I made this same stocking for my daughter when she was very young, in the early 1980s. I have knitted since I was eight years old, but this was the first item I had ever knit in the Fair Isle technique, where you use bobbins to hold your yarn because of all the color changes. You follow the design pattern from a chart, like counted cross-stitch. The original stocking was not a success from a technical point of view, as my knitting tension left a lot to be desired. For instance, the row of candy canes was one area that was pulled in too tight because of my inexperience with Fair Isle. The original stocking was a valuable learning experience, even though it was tricky getting stuff in and out of it at Christmas due to the fact it was shaped like a digesting boa constrictor. My daughter used it for all the years she was growing up. I thought she had it now, but she said she doesn't. I know it's not lost; it's somewhere in a box in storage.

Anyway, this is a replacement stocking that I completed just recently for my daughter Chelsea. Last year I made a custom stocking for her partner Rob, and the year before I made stockings for both the grandsons. Now that I have much more knitting experience under my belt, this stocking turned out a lot better. It has already been sent off to her for this year's Christmas.

I made this black hat for me. It's from the book AntiCraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister. The pattern is titled Gothic Glam Yule Hat. I used various yarns from my stash, with the main part of the hat made from TLC Amore. It's soft and knits up into a chenille type fabric, but it's cheap and I had the worst "yarn barf" from the center pull that I wasted a lot of time untangling. I made the brim about two inches wide instead of four inches, because I thought that was too wide for my head, and I wanted the design to be on the top of my head and visible. I found a new remainder copy of the book on Amazon for $2.19; it arrived on Friday, December 12. I started the hat on Saturday night, December 13, and I finished it while riding in the car to San Francisco on Monday, December 15. It was quick, easy, and fun to make. It's very cold here in the Bay Area, and I am wearing it while I'm here all week. (That's two holly leaves, a skull, and holly berries....but my husband swears it looks like Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons. Doh.) I really like the book, and there are some other projects in it I'd like to make.

What do you do when your high definition wide screen television goes out right before the long four-day Thanksgiving weekend? I seized the opportunity to clean up my very messy sewing area and my crafts supply closet. It's hard to be creative in an area that looks like the aftermath of a hurricane. During the past year, I traveled quite a bit and I was away from home a lot on weekends, which is my prime time for sewing. I have done more knitting and crocheting this past year because they are more portable projects for traveling, and they are easier to work on in the evenings when I am tired and burnt out from my day job and I just want to relax. My goal for 2009 is to stay home more and create more art quilts and mixed media art pieces. I've felt very ungrounded and scattered creatively this year, and I feel that by first cleaning up and reorganizing my creative space, I can then begin to let ideas flow and keep a journal of those ideas and inspirations. I also need to sit down and read all of the wonderful artsy books I've purchased in the last year. I was given a lot of craft supply donations this past year, and by adding some of my own still-good discards, I was able to gift others with supplies, from Adult Education classes to young moms on Freecycle. You have to let stuff go in order to free up space in your life for new and wonderful stuff, like the great deals I've found on nice carded buttons and beaded fringe at Dollar Tree.

Armed with the nifty P-Touch labeling system that my husband got for me last year, I labeled containers. On the table you can see the vintage glass refrigerator container found at a Salvation Army thrift store that I use for spools of thread, and the picnic organizer basket is used for scissors, rotary cutters, and the like. I prefer natural material containers, but plastic containers are kind of a necessary evil to keep out dust, sunlight, and cat hair.

Anyway, I thought I would share the results of staying home over a long quiet weekend. (Incidentally, it was the lamp inside the television that burnt out, and we found out that they need to be replaced after awhile. We found one on eBay, but even with paying for overnight shipping, it didn't arrive until the Tuesday after Thanksgiving...exactly a week from the day it burnt out. We survived! In fact, after a day or two of withdrawal symptoms, we found we didn't miss it all that much.) The last thing on my reorganization list is to sort and store patterns, directions, inspirations, and other information I've collected into binders. I've been doing this for years, and it works for me. I am reading the book listed, which I checked out of the library. I think the advice will work for me, too. Now I just need to work on keeping all my crafty stuff organized once I start digging it all out again.....

My final excursion in Minneapolis, right before I headed to the airport, was Depth of Field Yarn. When you first enter the front door, you think you must be in the wrong place, as you survey a futon shop. But if you walk to the back and turn to the right, there is all the luscious yarn.

My friend Jerry knew the woman behind the counter, so as they chatted I wandered about. I was impressed. It's a beautiful shop with lots of variety. (I was kind of surprised that they didn't carry Noro, but when I went to a fancy yarn shop in Denver, they didn't carry it, either. It's not like it's Red Heart Supersaver.)

I did buy two skeins of Wisdom Yarns Poems, which is 100% wool, stripes like Noro Kureyon, and will felt. I got the blues and purples colorway. Don't know what I'll do with it...maybe a felted bag one day...it's stored with my other 100% wool yarns. I was barely able to stuff it in my overflowing luggage. With that, I bid farewell to the Twin Cities. I had a great time, saw a lot of cool things, and can't wait to return and see all the cool stuff that I didn't get to see this trip. Thanks, Jerry and Nicole!

Being a lifelong fabric and textile fanatic, whenever I travel I want to see "what you got" wherever I go. Too much is never enough, I say! Bring it on! Show me your fiber excesses! Which brings me to show you a little bit of my trip to SR Harris Fabric in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. That's 30,000 square feet of fabric goodness!

To get there from Minneapolis, we had to pass by the exit for Betty Crocker Drive, which amused me to no end, being a former home economics teacher. My friend Jerry said that the Betty Crocker test kitchens used to be open to the public. I found out that Pillsbury was founded in Minneapolis in 1869, General Mills traces its history to the Minneapolis Milling Company, and that many other highly recognizable food brands had their start in the Twin Cities area. (There is even a tour you can take of an old mill at the Mill City Museum. I didn't get to take that tour this trip, but my friends Nicole and Jerry said it was pretty cool and very interesting. I did get to see the outside of the building.)

I was so overwhelmed by the Fabric Outlet, that I played tourist, browsing and taking photos (after asking permission, of course), and leaving without buying anything. Oh, I would have loved to bring home more "stash", but my little suitcase was already full. It reminded me of the wholesale fabric stores in the garment districts of Los Angeles and New York. It also reminded me of the huge back room in the costume shop I worked at in the mid-'70s, which also had many rolls of fabrics stacked. I came, I saw, and I fondled (the fabric). If you are visiting the area and have an empty suitcase, I recommend it!