Spinners of the World- December 10th

10/12/2017

Welcome to day 10 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts.
We're counting down the darkest days by exploring and learning more about the world we live in, 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 I'm Zwaluw or Z(ee) from the Netherlands. She currently lives in a tiny village, though is just about to start uni and move to the Big City, and here's how she celebrates.

In terms of what festival I celebrate? This is an unexpectedly hard question, I was raised Protestant, so my initial reaction is Christmas, but at the same time, I do not believe any longer, but I do celebrate something? Let's go with Midwinter!

I'm in a very apt period of transition, I used to celebrate with my parents and take part in their traditions, like acting in the church christmas play, but now I'm starting to do my own thing and celebrating in my own way so I usually celebrate alone, or with my cat. This year I'll be travelling with a friend so I get to celebrate in some way with her.

I light a candle on the winter solstice, and if I'm alone on Christmas Eve instead of eating a normal dinner, I'll have something special. In addition to that I've taken to watching The Hogfather -a movie based on a book by Terry Pratchett about Christmas- at some point during the holidays, or on Christmas Eve while I have dinner.

The great thing about being an adult(ish) is that you can eat your favourite things all the time if you want! I can't actually think of a favourite dish, let alone a favourite dish for the holidays specifically. I really enjoy radishes with salt though, and I'm fairly sure I got introduced to it during a lesson about the seder.
If you want to try them for yourselves- Cut your radishes in half, sprinkle a little bit of salt over top and try not to question my poor taste when you bite into it!

I think my most ambitious yet is the shawl I'm knitting right now. The pattern is Belle Filles by Porpoise Fur. I've only just started knitting again, and before all I managed was garter knit scarves, so for me this is pretty ambitious! My great-aunt was sweet enough to lend me her spinning wheel when she saw me spindling when I visited her, so she's getting my first handspun and handknit shawl.
I'm going to be spending most of the holiday period travelling with my friend from Australia in England. Her trip here has been three years in the making and I'm ever so excited to finally meet her in person! I got the BBS advent calendar, so I'll be spinning that this month and possibly some of my stash, if I have time between the frenzy of packing for my holiday and preparing to move and start university.

I've only been spinning for a month or two, so it's a little hard to say what I like to spin yet, I'd say I like everything! Right now, trying out different kinds of fiber and learning and getting better slowly is part of what makes spinning so enjoyable. I got taught how to knit when I was 13 but it didn't really stick, I've picked it back up again now, to do something with all the yarn that I'm spinning. The spinning has also gotten me into weaving. My grandmother was a spinner and weaver and I have some of her equipment, so there's a table loom in the middle of my room now and I'm doing my best to get to know it. Besides all the fibery things I sew as well and I write fanfiction too.

Thanks Zee for taking the time to write this post. Come back tomorrow for another spinner...