), and two more squares of my forever and ever afghan. But because this is going to be so image intensive, I want to make sure that they aren’t huge and taking forever to load, so I have to play with Photoshop for a bit first. 3Mb for a picture is just a bit much…

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Ok, so that wasn’t so painful after all. And uploading is SO much faster. And I think the colours will be better… and hey, I even figured out how to set my upload folder.  It’s sad that I’ve been doing that manually for so long.

So just before Christmas, I realized that with all the stranding inside the stockings, they couldn’t be used as-is. So I bought this massive red felt Christmas bag from the dollar store (it was actually cheap material unfortunately, very thin in some places) and ripped out all the seams. I folded it in half, and pinned the stocking to it.

I then did the very obvious cutting around the stocking (while being paranoid that I would cut all my hard work to pieces), and sewed the cloth into a sock liner.  I don’t have a sewing machine (seriously, where could I fit it in this house?) , so it was whip stitch to get it all together.

Once that was done, I turned the stocking inside out, and shoved it inside the lining.  I attached it at the top all around, and a couple stitches at the toe.  Fortunately the sewing can’t be seen from the outside.

And then I hung the stockings with care.  No fireplace, so just in the TV room.  This last picture is our house on Christmas morning, and all the gifts we were giving.  The stockings are hiding on the right.

The thing I’m most concerned about is the loop that I made for the stockings, I just don’t trust them to support their weights fully loaded.  And the plastic hooks we’re using might not support that much either.  Luckily, this year the stockings were not too heavy, but I do worry about next year.

I think I’ll end this part of the review with what has become a tradition in our house.  On Christmas morning, we have créme brulée.  I use a super easy recipe, but I’m thinking I’m going to have to upgrade to pre-warming the cream next year – we’re both starting to notice the grainy-ness.

Ok, so there’s my Christmas round up.  I promise, there will be something involving Reading, Running or Knitting next time.

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Where do we go…

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

I defended my thesis yesterday.  I’m all but done my Master’s degree, and I don’t know what I am doing next.

Not completely true.  I know that today, I am relaxing, drinking rum and eggnog (done my 3rd at 1pm), and setting up the Christmas tree.  But after today, I have no specific plans.  And it’s scary.

While prepping, I read Illegal Alien by Robert J. Sawyer.  It was the first book that I have read by him where no part of the story takes place in Canada.  Sure, one of the minor characters is Canadian, but the story itself never goes there.  And further, the Canadian character is not likeable.  He’s full of himself, and willing to put aside his morals for the chance of fame.  It also feels like there’s a bit of Deus ex machina going on at the end of the book.  Certainly it’s foreshadowed, but new information comes too late in the story for it to feel natural.

I am also having trouble getting a good mental image of the aliens.  I understand their structure, but can’t close my eyes and see Hask (the main character), and I’m not sure if that’s because he’s non-human, or if the description still hasn’t settled in my head.

I’ve decided to go through the books on my reading list and start ordering them from the library.  I can’t expect myself to buy every copy of these books, or for them to miraculously land in my lap, so to the library I go.  Though I may switch up the order to read books I may get for Christmas read earlier.

I also finished Dave’s Christmas Stocking while I was getting ready to defend.

I’m really happy with the way this turned out, although the contrast between the blue and green, and the black and green both leave something to be desired.

I’m thinking that I should probably line this with fabric of some sort, because all the internal stranding will catch on, well, almost anything.

The details of the project are here (Ravelry link).  I’ve also already started mine, and I can’t wait to finish it.

As you can tell, although I clearly worked hard to get my Master’s done, I’ve also been stressing about it, hence all the other stuff I’ve been up to.

Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned the three applications that I had to have submitted by the 2nd (Thursday).

But still, where do I go from here?  So much of the past 4 years of my life have been tied up in this project and this goal.  And it’s gone, and I’m at a loss.  I graduated myself into unemployment.  I’m happy, but worried.  I want to do something that interests me, but I also need to have some money to, you know, help pay the bills and such.

But today is not for navel gazing, moping, or wrapping myself in worry.  Today is for eggnog and rum, and christmas trees, and figuring out where to hang stockings!

Well, mostly.

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