Well, here’s the weekend progress:

First off, I finished and felted the Booga Bag for the AAUW gift exchange:



It’s interesting how differently different wools felt. The Kureyon takes a long time to felt, and never feels completely felted – it’s a lot less dense and more open than some other wools. The Brown Sheep Naturespun (which I used here) felts very densely and very tightly (and fast, it only took one washer-cycle to get the bag felted). The Elann Highland Wool is intermediate in its felting.

I’m happy with the color combination on this bag. I hope whoever gets it, likes it.

I also made a quilted pillow as a gift for a friend. This is for “Mrs. D.,” a longtime (as in, I went and stayed with her when my mom went into the hospital to have my little brother) friend of the family. Her favorite colors are blue and brown, so I always try to figure out a project that combines those. The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on the pillow is the state bird of Oklahoma, where I live:



I also baked fruitcake. This is white fruitcake, not the heavy brandy-or-other-spirits-laced kind of fruitcake. (In fact, I think adding booze to this cake would ruin it). It’s kind of like Scots “Dundee cake” or like a poundcake with nuts and fruit. (This is a representative cake; the recipe calls for 6 cups of flour and makes three cakes this size and three to four that are about half this size)

The design on the top is traditional and I never omit it. I am not sure where it comes from. I suppose it could be an archaic holdover, a sun-sign used by ancient Scots Druid ancestors. Although, I think it’s more likely my parents started doing it in the 1960s, as newly-married grad students trying to stretch their budget by making all of the Christmas presents they gave. (I cherish the mental picture – or rather, the imagined picture, I was not yet on the scene – of my parents as newlyweds, working hip-to-hip in a tiny, grad-student-apartment kitchen, to turn out batches of fruitcake and cookies and candy as gifts to friends and family.)

Finally, I knit some on the Mosaic scarf. For someone who usually claims to be a wool-snob, I really am liking this (100% synthetic) yarn. It’s very soft and is pleasant to work with.



I still think it looks rather hobbitish.