Where oh where has my lusciousgracious gone?

Did you miss us? We missed you! So what have we been up to the last month or so since last post? Not much. Just 2 weeks of flu, 12 days of Christmas, 3 tons of moved books (we moved the rest of the apt. too, but it was mainly the books), 1 week of computer problems, 12 years of wedded bliss, and a Happy New Year. Amidst all the chaos we still managed to make a few things. Not as much as we wanted too, but enough to make me not sure where to start.

How about we start with the most recent? Just tonight there was a coronation in our new apartment. Illanna was named The Foxbot Queen/King for 2006. Lucy & Lily created the hand-crafted crown & scepter. I was glad to see the slash in the title, there is still hope for me in 2007.

This past weekend we had the first of what might turn into a semi-annual event. We unveiled the secret Santa gifts we had made for a group of our friends that are regulars at Jessica Knits. It was so much fun trying to guess who made what & to see all of the great knitted gifts. We even had the old guy that kept saying "Congratulations!" It may have been because we kept opening presents, but I still think he was congratulating me for being the one man at a table of 8 beautiful women!

Let's start with what we made. I made this felted bag for Marissa. I designed the Fair Isle pattern. I call it the M of hearts. It is supposed to be M's (for Marissa) that joined together make hearts. The yarn is Malabrigo.

Lucy made this cabled sweater style bag for Sara.
Here are Sara & Marissa with their gifts.
Lily picked Jessica as her gift recipient. She made her these delicious felted bags. The big one is a chocolate chip cookie with a couple bites missing. It is made from Brown Sheep. The eclair with sprinkles is made from various brownish yarns we had lying around the house.

Here is Jessica & Lily with the scrumptious felted bags.

Suspiciously, Kiki & Illanna had each other. Kiki made all of these goodies for Illanna using Cascade Fixation.

A Big Bag

A little bagSunglasses CaseNeedle CaseSheep/Monkey Change PurseJust to be fair to the rest of us that Kiki makes look like slackers, the last 2 items were delivered today, not on Saturday.

Illanna made a beautiful random lace wrap for Kiki out of her favorite lace yarn from Jessica's. Here are your 2005 & 2006 Foxbot Queens/Kings showing off their gifts.

Patricia made this funky felted bowl for Lily. It even has beads & buttons. Lily says that it is a perfect place to put more rocks. Mom thinks it will protect the furniture from more scratches, not that she minds. Thanks, Patricia!!

Lily thought it made a cool hat too.Here is Lily with Patricia.Marissa made Lucy this beautiful purse with a gorgeous flower pin. Here are the two ladies showing the gift. It is easy to see why this is Lucy's favorite accessory ever.....all that pink! And a new brooch! She's so happy!Jessica had my name. She used my favorite Point 5 yarn to make me this book with felted cover and matching felted vessel. The book is titled "felting with hand dyed yarns and other knitting projects for men..." , which is the title of the book that she thinks I should write. You know, encouraging new male knitters to start with high end, luxury yarns and then felt them. Hey, it worked for me! It is full of blank pages (including graph paper) for me to fill up.Sara made Patricia this lovely pair of "Smittens", mittens for couples. The two on the outside are different sizes, for the man & woman. The one in the middle is made so the couple can hold hands inside. How romantical! Illanna helped Patricia model them below.Kiki made these fingerless mitts for Kallan, Patricia's daughter. That way she had something when mom came home from the party. The yarn is Optimum, hand-dyed by Queen Illanna.

That was so much fun! Thanks everyone for the great gifts & great time. I am glad we decided this needs to be done twice a year. We need to go ahead & draw names now. I'm hoping the next gift I give won't still be wet when I give it!

O.K. that should be plenty of lusciousgracious goodness to make up for our little hiatus, right? But wait, there's more! We have to show the coolest thing that was made by the LG girls during the break.

This is a card game Lucy & Lily made for their cousin Connor. The Noah's Ark game comes with 26 pairs of animals and 1 Ark card. You play it like reverse Old Maid where you try to keep the Ark, or like memory. The girls drew all the pictures & left a couple of blank cards for Connor to add to the game himself. We will show a few of the cards each post, so you can eventually see the whole set. Enjoy!

Hope you all had a great Holiday season! We are looking forward to a 2006 filled with art, love & laughter. We wish you the same.

Steve

p.s. There is a lot more of what we made over the break coming soon.

p.p.s. HSB - Happy Steve's Birthday since we probably won't post tomorrow.