In the game of beat the crochet clock, it seems that this year I will have both some wins and some near misses as I work to bring closure to three unfinished crochet projects I am currently juggling.

Starting with the win, I did get two sets of crochet cookie potholders through what will be their final felting today. They were a bit drier than was helpful when I pulled them out of the washing machine, but after a good soak in some warm soapy water followed by an equally good rinse and just a touch of blotting, I was able to get them pinned for their final blocking:

They did, however, still need to dry, so while the pot holders were busy waiting for water to evaporate, I got out my bent-tipped yarn needled and began weaving in more of the ends from my Gingerbread House tissue box crochet cozy:

and despite the fact that it took quite awhile, it still wasn’t enough time for the pot holders to finish drying, so while I set aside the pieces of the crochet gingerbread house, I took my bent-tipped yarn needle and attempted to work some finishing magic on the Olivia-inspired crochet pig:

I started by recrocheting the nose which ended up taking up so much of the face, I had no place to put her eyes or her mouth. Once I got that done (it only took two or three more tried), I set to working on the embroidered features, and while the stitches were simple, the execution was a bit less straightforward than I had hoped.

The embroidery on the feet and the hands took both doing and redoing because there was no easy way to weave in the ends of the embroidery that didn’t end up looking messy. But I kept at it, carefully cutting and removing as needed, and e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y I got an acceptable look.

Then I moved onto the face, and while the individual stitches fell short of perfection, the overall look did not:

By early afternoon tomorrow the pot holders will have dried, and I should have a chance to sit down with my crochet and work on both the gingerbread house and the Olivia-inspired pig, working forward one stitch at a time.