Tag Archives: Winter Solstice

Dec22

Winter Solstice

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OK, I’m a day late with my Happy Solstice wishes, but I hope you are appreciating this time of the year. I really love it and I’m a bit sad that it’s over in the blink of an eye. Long nights, short days, cold weather, warm house, lots of pretty lights around the neighbourhood.

I thought I’d do a few days of “window on the weather” sort of posts. Knowing me I will forget to keep it up, but here’s Day 1 – Monday, through the pane in my kitchen door and looking over my backyard.

Monday was the first day of a vacation week for me. Of course we’re not going anywhere so I am appreciating the chance to feel like it’s a bit of a hibernation time. I started my day with some Netflix and knitting. NOT my usual practice, as those activities are usually saved for the evening. but I had nowhere to go and to add to the Let It Snow vibe it started snowing at about 8am and continued ALL DAY!

It was wet and heavy and the driveway was cleared more than once. I had my new crown fitted at the dentist in the evening and got Mr Fixit to drive me because we are on a lowest-priority road when it comes to ploughing. We made it there and back okay. It’s a short drive thankfully.

I baked two fruit cakes, one of which has already been attacked! And cleaned up the house, did some laundry, and generally had a very domestic day.

What are you doing today?

Nov29

Project polygamy

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Monogamy is for marriage. Not for crochet and knitting projects!

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The garter stitch wrap is a longer term project and these kinda make me antsy for some instant gratification: a quick project that will be a Finished Object really quickly. So, inspired by a podcast I was watching this week (Little Drops of Wonderful) in which I found out about a #cosyuptowintermal (AKA Cosy up to Winter MakeAlong), I made a teeny tiny crystal cover. The MakeAlong is all about knitting or crocheting a cosy for an inanimate object, something I have a fair amount of experience with! And when I was tidying up the coffee table before friends arrived, I found this piece of selenium in my yarn bowl. It now has a sort of cosy and hanging loop! It took a few attempts to come up with something that worked without covering up too much of the crystal.

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My other instant – well, short term – gratification project is this one. Two days to make these bulky mittens. The pattern is Morning Mittens from Make & Do Crew (honestly, I love lots of her patterns). Here’s a link to my Ravelry project page.

This is a knit-look crochet stitch called Waistcoat Stitch, which is single crochet worked into the body of the sc in the row below, rather than the two loops along the top. You really need to use a big hook and a loose tension with this. I caused pain in my right wrist and arm (the one I injured back in February) from working on these intensely the last two days. I also recommend a lighter coloured yarn, but I used this Red Heart With Love in Grape Jam because I wanted the mittens to coordinate with a slouchy hat and scarf that I made last year. (I didn’t find another home for those and when I went out walking yesterday I decided I would keep them and wear them.) The yarn is aran weight and used double stranded for this pattern. I did leave out a round of crochet in the straight part of the hand, and also on the thumb, as they would have been just a bit too big otherwise.

I have been enjoying lots of rest and relaxation in the week since my ear surgery. Apart from a slight bit of dizziness now and again and an occasional earache that disappears quickly I have been feeling fine. I still have another week off work. Some highlights coming up in the next few days: Bohemian Rhapsody (the Queen film), a Christmas market, brunch at a vegan cafe, and a follow-up visit to my ear surgeon. OK, that last one isn’t exactly a fun one, but it’s on the schedule.

I’m hoping that I’ll find a nice Christmas tree on Saturday. December 1st seems like a good day to start brightening up the house for Yule/Solstice/Christmas. The boys aren’t bothered about gifts this year (we’ll probably give them some money) so it’s going to be all about the experiences. Tonight after dinner I was asking the family for ideas for their seasonal edible favourites. Mine include mince pies (made my own mincemeat already), fruit cake and gingerbread. I love the long dark evenings around the Solstice and the flavours of my favourite comfort foods. (Hopefully my sweet tastebuds will have returned fully in a few weeks – one of the side effects of the surgery.)