Oh, it's been sooooo long!

I had vowed that I would blog more frequently in 2015,

and I've gotten off to a bad start.

As some of you may know, we had our dear Barker

euthanized on January 5th.

He was 13 years old,

his health went into a downward spiral very rapidly

while we were at the beach,

and he slipped away peacefully in my arms.

Bosco, our 3-year old standard,

misses his big brother a LOT,

(not that we don't!), but we are confident that he will do better in time.

I've been keeping myself occupied (when 'others' have not!)

with a bit of fiber catch-up.

I had started making knitting project bags for members of my knitting group

way back in September.

You may recall that they gifted me with a 

lovely knitted afghan about a year ago when I was sick.

So, I wanted to thank them, and the project bags were the best way I knew how to do so.

I'm using only my hand-dyes,

and it's been fun!

Here I am sewing away on one bag:

(note the cute pin cushion made for me by my cousin Eva)

In listening to the Knitmore Girls Podcast,

Jasmin mentioned that they are using light colored fabric to line their bags -

the better to see the yarn inside!

I hadn't thought about that,

but it does make sense.

So I dusted off my hand-carved 'ball of yarn stamp',

inked up my brayer, 

and away we went, stamping lining fabric!

Here are a few of the finished bags:

I still have a several more to make,

but it's fun.

And I'm knitting, knitting, knitting!

We had a cold snap here a few weeks ago,

so I got this hat done just in time!

I'm also knitting two sweaters.

One is the Fisherman's Daughter

and the other is 

the Garter Rib Pullover.

Both are great fun, and keep me alert!

And one last thing:

I am taking a fantastic Photoshop Elements class

with the Pixeladies!

What a fabulous class and format.

Those girls sure do know how to teach!

I hope you are well

and that your 2015 has started off nicely!

Thanks for stopping by,

and I hope to be back sooner

with some actual surface design work to share!

Peace!