remembering and gifting

My great-grandmother Leona made my sister and I pillows like these when we were little girls. I remember mine had an embroidered kitty on blue checked gingham with my name embroidered in bright red floss and my sister's pillow was made out of pink gingham. I can remember the lace around the edge and the way the embroidered stitches felt against my check when I snuggled into bed at night.

There's nothing left of those original pillows. I continued to sleep with mine until is disappeared sometime in junior high, but by that time all the stitches had worn off and you could only see the pale outline of the pattern my grandmother had followed.

It was fun for me to dip into all of those great memories as I worked on this winter project.

It doesn't take Chewy long to sense that there might be a photo opportunity. She's usually curled into a ball of black fur on the fleece in the foreground of this picture. Smart cat. Wish I could lay there all day.

Here's some handspun I started working on last night and finished up this afternoon. It's probably going to turn into another baby sweater. I have about 220 yards here. This is the 60% CVM romeldale wool and 40% kid mohair from my mother's sheep.

I walked down to the Mississippi River last night after work. We've been in a deep freeze here, so it seems to be completely frozen over, but I couldn't help but imagine the water moving beneath the gray ice and I kept well away from the edge.