Fox Fires on New Year's Eve...

This print, Fox Fires on New Year's Eve Under the Garment Nettle Tree at Oji, from Ando Hiroshige's 100 Famous Views of Edo depicts the New Year's Eve assembly of fox spirits known as kitsune.   According to Japanese legend, kitsune from the neighboring provinces gather beneath a particular tree near the Oji Inari Shrine on the last day of the year.  As they proceed toward the tree, they breathe fire, which is understood by local farmers as the means by which to judge the success of their crops for the coming year. 

Dear readers: Bijibou wishes you all a happy, healthy, safe and peaceful New Year. 

busy...

I have been beavering away in a veritable Santa's workshop of industry lately, making catnip toys for many of the cats in the neighborhood, finishing Foof's stocking and beginning a knitted hat for myself.  Supposedly, cats can see the colors green, blue and yellow.

Mice - one fat and colorful, one lean and suspiciously ratlike - both looking well and truly dead.

Foof's stocking.  I need to add a tab for hanging then I'm done.  I'm not completely happy with the way I embellished this one - with a line of red soutache running through a strip of vintage tatting.  I think there may be a better alternative. There's still time to change it.

The Hinagiku Hat

 My Neep Heid is complete.  My ambitions to turn it into a Radish Heid were foiled by the overly loud Plum color I had originally chosen.  This was replaced with Mantilla which made it more beetlike, hence, Beetish.

making...

Admittedly, I may have trespassed into crazy cat lady territory, but so be it - I've been crafting some Christmas stockings for my cats. I have coveted this wool from Osgood's Textile for years and finally found a perfect use for it. I used a few treasures from my cache of linen and trims and created some cross stitch initials discovered on this brilliant site.

Bob's stocking is complete; Foof's is next.