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There was a time when it took less than an hour to make Lexi a pair of socks. Baby feet are that small.

Now she’s a big girl, and at the end of this summer she’ll be a whopping 5 years old.

Now it takes a dedicated evening to come up with almost a pair of plain jane socks with short row heels and toes; almost but not quite a pair. Pictured is where last night tapered off.

For her part Lexi takes these delays for finished socks in stride. She’s very analytical about it, pointing out that it takes much longer to make Josey socks because his feet are “very very huge.” (Which indeed, Josey does have gigantic feet for an eleven year old.)

We also managed to work a new camera into the budget. R.I.P. old camera, you served us well right up unto the middle.

Buying a new camera that was within the budget was a difficult task. First I had to get the husband into the store. This might have been easier had I not divulged the fact that it was to purchase a new piece of electronics. (Note to self: next time hint that they may have a sale on Star Wars items and start a rumor that they are giving away free cookies.)

Then I had to actually get him to compare cameras, we’d chosen another camera awhile back, made comparisons on function and agreed that it was indeed the best one. So I’ll admit that choosing another model (as in a model that we could afford right at that very moment) was probably a bit of a shock to his system. He kept saying “If we wait we can get this one for only $110 more.” and I kept saying “How long will that wait be?” and he kept shrugging, so I’d answer his shrug with “We need one to get us through that wait.” and then he’d repeat “If we wait we can get this one for only $110 more.”

Lather, rinse and repeat for the next 40 minutes.

Let us not forget that while I only want a camera to document every second of my adventures in motherhood and knitterly activities, the husband actually needs a camera in the course of his professional life (as in if he doesn’t have a camera he can’t send very important photos to his clients in order to be paid.)

Eventually this all lead to buying the camera that we could afford: Canon PowerShot A470. Which, as it turns out Matt is absolutely delighted with, and I’m not going to turn my nose up at the macro setting. As my friend Opal points out “It’s all about the macro.”

I love otedama, don’t ask me to do it, I’m just an admirer. I am about as coordinated as a drunken moose. But I can make the ojami just fine which does take a little coordination, but at least when it comes to avoiding needle pricks and sewing my own thumbs into the bag I can manage.

This is such a good craft for using up strips of scrap fabric. Each one is made of 4 pieces. For a western sized juggling bag, about 1.5 by 3 inches stitched with a scant 3/8 seam, and for otedama sized bags just slightly larger (the proportions should be length= width*2) about 2.75 inches wide to 5.5 inches long with a scant 3/8th inch seam.

Arrange the strips into a pin wheel, then sew the face of 4 strips so that they meet. Then sew the each strip down and around the corners (this is easier done than described) leaving one side of the opposite face open to fill with azuki beans, but not stuffing the beans, and then blind stitching the final seam closed. Otedama is played like jacks (at first) so too many beans makes it harder to manipulate the ojami.

Mine are made with batik dyed linen scraps (I didn’t sew the texture, the fabric came like that) left over from a fish shaped pillow that I made for a friend many years ago. The texture equaled fish scales to me, unfortunately it was one of those projects that worked much better in concept than execution but at least I had the gorgeous scraps to play with on a slow rainy Oregon day.