I finished my turquoise and sea green felted bag, the pattern of which came from Alterknits. The pattern indicated to cast on 125 stitches and knit until the height was 26 inches. I don't know about you guys but if my purse is too tall it becomes a virtual abyss, so I only knitted to a height just pushing 23. I felted it as required by the directions without putting it into a pillow case and also omitted the spin cycle to avoid unwanted creasing. Without the pillowcase, the bag came out extremely hirsute. It needs a good once over with my husband's brand new electric razor, me thinks. It is a bit too long for my taste, but I am hoping with a pleat or two around the gusset it may be workable. The colors, I find, are exceptionally pleasing.
Oddly enough, Chester our extremely hirsute feline took a shine to the bag. I turned my back for a minute and he is sitting with it like it is a long lost cousin.
Today was a double bonus mail day. First, my dear, sweet, generous friend Rana sent me a very large box chock full of transitional clothes and maternity clothes (including four pairs of tres cool blue jeans) Then, I got a shipment of 100% wool felt from Magic Cabin along with the color swatch chart for future reference. After searching the Internet and inquiring of fellow bloggers, I finally settled on Magic Cabin. They seem to have the best price for the quality.
We had a marvelous New Year's dinner (prepared entirely by my husband since I can hardly bear to be in the kitchen these days). I have been trying to blog about this for several days but have lacked the constitution to appropriately credit the old ball and chain. Anyhoo, he made homemade partridge pie using the Cook's Illustrated Chicken Pot Pie recipe. It was immediately scarfed down in its entirety.
Our friends Tunde and James came for dinner. Tunde is pregnant too, but since she brought escargot for an appetizer she is clearly not plagued by the same squeamishness as I am. Shaun considers himself somewhat of an authority on snail catching and eating since he used to catch and prepare snails for degustation in his days in France. He and his pals would head out to the cemetery at night and catch the snails by the light of the moon as they climbed up the gravestones. Once caught the slimy things were fattened up with a couple days of gorging on grain. Yick I say. The silver lining of this slimy culinary treat was this load of beautiful shells. I am doubtful that these were the homes of those consumed, but being a craft scrounger, I washed them and saved them for some lofty craft purpose.
Tonight is Shaun's monthly poker game, so Delaney and I are going to have a slumber party. We are going to put the Aero bed in the den in front of the fireplace and get lots of snacks and watch scary movies. The last time we had a slumber party the bed was inundated by every warm body in the house, including our 100 pound greyhound. If I could have a glass of wine or two it would be a perfect night... On that note, wouldn't pregnancy be a lot easier if one could imbibe a bit of wine?
