Elving

I'm still busy with lots of Secret Christmas Stuff, but this weekend I worked on a few projects that are blog safe. For my two little cousins who love to color and craft, books and special coloring tools.The youngest is new to the family and I have no idea how her parents feel about markers, so she gets twistable crayons. The oldest gets really cool markers I am coveting myself.

I made the books with cardstock and drawing paper, running a line of stitches down the middle and then trimming to fit. This was not my most successful project and I have real doubts about the sturdiness of the spine, so I reinforced with tape. (Blue painters tape, specifically. I thought it would be more festive than masking tape.) They are cute, but I'm going to need to do some research or thinking before trying that again.

My plan is to put the two books, crayons/markers and some loose drawing paper in to a small canvas bag for each girl. Time permitting, I'll decorate the bags with their names or something. (I toyed with the idea of making bags for them, but then I realized I have the right size bags on hand from a wedding project that went nowhere.)

And for a friend who has requested I knit her a scarf someday, a sewn scarf to tied her over is in the works.
(I'd like to thank Teddy for the lovely modeling job.) I usually keep friend gifts to a minimum and/or simple, but this friend is stuck in Florida working while her family and her boyfriend all celebrate Christmas in Virginia. We're taking her in for the holiday, and I wanted to have something nice for her. Kathy's Rubblework Scarf fits the bill, and it has come together very quickly so far. Tomorrow evening I will back it with purple flannel left from the T-Shirt quilt, and I think it will be lovely for her.

**I will not be trying to finish this, or anything else, tonight. I am decidedly tired tonight. When I finished the books, I went to get the markers out of a cabinet that we threw out a good six months ago. I then started the scarf and had to rip apart the small square blocks twice before finally getting them right. When I successfully finished the front of the scarf, I decided I should consider myself fortunate to have gotten so far and stop.