Sometimes a little quality crafting time makes it better.

(Yes, it can be submitted to another journal, and I suppose it will eventually, but I'm just ready to be DONE with something, to get something out.)

First, the first finished Blueflame sock. I think the colors look more like autumn than they do the combustion of natural gas, but then I didn't dye the colorway:



The heel looks pushed in and wonky but that's just how I set it down. I didn't see that before I had the photograph loaded in.

I'm working on the second sock but it's slow. I thought I could get some done while I was sick but most of Tuesday all I wanted to do was sleep.

I also started something new. (That seems to be a theme with me: have some disappointment in my life ---> start a new project. Well, I suppose there are more self-destructive ways of dealing with disappointment).

It's a little embroidered elf:



It's probably about half done (the face will take more time and I wanted to wait for daylight to do that).

The pattern is a freebee, available from the (IMHO) unfortunately-named "Pimp Stitch" site:

free Christmassy patterns (N.B.:.pdf file)

The pattern is by Jenny Hart, whose embroidery designs I like, even if she does use the aggravating tagline, "This ain't your grandma's embroidery!" Actually, given that some of the designs are retro 60s and retro 70s, actually, it could be. (Heck, if I had had a child fairly young, and if that child had had a child fairly young, I could technically be a grandma. That is the Scary Thought of the Week. Not for any age-related reason but rather for reasons of maturity and responsibility. I can barely care for MYSELF some days, let alone hypothetical future generations of me.)

My elf looks a bit more disreputable than the one on the original (it's hard to trace neatly). He looks a bit shifty, like maybe he's making off with the presents rather than delivering them. Though if that were the case, I probably should have done his outfit in black, to suggest black leather.

(Another alternative-elf thought that came into my mind...you could eliminate those "cuffs" on his shirt, and do the "elf body" all in a flesh tone, and have him be Crazy Streaker Elf. You could even do the scarf and hat in your favorite college colors, to really pick up on the streaker theme.)

(You could also have him be Nudist/Naturist* Elf, which is very different from Crazy Streaker Elf, but given that he's somewhere cold enough that ice skates are a viable form of transportation, maybe that doesn't make so much sense.)

(*I don't know which is the preferred term there, and I like to use the "proper" term for people's interests. I got really spooked once because a guy I knew totally went OFF on someone for referring to science fiction as "sci-fi." He informed them, rather snippily, that the PROPER abbreviation used by "real" fans, was "SF." Of course, he may just have been a bit of a nutter, but ever since then I've been very gun-shy about using what might be an inappropriate term.)

Oh, and a warning:



Don't try to rotary cut quilt pieces when you have a fever.

I got bored yesterday afternoon and had done all the work-work I "could" do at home, so I tried cutting some pieces. Not a smart idea. As I've said before, rotary cutters are crazy sharp. I can't believe how much that little cut bled, but it was a lot.