Happy Winter Solstice!

This is the longest night of the year. A night to light candles or switch on your strings of fairy lights, enjoy a fire or turn up the thermostat to keep the chill at bay, drink warm comforting beverages and be thankful for food and shelter to see us through the cold winter months ahead.

I made fruit cake today. Three, in fact. One with wholewheat flour, two gluten-free. One GF cake was requested by a person who used to work with me. She bought a couple of cakes from me last year and asked me for another this year. The other GF one was sent home with my friend who came for tea today.

The wheat one has been partially devoured already. Oh man, it’s good!

My 21st ball of yarn is a lovely festive red.

I have two sewing projects to show you, one completed yesterday evening and the other this afternoon.

I made a tool roll! The wrenches are for display purposes only as they were sitting around in my sewing room (ds1 was going to sew himself a tool roll for his new wrench set but hasn’t got around to it yet).

All the materials were from stash. The plaid was cut from the back of a shirt that belonged to one of the boys when he was a teen. The denim was a free piece from work. The little bit of red vinyl is a swatch that comes in with the rolls of vinyl at work. The D rings and webbing were on hand. I made this up as I went along and the size was decided by the rectangle I was able to cut from the back of the shirt.

My other sewing FO is this fuzzy vest. I used the same pattern as the other vest I completed recently but because it was chenille I didn’t bother with facings. I just used two pattern pieces (front and back) and sewed them together at the shoulders and sides, then hemmed all the raw edges. Easy peasy!

And finally, the beanie. Last night I stayed up far too late crocheting and watching The Witcher. Hmm, if knitting and Netflix is Knitflix what’s crochet and Netflix? Cronet? Croflix? Netrochet?

The hat isn’t finished yet. It has a lot of ends dangling inside from the embroidery. And I’m waiting for it to tell me whether it needs more embellishment. Something in the band above the yellow stripe, perhaps.

Three more work shifts to go before Christmas Day. I finish at 3pm on Christmas Eve, which is a pain because we have our big dinner and gift exchange on that day rather than on the 25th.

Wishing you a restful, peaceful longest night.