scarf progress and Jesse Tree ornaments

Despite the lack of activity on this blog, I have been working since my last post. I am still stitching away at my clapotis, and it is shaping up nicely, although nowhere near done. At this rate, I am hoping that I'll be able to wear it in the fall, as I've totally given up on its being finished before the spring. I've discovered that people have an insatiable curiosity about knitting, and are often quite fascinated by seeing someone knit in public. I am always asked what I am working on, and I admit to feeling kind of lame in answering "A scarf." It just seems so unimpressive. I really have to restrain myself from telling them what a cool and interesting scarf it will be. The other question that just kills me is when they ask who it is for. I feel incredibly guilty and selfish telling them it is for me! In my defense, I have thought of zillions of things I would like to knit for other people, but I don't feel that I am a very accomplished knitter yet, and hate the thought of screwing up a gift. I am hoping that this will give me some practice so that someday I can be that cool knitter who gives everyone beautiful handknits for Christmas.

The other major project I did recently was to make ornaments for a Jesse Tree swap. I was tasked to make a dozen each of 3 different ornaments, and after the swap had a complete set. It was a lot of fun and the ornaments turned out really beautiful. Here are the ones that I made:

This one is Joseph's coat of many colors. I made it by randomly stitching lines of color onto tan felt with my sewing machine, before cutting out the coats. I cut them out with fronts and backs attached at the shoulders, and then put glue on all the thread ends to keep them from unravelling. After that was dry, I glued them at the side seams and hung them on little hangers made from gold floral wire.

The next one is the wall of Jericho and the Ark of the Covenant. The wall is just cut out of stiff grey felt. I pondered how to get a nice, detailed Ark on there for quite some time and finally hit on the idea of using Shrinky-Dink plastic. It worked very well! Then all I had to do was glue the Ark onto the wall and add some wire for hanging.

Finally, the crown for Jesus is King of the Nations. I was originally going to make this out of wire and beads, but that was NOT working. My mom and sister had recently had success in making cinnamon ornaments, so I decided to give that a try. With my veteran ornament-making sister, I made the crowns with the cinnamon dough. I didn't have a cookie cutter in the right shape, so I made a template out of paper, laid it over the dough, and cut out the shape with a paring knife. We poked 2 holes in the center of each crown for inserting the wire for hanign. After the ornaments dried, I added the wire (which I bent to make a decorative swirl) and Samuel added dots of gold glitter glue and stuck a bead in each one. These turned out great, and smell so good!

Here is the recipe that we used for the ornaments:

1 cup ground cinnamon

1/2 cup applesauce

1/4 cup white craft glue

Mix together. Turn dough over and over until the consistency is smooth and dry. Let the dough stand for one hour. (My mother recommends taking this time to relax in the hot tub - if you don't have a hot tub, or just don't want to wait an hour, be assured that when my sister and I made these, we skipped the one hour rest time and the ornaments were fine.)

Then turn out 1/4 of the dough onto a cool, flat surface, then flatten the mound with your hands. (We used parchment paper.)

Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick. We kept checking with a ruler to be sure. If it becomes too dry, spritz it with water. If it sticks tothe rolling pin or work surface, sprinkle it with cinnamon. (We didn'thave any trouble with either.)

Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Poke hole with toothpick for hole to hang with. Lay on paper towels on wire rack to dry. Repeat with remaining dough. Let ornaments air dry for at least 24 hours, turning every 6 hours or soto keep them flat. (Not a problem with ours.)

If desired, you can bake them dry. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Transfer the ornaments to a baking sheet. Bake, flipping once, until dry, about 2 hours.

To decorate an ornament, spread white glue over the surface. While the glue is still wet, hold the ornament over a bowl of glitter or beads. Sprinkle the glitter on with a spoon and tap off excess. Hang with wire or crochet thread.