Winter Solstice

(or the end of one year and the start of the next)

I'm sitting here as the sun disappears on the shortest day of the year, with a red cinnamon candle burning. Red for love, happiness, warmth, generosity. I am not sad that this year is over, though it hasn't been my worst by a long chalk. I had hoped to be a leaseholder by now, but that looks likely to happen next month so I can wait a little longer.

Unusually, I took a few extra days off work this week to give myself a longer soul holiday this year. Normally I work right up to when my employer closes for Christmas, and I would have no objection to working on Christmas day (or any other day) as long as I was compensated in some way. But this year I need to use up the leave I had been saving in order to get my kitchen re-done. I intend to use these days as soul yoga time. It's a phrase my friend Ciel came up with years ago, meaning doing things that are gentle stretches for your mind and mental health. Sometimes it can include physical activities, if your mental health responds well to them. Today I decided to go for a walk, instead of staying home all day with only the garden birds for company.

I started by taking one of our town buses to the end of its route, where I'd never been before. It was an interesting ride, and easy to know where to get off as it was a large supermarket. Then I looked at the road signs and picked a direction that would lead to somewhere I was familiar with.

I have osteoarthritis, and depending on the weather I can walk about 3 miles on a really good day before I get some pain or discomfort. Today was not a really good day, but an OK day, and my spidey senses got me onto a familiar bus route after about a mile which then gave me the confidence to take the rest of the distance one bus stop at a time. I managed about 2 miles before getting back on a bus, and I'm happy with that.

Back home, my de-stash continues; I had some dusky pink aran yarn that has now been turned into a jacket for a 2-3 year old and I finished a matching beret this afternoon. Then I started a cowl with some alpaca mix yarn which will be for a friend when we have lunch next week, and I'll try and get a pair of fairisle gloves done for the other friend who will be joining us. There is a lot of half-used 4-ply yarn left over from socks and fairisle seems a logical thing to use it all on.

And then I have a secret project that I want to work on in 2017. It involves knitting rather small things and leaving them anonymously as gifts in public places. I have been inspired by a church group who last week hung up hundreds of knitted angels around their town which were free for anyone who wanted to take one.

I think we can all give a little more next year.

Enjoy the rest of the Solstice everyone!

There once was an alpaca....

A bit of publicity for a random act of kindness today (RAK). My friend at work likes alpacas; she went to an alpaca farm for her birthday and when I got some alpaca fibre recently she was daydreaming about having a headband with alpaca ears on it.

So I went one better....

It's a bit big, but it will shrink a little when washed in hot water. The yarn is handspun 50% Texel, 45% alpaca, 5% merino, and there is enough left over to make another couple of hats - so hop over to my Folksy shop and bag yourself some RAK alpaca too!

Sad? No way!

(or How To Make Your Birthday Last A Week).

Yes, it's my birthday this week, and as usual I have taken the week off work. Why anyone would want to work on their birthday is beyond me; it's the first date I book for leave every year and I have no intention of working on my birthday ever. So there!

I have had a couple of comments recently, from well-meaning friends and colleagues, along the lines of, "It must be hard when your husband can't celebrate your birthday with you". Isn't it odd how people make assumptions? Of all the 365 days in each year, birthdays are no more or less hard than any other day. Him not being here (or being there) is just how it's always been for us.

To me, birthdays are more important than other national or religious holidays. In our family they have always been the day when the birthday person gets to choose what to have for tea, and what to watch on telly. We also tend to spin our birthdays out too, covering as many days as possible. In previous years I've been to gigs, exhibitions and on general adventures in the days before and after my birthday. If week-long celebrations were good enough for the Romans....

My husband is very good at getting his cards to arrive before the actual day. I have no idea how he manages it, given the number of different hands our mail passes through and the inevitable delays and disappearances. My birthday envelope arrived at the end of last week, and I have been very good and not opened it yet.

Of course most people associate birthday with presents. I get enough from my friends and other family, I'm not in need of anything more from my husband. If the giving of gifts was a requirement of mine for a successful relationship, I really shouldn't have married him! And at least this way, I don't have to share my chocolates, or worry that the flowers I treated myself to this afternoon will bring on his allergies.

We are focused on our next visit now in a few weeks, so this week is more a time to get practical stuff like dental appointments and boiler servicing done than being too extravagant. I am visiting Oxford later this week with my daughter and we are going to the William Blake exhibition at the Ashmolean, and for burgers at Atomic Burger down the Cowley Road.

I have no need to ask for more.

Meet the family

Just thought I'd show off the range of Hare toys I've been working on recently. The pattern is now available at Hare's Moon Yarns as are Medici, Archie and Bella.

                                                                             Bella.

                                                                Bella, Medici and Archie                                                      

                                                    



                                                                Florence and Medici   

                                                                         

                                                                         Archie.

                                                                                 Fritz.

     

                                                                               Medici.


                                                                               Oeuf.

A long weekend

It's the August bank holiday weekend here in England (the Scots don't share this one with us), which means Monday off work for a lot of people, me included. It hasn't come too soon in my opinion, I tend to work all through the summer when others are taking their holidays, and I use my days in the spring and autumn instead. That makes for a long slog getting from week to week though, so I do look forward to this short working week. We haven't had a public holiday since the end of May this year, and don't get another until Christmas.

It's given me an extra day to just do very little. Normal weekends are not quite long enough to fully let my head unwind, but this does feel like a proper break from work. My job involves thinking for about 15 other people, planning and troubleshooting as well as customer service, so it's nice to only think about me for a while.

But as usual, I end up thinking of other people anyway! My mother-in-law hasn't had the best of summers, so while out shopping yesterday I decided to get a few small things to make a surprise package for her. When I got home, I decided I also needed a small bag to put the items in, and so set about making a Bag Of Sunshine:

 

I've been suffering a little bit of Festival Envy this weekend too, watching the Reading Festival on telly. I grew up in that town, and spent a few of my teenage summers either inside the festival or just hanging out on the outside meeting random people and generally enjoying the music and the atmosphere (back in the days when it was still a ROCK Festival). My daughter went for the first time when she was 12 (with her dad) and that spawned an equal appreciation of live music to rival mine. We are hoping to go and see Volbeat live in October together, but watching the kids at Reading this weekend made me yearn for the days of sun, beer and tunes in a field in Berkshire. I'm tool old and arthritic to camp over these days, but maybe next year Download for the day...

The downside to a bank holiday weekend is no mail on the Monday. As I've had the time to write, my husband will be getting a much longer letter than he's been used to recently, so no complaints from him! He generally doesn't complain but as I've worked a few very long days over the past month, I've been sending cards instead of proper letters. Now I can expand on some of the things I've just mentioned in passing, which stimulates conversation back from him too. He has also started writing short pieces for a blog on the nature he sees when he is working. It's a good discipline, one we both enjoy.

Just finished

And ready in time for my not-step-granddaughter's 1st birthday in a few day's time. Meet Tippi:

Pixies again

So how are those two pixies coming along, I hear you ask. Well, as luck would have it, Ariel and Tinder both wanted to show you their new clothes today so I had to get my camera out and catch them while the sun was behind a cloud....

This is Ariel.

                                                    A rear view of her jacket:
















Close up of the buttons at the front:

And this is Tinder

The sparkles on the red yarn show up well here. The yellow lace holes are worked in embroidery silk and a very small crochet hook.

Smile!

Sometimes I make things for people and I really don't want to let them go once they are finished. This is one of those times, but I have to let this little chap go to his intended home because he is for a friend who is celebrating her 40th "30th" birthday in a couple of weeks. She wanted to go to Borneo and spend some time with the orangutans, but medical issues over the past year have meant that she can't go now. So I'm bringing the orangutan to her instead:

 

He's about 12 inches (body), made from acrylic Robin DK yarn and Patons Whisper yarn, my own pattern (that I probably could repeat but I didn't write it down as I went because I want him to be a one-off). He's currently sitting near to the computer and I can't help but smile every time I look at him, so hopefully he will have the same effect on my friend too.

Winter Solstice

Today is the shortest day, but it has felt very long indeed. In fact, half past 2 this afternoon seemed to last about 3 hours. Such is the way when you work in a department where every other team does a fraction of the work that yours does.

I had a present to open tonight. As you may know, I don't celebrate Christmas but I do observe the solstices. Today a friend at work came bouncing up to me waving a wrapped gift in my face and said "I know you don't do Christmas, and this isn't something that means you have to get me anything in return, but you know when you see something and you just know who would really love that thing? Well I saw this and knew it was for you!"

This particular friend has had a rough year with her health having being diagnosed as epileptic, and her father currently has cancer. She is though, one of the most sociable people I know and we go out for lunch every 6 weeks or so for a good gossip. She is celebrating a birthday next month that she has decided will be her 30th (*cough*) and I am desperately looking for some rust-coloured mohair yarn to make her an orangutang with but that's another blog post!

Butterflies are very symbolic, and they are something I strongly associate with both my mum and my friend Ciel. I have just opened the gift to find a writing set inside a cover that has butterflies all over it.

I believe that the Gods talk to us in ways they think we will understand. I believe many people go through life ignoring the Gods simply because they don't listen. Both my mum and Ciel promised that if there was any way for them to communicate after they died, they would find it and I would know.

Today, I know. Message received loud and clear.

Knitting like a maniac

As well as working of course and doing a big spring clean of my home after my daughter and her boyfriend moved into their own place, I have been so busy over the past couple of weeks with small knitting projects.

It's that time of year when friends of ours celebrate Yule as well as Christmas, and traditionally between friends we swap small handmade gifts. I took delivery a couple of weeks ago of a large box of assorted yarns as a gift from a friend, and what a treasure trove it has been! So far, I have completed:

* a tri-colour beanie hat
* a set of tree ornaments
* a bamboo yarn scarf
* an amigurami unicorn (a Secret Santa gift for someone at work)
* a pair of boys mittens in gorgeous hand-spun yarn
* a little girl's beanie hat with crochet flower trim

The yarn talks. This may sound odd to those who don't do fibre crafts, but each ball or skein of yarn knows what it wants to be and who it wants to go to. Most are single balls, and some less than whole, but all were chosen originally by my friend Ciel and now I can feel her selecting and suggesting again as I pick through the box.

Next on the list is a plain pair of socks for myself, before I launch into a another doll and a baby blanket as our grandson is going to become a big brother in a couple of months time.

Here be dragons

Just wanted to share this little chap that I made today. Sunny D will be on his way to my friend in Magnolia, Texas shortly.