A "London" pigeon

Over break, I got to see my brother and sister-in-law. They brought their (somewhat belated, but that always happens) birthday presents for me - a special glass tea infuser pot that will work with those "flower" teas (where the tea leaves are tied up all fancy and they unfold into a flower as the tea steeps....that's a bit more pricey than what I usually use but it also works with other teas) and a couple of books - "Felties" and "Knit London."

"Felties" is patterns for small mascot-type toys made of felt - some of them are just cute (a "stargazer bunny") and some are a little odd but cute ("Hoodie Wolf" - wearing a red riding hood and carrying a basket of sweets. That would have appealed to me as a six-year-old; I often wondered if the wolves in fairy tales got a bad rap and if the fairy tales were written in a slanted way where the wolf really was just minding his own business. Then again, I never actually *experienced* a life where wolves posed a danger, as would have been the case when those stories got started...)

"Knit London" is a mix of knitted patterns - some mascot type items (you can knit your own Queen and your own Beefeater), some more "practical" items (a book cover, a laptop cozy). The copy I got (not sure if all are like this) came with a kit for one of the cuter (and less yarn-requiring) projects in the book - Cooey, the London pigeon.

I've said before one of the things I like about toys is that they knit up fast - near instant gratification. I made the pigeon in about an hour one afternoon.



I named her "Cooey" like the one in the book because I couldn't come up with a name I liked better. (There's also a Tower of London raven that I want to make in there. And a "Tube" mouse. And I kind of want to make the "inspired by the classic Penguin book cover design" book cozy...maybe pick one of the more obscure Penguin color-schemes, like the bright magenta-y pink and white that the "Travel" titles came as...I have a copy of "Two Years Before the Mast" in my book collection that is an actual-factual, real vintage British Penguin, and it's bound in that color)

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And Charlotte, you're right. We need a "parish visitor" program at my church. I've suggested one but short of my organizing it (and I'm not sure I can handle that right now), it might not happen. My parents' church has one and it's pretty successful, and one of the nice things is it's a way for someone to serve whose talents lie in other places than the more "public" sort of things like getting up and reading Scripture or serving at the table as and elder or deacon. (We also tried to start a "helping hands" program - where people who either have skills or who can do stuff like yardwork to help out people who can't do it - or even just be another pair of hands for single people like me, who could use someone to (for example) hold a ladder when they have to go up on the roof for some reason, but the person who was going to head that up moved away and it kind of fell apart.) Part of the problem is we're just so small. We're trying to get new members but it seems very difficult to attract new members these days. (Friends of mine who belong to other denominations have commented about the same thing with their churches...)

The funeral is tentatively planned for Saturday which means I will be able to go without cancelling class or letting class out early, and I'll be able to serve at the lunch after, if there is one.