Remember these tin can crocheted hats from the 70's when crochet was the IN thing to do along with recycling and all mother earth-type stuff? I have no desire to make one, thanks, but it's a fun blast from the past.








Finally I can show something I've been working on! My lace group had their Christmas luncheon today - my sister graciously permitted us to invade her beautiful house - and we had our usual anonymous gift exchange. I put a bar of Lily of the Valley soap in the Irish crocheted bag. This is like the other one I made but from size 20 thread instead of size 30. The instructions call for size 10 but I found size 20 feeling big to me. I can't quite get the hang of the fringe knotting. It's not the knot, it's the spacing that I find tricky. It slips on me. Cathy Kozlowski ended up with it. And I ended up with the gift she made only it's not finished yet...I actually got an IOU and a peek at it on the pillow. It's a bobbinlace motif in red and white. I'm looking forward to getting it!






Here's the other Irish Crochet bag I'm working on. This one may go to the office exchange. I don't think anyone who is involved reads this so I'm not concerned about letting the secret out.

This one is done in size 30 thread. Maybe it was size 50, now that I think about it. The bigger leaves look wrong at the bottom. I thought sure I had done each round but they look smaller, The leaves to the side are smaller. I still need to put a ribbon through the beading. I believe I have some soaps I can put in this one too.








So....I guess I better get back to working on other Christmas gifts. I'm really not sure what to do. I was teaching a new student tatting on Thursday and she was wearing those gloves that have the fingers open but there is a mitten flap that folds over....she bought them but said she could have knit them so that got me to looking on the web. There is a pair of Broad Street Mittens at Knitty.com by Janis Cortese. (photo) Then there is another free online pattern at Canadian Living. This one has a smaller adult size and I have smaller hands - plus I'm thinking about trying to make these for my grandsons who don't have really big hands yet. I dunno...that might be more than I should tackle right before a holiday!

I still don't have my tree up but to be honest, I would rather clean and organize than put it up right now. I'm feeling restless this holiday season and find it hard to focus on anything for very long.