Waiting for the Service

Christmas Eve, Church of Our Savior, Milford, New Hampshire

Needle-Felted Ornament

I had been dying to try needle felting, so I got a needle and some roving. Here's a blow-by-blow of my first project. (I don't count the first practice round, in which I double-poked my thumb and bled a lot.)

Below is the first step, needling some undyed roving. (You use the undyed/natural roving underneath so as not to waste the dyed roving.)


Then I covered the ball with green and kept poking.

After smoothing it some more (needling and squishing), I sketched in the star in yellow. To do this, you carefully poke some roving along the edge of your design:

Then work on poking the middle:
And filling in spots, and poking some more!:
I lined the star with variegated sock wool:
And added some lettering ("Peace") in magenta sock wool:


Then I thought the star needed some more work, so I added some white roving for highlight:


And that's it! I added a hook (right through the top of the wool) and it's ready to hang.

So here is a shot of the finished ornament in situ:

Crop Circle in the Ice

Are aliens among us? Crop circles have adapted to northern climes...

Still Pictures

I'm re-watching Ken Burns's The Civil War (on my iphone) and am astonished anew at the power of those old photographs. Most of all the simple ones that weren't supposed to be "historic"—the family posing with slaves in the background, soldiers warming their hands...

Sicky Whine

The worst part of being sick right now is I don't have the energy to play with the NEW CAMERA I got for my birthday! But perhaps there will be more frequent photo updates in the future...

Thanks, BVD

BVD at the DailySunTimes paid me several compliments tonight -- remembering my birthday, plugging my blog, thinking I'm under 40 (!), and supposing I'm a witch. Hey, whatever works.

Here is my spell to get rid of H1N1:

Pig germs, pig germs,
I will defeat you in certain terms.
Porcine RNA,
You cannot stay.
I will rid myself of you:
By cough, by sneeze, and down the loo.