What’s not to love about the TARDIS? In this case, nothing. And because I’m always on the lookout for interesting craft projects (craft defined as ‘stuff I make with my imagination, and then my hands’), the Ladies At The Office and I have decided that we really need to make half-sized TARDISes for our cats. (Obviously for our cats. Why would we need one for ourselves? Just sitting there. Inspiring us. Being all… TARDISy.) So, sometime in the spring we’ll be making three TARDIS cat forts, one for each of our households. We’ll be following the general design that we found here, though of course we’ll be making up the schematics as we go.

This is exciting for me, because it’s been a long time since I made things out of wood, and as my husband and I have plans to eventually buy the fixer-upper house we’re saving for… and then demolish the inside and start over… this will be a nice reminder of what it’s like to deconstruct and reconstruct when your chosen medium is lumber, rather than wool or cotton.

This will also be a nice spring project to look forward to, as I work on all my winter projects. (I keep meaning to take decent pictures of these, and I keep neglecting to do so.) But the list, at last I noticed was to finish:

• the deep winter mittens, and thus finishing the Master & Commander knitting project I actually did list over on ravelry.
• the triune vest experiment. One newly created pattern. One new-to-me dressform. One new sewing machine that does 8 different button holes. Three different bits of wool cloth with attendant linings of various degrees of awesome. Buttons. (And today is the day to finish the one that lacks button holes and the one that lacks button holes and finished armholes. Yay!)
• new cloth napkins in calico fabrics that my husband and I enjoy. Instead of the heirloom white linen ones, or the random assortment of strange calico ones that we’ve accumulated. Somehow.
• the christmas tree skirt. Actually, this was the winter project of 2011, I think. But I should probably just go ahead and finish it now.
• Dean’s prayer shawl. Because he’s recovering from major surgery.
• the purple throw, because it would be nice to have at least two throw blankets in the living room that… you know… sort of match.

And then of course, there are the winter projects that I haven’t begun yet, but seriously plan to. Just as soon as I finish at least one of the above:

• the new winter coat. This is the black, double fleeced, calf length frock coat with mandarin/clergy collar, folded sleeves, and a detachable hood with capelet. This will be excellent to have by, say, Ash Wednesdsay of this year (Feb 18, in case you were curious), when I will be standing outside for many hours in the cold, imposing ashes during Ashes to Go. This is my own design, and it’s quite possible that I’ll be cutting the fabric for it today, and maybe making headway on the sewing.
• the new black wool skirt. Because the brown one worked out so beautifully, I really want a black one, now.
• the shark throw. Because it’s shark week. And because it will make a lovely cave over the footstool for the cats, and kind of look like a shark.  …Yes, I’m a bit of a dork. I know.

And having listed all of this, I would just like to point out that I have actually finished some projects this winter. For instance…

• the new fleece bathrobe. It’s blue, lovely, fuzzy and warm! It was a major alteration from a pattern and I was quite nervous. My old sewing machine really didn’t like working with fleece, and that was another concern, but the new machine handles it like a dream. It’s just lovely.
• the new brown wool skirt. It’s lined. It’s a-line. It’s fitted. It’s beautiful, elegant and just so. And it goes with just about every piece of clothing I own. (The black one would do the same, and cover the rest…) Have I mentioned that I love it? (Have I mentioned that if I lose ten pounds it’s not going to fit so well and i may have to cry, right before I take it apart and alter it?)
• the new bedroom curtains. I took the old ones down, altered them, extended them, lined them and put ribbons on before I hung them back up again. Gorgeousness. No, really.
• the Master & Commander cap and cowl. Vicki gave me the most beautiful Icelandic wool, a present from her travels, and so I needed to find the perfect pattern for it. And when I had just enough left over, I decided to make mittens, too. I had just enough to do mittens from the wrist up, but since the wool it a bit scratchy, I decided to line them in some hideously colored laceweight cashmere I had in my stash, and put a baby alpaca cuff on them. Does the cuff match the wool? No, not remotely. But will you see that under your coat? No, not at all. And will you be hella warm? No. I will. :)
• Nyla’s prayer shawl. Because of cancer. And reasons. Thus proving that I really can finish a project quickly and right before Christmas when I need to.
• the frankenstein base layer. Because sometimes you find a small cashmere sweater at salvation army and realize that with a few well thought cuts and redone seams, that could be your husband’s bottom-half baselayer. $3 customized cashmere long underwear, baby.
• the crocheted hanging basket of awesomeness in the front hall. We have one already, but my husband and I mutually decided that we needed another hanging below it. Why? To corral all the gloves, hats, mittens, cowls and fingerless whatsits that are needed in a Buffalo winter in which some days the windchill is below zero, and sometimes it’s just 30 degrees out.