A Bluestocking Knits

Show and Tell this week requests a picture of our favorite ornament.

Every year, we make little ornaments for the four teachers at the girls’ preschool — this is Julia’s first year.  I’ve been so impressed with the richness of her watercolors that I wanted to do something to show that off.  I had her paint on a sheet of watercolor paper, both sides over the course of a few days, and I cut the paper into squares, then cut a slit into each square and slid two together to make these.  (One sheet of watercolor paper made six 2 1/2-inch ornaments.)  I had to add a dab of white glue to keep the shape — I’d hoped that I would be able to flatten them for storage, but the paper was so thick that I had to widen the slit a little, and then they wouldn’t quite stay together.

I think all of our ornaments are my favorites — but possibly this one is this year’s favorite!  Laura usually leaves a lot of white space on her watercolors, but Julia uses every inch, so for me these are instantly recognizable as being her work.

We found out quite by accident that Laura’s kindergarten teacher is a new knitter, so we made a "custom" pair of needles for her, by painting the little knob at the end with her favorite color.  It was a bit fiddly, but Laura did the painting all by herself.  (Sorry that the photo is a little blurry — we were running out the door to get to early-day on time!)