Sheep redux

Here is Mr. Sheep modeling his new duds. I was thinking of naming him Sherman. I used to work with a man named Sherman, and the receptionist in our office used to affectionately (?) call him Shermy. So I think I'll write Sherman on his tag, but while he's here in the treehouse awaiting the big craft fair on Saturday, I'll call him Shermy. He has been very patient with me while I've tinkered with his clothes and his body parts (hands and feet only!) I've grown quite fond of him.

Here is a close-up of his face. The hair is real sheep's wool and I sewed it on by hand. His nose and mouth are embroidered and his eyes are painted. I knit the scarf out of left-over sock yarn. I cast on 12 stitches with #4 needles and knit garter stitch for about 18". It was fun knitting with the self-striping yarn again, but not as fun as knitting socks where the colors seem to change more often. The boas go faster, but I'm not sure about a sheep in a boa. Hmmmm......

So this morning I went out and hung two Christmas wreaths by the front door. I used to buy the real ones, but a few years ago I bought some artificial ones on sale at Michael's. They look real enough and they don't turn brown and drop their needles. When I take them down at the end of the season, I throw them in a garbage bag and store them on top of Mr. G's pile o' tires in the garage.

Soon after I was done, Mr. G. mentioned that maybe he'd go out and put lights on the little tree in the front yard. I offered to help. We used to put lights on all of the bushes along the front of the house, but that was back when we were younger and much more energetic. Now we just put lots of lights on one little tree. It's festive enough to be neighborly, but doesn't cut into precious knitting and football-watching time. We've decided that as we grow older we should slow down the pace.....and read more cruise brochures......