I love this month of the year. Short hours of daylight, long nights cosied up in layers of yarn or fleece, pretty snow scenes. Ok, the icy roads can dampen the enthusiasm a teeny bit but not too much.
Advent bag of holding
The 1st caught me out a bit. At the end of the day I had to ask Mr Fixit to stuff balls of yarn in bags for me so I could do a yarn Advent again. It’s just yarn this year, no beads or other treats, but it will still be fun to open a bag every day.
And thanks to son #3 we have a Lego Advent calendar too.
Mr Fixit and I opened the first two doors because we’re going to be out of town for our annual anniversary retreat for the next week. The sons can enjoy opening the little doors and building the mini models while we’re gone.
We’re celebrating 35 years of marriage on the 10th! And no chance of parole!!
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…oh wait, no need to dream…I’m in it!
It snowed most of the day. I worked til 3.15 and had to clear a lot of snow off my car so I could drive home. The store was predictably quiet but we still had a couple of people who came in at the last minute.
When I arrived home, I was happy to see that the potatoes and Brussels sprouts were prepped and the apple crumble was almost ready to go in the oven. The recipe for our main dish was new to me – Seitan stuffed with walnuts, mushrooms and cranberries from fatfreevegan’s blog.
After we’d stuffed our faces with roast seitan, potatoes, sprouts and cauliflower followed by apple crumble and ice cream, we did our gift exchange.
I think I can say that there seemed to be a couple of themes running – snacks and Lego! Oh, and tea.
Mr Fixit and I received a kettle, Christmas mugs and tea gift cards from oldest son. We had various calorific edibles from all the boys. I was surprised to receive two Lego kits but I love them – one is an RV and the other is The Mandalorian with baby Yoda. All three boys have new Lego sets and it is so weird to see – like we’ve gone back in time 20 years.
I had one of those memories pop up on Facebook the other day where they show you a photo you posted on the same date X years ago. It was the five of us sitting in front of the Christmas tree so I got everyone to sit in the same positions tonight and we took some photos of us all looking 10 years older. That was fun.
Mr Fixit doesn’t look much different (one of the benefits of being bald), I have short hair now (and more pounds), middle son has a lot more facial hair now, oldest had long curly hair but he now has short hair and is slimmer, and the youngest was 13 and looking cute with long blond hair, where he now has short hair and a goatee.
They are all men now and it warmed my heart to spend this evening together and see them give gifts to each other and help with dinner and dishes.
And so we come to the last little bag of yarn for Day 24. A lovely set of purple beads along with the yarn today. And tomorrow, one more bag to open that’s not yarn. I’m looking forward to that!
I hope that you had a wonderful day today, whether you celebrate anything at this time of the year or not.
It’s going to be a short one today. It’s only about 9pm and I am ready to crash.
Day 22 and today’s yarn is Blush, along with two great beads.
I finished the beanie. It took about 80 grams of the O’Go so that means I have a good chunk of it left to make something else.
I had no plan for this, apart from wanting to have embroidery on it. So the stripes went in, then the cross stitch diamonds in the lilac, then the little yellow stars, and finally the random snowflakes near the top.
Work was good today. Not too busy. All three managers were in so we got stuff (bags and knitting notions) received, priced and on display. I had the chance to weed out some older fabric again, a job I need to continue with tomorrow.
I wore my polar bear vest and my Christmas gnome mask. Tomorrow I may have to wear the fuzzy vest and red-nosed reindeer mask.
I’m off to get the kitchen cleaned up before I fall asleep. Talk to you tomorrow.
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.
And here we are at day 15. A day off work which meant lots of housework! It does feel good when it’s done though.
I had organised a knit night for my Hygge group tonight which is always good motivation to get the place looking relatively clean and tidy. We had a good laugh, though there wasn’t any actual knitting accomplished!
I didn’t show you my new acquisition the other day.
At our staff Christmas party we were given gift certificates from the owner of the company. These sewing machine totes were on sale, as well as there being a 15% additional coupon over the weekend, so I splurged. My machine fits neatly in there so if I ever go to a class or sewing day at a friend’s I will be prepared.
My Christmas cacti are performing nicely again.
I have a pattern for a vest (waistcoat) and some pretty quilting cotton to make a seasonally-appropriate vest for myself for work so my plan is to get that sewn tomorrow. Theoretically it should be a quick project. If it works out, I’ll post a photo for day 16.
What a beautiful morning! It snowed a bit overnight but as you can see we had a lot of blue sky by 9am.
Day 14’s yarn Advent was black yarn and another turtle bead (I confess I opened the bag before work today, rather than waiting for the evening).
Work went well again today. Lots of customers but also I finished cleaning up the section I started on yesterday and I managed to get about two-thirds of the fabric pile relabelled for the clearance shelves. I was feeling like I needed an energy boost this afternoon. Could have done with some caffeine and something sweet to keep me going!
The O’Go scarf is now as long as my wingspan and I am just finishing the grey section. One colour to go.
And the crochet beanie is to this point. I haven’t decided what’s happening next.
I really need to give in to my tiredness and go to bed. I’ll be back tomorrow.
A co-worker gave me this box today. She overheard that I’m a sucker for nice boxes and tins. Twelve little screw-top tea tins in a pull-out drawer – oh my! Looking at the back of the box, I can see that I would never have bought this tea myself. It’s full of additives including dairy and artificial flavours. But I do love the box!
It was a good day at work. In between customers I managed to fill a cart with fabrics to be moved into clearance, which meant the remaining fabrics on that group of tables got sorted and tidied. I didn’t manage to finish the job but I’m back in tomorrow. The plan will be to get the rest of the bolts looking neat and any empty tables will be dismantled for now.
As we approach the end of the year, it’s a good time to weed out older fabrics. I was surprised that I found quite a few with a 2019 date. Once that section is done, I’ll move on to another one.
Ah, it’s so nice to be back home with the fast wifi. It was so slow uploading the photos to WordPress while I was at the cabin.
Mr Fixit and I tested out this new blend of spices. We’ve often made turmeric tea/golden milk before but we were ordering some more food from Om Foods in the Kootenays and thought we’d try this. It doesn’t tell you how much to use for a mug, so I put in a rounded teaspoonful per cup. It was quite nice, a more adventurous mix of spices than we’d usually use, and it’s good as an anti-inflammatory aid.
A pretty fabric bag today and some pretty beads too with my Advent yarn.
I’m open to suggestions as to what to store in the tea box/tins. And if you have any good ideas for knitting or crochet projects with beads that I can use my 24 small balls of yarn for (I’ll have 600 grams by Christmas) feel free to throw some suggestions in the comments.
It’s the 12th which means we’re half-way through our Advent fun.
I’m so glad I made the effort to create this yarny Advent calendar and also that I decided to blog every day. I love this time of the year and I’m always a bit sad when December whizzes by and in the blink of an eye the Winter Solstice has passed.
I feel like I’m appreciating it all more this year and enjoying each day as it comes.
I realised after I took this photo that my son had included a teeny package of clear beads in the bag as well.
We had a quiet Sunday. Mr Fixit had to replace the control panel on our washer, and the band that goes around the drum on a friend’s dryer. Of course the parts arrived while we were out of town.
I spent a few hours in my sewing room.
There are five cat masks, one for each of us, plus a Snoopy one and a gnome one for me. If you have to wear a mask you might as well have fun with it.
Today we had to leave our cosy cabin and come home. I think the length of our stay was just right and considering we didn’t sleep too well I know we’ll both be glad to sleep in our own bed tonight.
It was mild, 6°C as a high, and we had quite a bit of rain. But it was a safe and easy drive and we stopped on the way to pick up some vegan baked treats.
After dropping our stuff back home we popped back out for some groceries and to take the car through a car wash. It was desperately in need of a clean!
Here’s the progress on my crocheted beanie that I’m designing on the hook. I used the darker pink for the brim along with a 5mm hook. The ‘ribbed’ strip was about 18″ long when I decided it was a good size to stretch around my head, so I joined the ends and then started working into the row ends for the body of the hat. Initially I tried a 6mm hook for this section but it was coming out too big so I ripped back and changed to a 5.5mm.
The lighter pink stripe may end up about the same width as the brim and then I’ll have to decide which color to use next.
The boys kept everything going well while we were away and we returned to a clean house. We did find out, though, that ds1 had had an accident at work on Monday but all three sons maintained their silence so that we wouldn’t worry while we were away.
Some 8-ft long work surfaces that were loaded into one of the trucks fell and landed on him, his left shoulder and arm taking most of the impact, though his head and jaw were bruised too. He went to the ER as he thought his arm might be broken but thankfully it wasn’t.
He’s been off work as a result, popping painkillers as needed, but he’ll be ok. (Once the initial shock was over, they were laughing about it, because the last time we went to the same cabin ds2 went into Emerg in an ambulance for a collapsed lung and I had told him he wasn’t allowed to have any more health scares!)
Day 11’s yarn and beads.
So, we’re back home and glad we have another day off tomorrow to get a few things done around here before work on Monday.
After a slow start to the day, Mr Fixit and I headed north to check out a store called Thread and Paper and also to pick up more bread.
That store is beautiful. Quilting cottons, yarn, scrapbooking supplies, sewing machines…it has it all. So many things to see and drool over. If I lived there, I think I’d be in every week.
As you can see, we finally strapped on the snowshoes and enjoyed some quiet snowy nature time at the nearby cross-country trails.
That was of course followed by a soak in the hot tub.
Today’s Advent yarn is grey with another pretty mottled bead.
My podcast rec is The Last Homely House. She’s Kate from Northumberland and she is doing daily videos (but only on Patreon) talking about a different Christmas movie every day.
If you don’t want to be a patron, her channel is lovely anyway. Or you could sign up for the minimum $1 level and get access to her Advent vlogs.
It’s Mr Fixit’s birthday today. I surprised him with a gift this year (we don’t always do that). He seems happy with his new long sleeved T shirt and puffer vest. Tomorrow is our 34th wedding anniversary which is why we have created this tradition of going away together every December.
NICOLA KNITS 