Welcome to day 4 of the the slightly different version of the Advent blogpost series. This year we're still exploring and learning, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinner is Maggie from Surrey, England. I celebrate Christmas and Hogmanay with family and friends. We usually get together and enjoy food, drink, decorations, and presents. Our food traditions usually involve Turkey, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake. This year we're away with extended family at a seaside hotel. So I won't be doing the cooking! I have nothing specific planned for spinning but my spindle will be coming along too. I love spinning natural fibres especially wool but also like to try spinning anything e.g. Plastic bottles, shells, wolf fur - which was lovely and soft. We got into trouble picking bog cotton on the nearby army ranges to spin as the ranger was convinced we were after rare orchids. She just couldn't get her head around the idea of spinning. Other hobbies I have are knitting, listening to audio books, walking at the coast and bird watching. I'm pretty ambitious with my present crafting, in the past I've made a Fair isle jumper, knitted cupcake!, and fancy socks. Thanks Maggie for taking the time to write this post, come back tomorrow for another spinner....
Welcome to day 2 of the the slightly different version of the Advent blogpost series. This year we're still exploring and learning, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinner is Elisabeth from Norway. I like to spin fiber that is easy to draft and that gives a smooth yarn current favorit is Polwarth. I do knit and occationaly I crochet since the only loom I have is a play/childs loom about 7" wide I don't really do any weaving. My other hobbies are singing (I sing in a choir, but it is currently inactive due to lack of members and that the conductor is bussy), reading books, watching movies and being with friends. I celebrate Christmas with my family. In Norway the big day is Christmas Eve. We get dressed up and have a nice dinner and then we open presents. This year I don't have any concrete plans, but I will be spending time with my family and some of my family that live 9-10 hours drive away will come to spend Christmas with me and my parents, I don't know how long they can stay, but they will surely be here for Christmas eve and Christmas day and if they get time of from work also on boxing day if not that will be when they drive back home. I particularly enjoy eating Julemarsipan (Christmas Marzipan). But this year I think I have to give it a miss since I need to stop eating so much sweets. To make homemade marzipan you need: Ground almonds, poudered sugar, egg withes and a bit of water (the quanteties depend on how much you wanna make). The only thing I pan to make for the holiday season is to make Kransekake (Almond wreath cake also called Ring king cake) with my mother, she sells them at Christmas time (The picture shows a small one I made to give to a friend as an extra X-mas present. I don't really plan my spinning I just spin when I have time and I feel like spinning. My Mother is also the recipient of my most ambitious gift, a Vitamin D cardigan. A huge thank you to Elisabeth! Come back tomorrow to hear from another spinner.
Welcome to day 2 of the the slightly different version of the Advent blogpost series. This year we're still exploring and learning, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinner is Lesley, and here's what she has to say... I learnt to spin using raw fleece, and carding it – but now I prefer to spin tops and roving – both natural colours and also dyed. I also like blending dyed tops to make even more unique colours. My yarn is either knitted or given away. I also participate in the British Trust for Ornithology’s Garden Birdwatch (https://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw) so time is spent watching and counting birds in our garden, which we also feed. So far, in over twenty years we’ve had thirty-nine different species – it has been interesting seeing how some species have declined and others have increased in that period – and how that relates to national trends, such as the decline of House Sparrow. I'm from rural south-east Worcestershire in the United Kingdom. I celebrate Christmas with two cats and one husband – all mine, though one of the cats likes to think she owns us! We celebrate by going to see the village Christmas tree lights switched on, carol service, having a Christmas tree and an advent candle at home, generally enjoying the decorations people put up outside their homes: I love the lights in the darkness at this time of year here. And, most traditionally of all listening to Carols from Kings on Radio 4 on Christmas Eve, and then watching a different version of it on the TV. I love the pot plants that occur at this time of year. We have two Christmas cacti which we’ve kept over the years, but they flower earlier and earlier. I’ve taken to calling them Advent cactus, but they both began to flower in November this year, well before Advent. My favourite thing to eat at this time of year is Stolen, and I also have a recipe for fat-free mincemeat. (Editors note this is traditionally put in small shortcrust pastry cases, and baked in the oven. Ingredients- 2lbs apples (eating or cooking) 2 lbs dried mixed fruit 1.5 lbs sugar 1 pint water juice of a lemon (or substitute with bottled lemon juice) mixed spice, ginger – or other spices as you wish. Peel, core and finely chop the apple, and simmer gently with the lemon juice, water and mixed fruit for 20 minutes. Add sugar and spices and boil for 20 minutes. Leave to cool, then put into jars. It keeps well – I often find myself using the previous year’s at Christmas. Can be scaled up – just keep the 4:4:3 ratio of apples, fruit and sugar. Weigh the apples before peeling etc. – 2lbs of chopped apples makes the apples too dominant. The most ambitious thing I've ever made as a present was the first item I ever made for a baby, though I didn’t realise it at the time! It was a sleeping suit, with a pixie hood and long sleeves, and then a body going all the way down to the toes, in a lovely shaded mint green. I had always been told that baby things took very little time to knit, so I was amazed to find out how long this one took. I think my error was in not realising that I was actually making a rather long item, far longer than a normal baby cardigan / jacket, which would have been quick to knit. Still, it was used, and that was the main purpose! Nowadays, babies tend to be made an Elizabeth Zimmerman surprise jacket. Over the holidays I'm hoping to spend time reading, maybe walking – depends on the weather. I’m hoping to get to start spinning the Cambrian I bought in the summer…but that depends on other projects being finished! Thanks Lesley!
If you enjoyed reading this then please head over and share your holiday traditions, without volunteers there will be no advent blog this year. Please head over to the form here and fill it out. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Welcome to the slightly different version of the Advent blogpost series. This year we're still exploring and learning, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This iS open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! The first spinner is Victoria... I love to cook, garden (although fighting the weeds around here is a losing battle); I run the public library in West Chester, love to knit! love handspinning even more... all that lovely lovely fiber. I live in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA (actually about 10 miles west of the town, out in what passes as the boonies around here, meaning we have deer, fox, owls, hawks, mink, and all sorts of other wonderful wild neighbours). I celebrate Christmas (because it's there and family tradition); Winter Solstice with my husband, two step children and their partners, my mother, brother and his family, and my sister (often via Skype as she's off in other parts of the world working in the foreign service) We celebrate over two days, first we have a big family do with food, gifts, and loads of cookies on the 24th, we now pull names for the gift exchange. Then on the 25th our children and my mother come to our house for chrristmas presents and a big brunch. Then we all sit around gabbing, drinking too much coffee, watching bad movies and keeping the dogs from making a total mess of things. So, I decided I should share a bit about how many in the US hang stockings (preferably over a fire place) on Christmas Eve. I never did this as a child - we celebrated St Nicholas Day on the 6th December because that was what my German-born mother knew. Once I got married and had two fabulous step-children ages 8 and 10 (this is quite a while ago now), the Christmas stockings became a whole other thing. My husband and I bought little, funny presents (and chocolates!), which we wrapped on Christmas Eve (after the children had gone to bed), and put in their stockings . On Christmas morning the children were allowed to get their stockings and open those little presents - it was a way to keep them occupied until a somewhat decent hour for getting up came around for us parents (like 7am instead of 6am) and regular present-opening could begin. Rules about those little presents - NOTHING that makes noise! Flashlights may also be a bad idea as we had those shone in our faces at some unholy hour one year. We still hang the stockings... it's tradition. And, it's fun. This is why I'm madly knitting on a lovely DROPS pattern for a new stocking for one of us... My stocking is the one on the right. My paternal grandmother knit that for me when I was about 8 or 9. Finally, I do have to share a wonderful tradition in these parts. Longwood Gardens (think Kew), has a magical and wonderful Christmas light display throughout their outdoor gardens and in the main Conservatory. It's absolutely mobbed all through December - one can only get timed tickets to get in. This gives the barest hint of what it looks like. My favourite things to eat at this time of year are Ginger Drop cookies (happy to share the recipe), smoked salmon; pecan pie. The most ambitious thing I've ever made as gifts are 13 little fulled bowls out of left overs in my stash for the Morning Fiber group I belong to! Over the holiday period ideally I'd love to spin several hours each day between christmas and new years ( if I can get the week off work!) I have romney, southdown, silk, etc etc to spin. A huge thanks to Victoria for taking the time to share her holidays... come back tomorrow for another spinner!
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