...12.29...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...these are the little party favors that I made for everyone at the Crazy Santa Christmas Party over the weekend...so you've seen a glimpse of them already...

...I raided the old Cub Scout craft bin (it's still in the basement...and I need to repurpose most of those things)...but I got out a bunch of pony beads of varying colours...

...and I started with this frosty blue yarn...I only have this tiny bit in the stash...it has a metallic thread of a darker blue...and I got some appropriately blue beads and some grey for the 'trunk'...

...and then you just crochet a strip...I used half-double crochet for 60 stitches...it's not really a 'pattern'...haha...and then just folded it back and forth into a 'tree' shape...

...and I found it a little bit easier to 'skewer' the 'tree' onto a knitting needle to keep everything nice and in place for the bead addition...

...I just used the tail from the crochet and added a star at the top and a bead in between each of the folds...

...and when I got to the 'trunk' at the bottom...I used the two different coloured beads...tied a knot and then threaded the tail back up through a few beads and trimmed it off...and one little ornament was done...

...and then I just did that a few more times...it's a really cute and simple little ornament...

...I wanted each family to be able to take one home...and the top three on the right were for the 'little ones' at the party to take home to put in their ornament boxes for when they grow up...they'll have a little ornament made especially for them...

...then in other crafty news...of the sewing variety...I mended this old red sweater...I like it but it's getting pretty old now...I remember purchasing it in 2005 for Pentecost Sunday...we were supposed to wear red...which only happens a couple of times in the Lutheran Church year...and I went shopping specifically for a red sweater...and this is an example of a successful shopping trip of that nature...because, generally, if I go shopping to find a definite particular thing...I am almost certain to be unable to find it...haha...

...this is not the first time I've had to mend the neckline...and it's a bit fiddly as the stitches are tiny and have to be threaded through the loops so it won't ravel...

...so after the mending...I decided to reinforce the entire neckline with one of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine...I just chose this one that looks a bit like cross-stitch...and did a 'stitch in the ditch' all the way around the neckline...I think it looks pretty OK on the sweater...not too out of place...

...you can see the stitch detail a little bit better where it went over the tags...and hopefully it will hold everything together and I'll be able to wear it for a while longer...

...and...in other organizing news...y'all know how I used to keep my socks in my undie's drawer...in a box...well after I got the dozen new pairs of white cotton ones...there just wasn't room for them all...

...so I took them all out and put them in one of the baskets the Man's Mamaw had made...and I'll just keep it beside my dresser for handy access to all my socks...but especially the handknit ones...

...Mom sent me some photos from the party...so I went back and updated Monday's post as promised...

...what's in your workbasket this week?...

~Have a lovely day!