Hilltop Cloud
  • About
    • Dugoed
  • Online Shop
  • Fibre Clubs
    • Time Travellers Club >
      • TT Club Spinning Hints
    • Never Ending Gradient Club
  • Online Courses
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Hilltop Cloud Community
  • Workshops
  • Shows
  • Spinning Hand Dyed Fibre
  • Packaging
  • Fibres
    • Bases
    • Tussah Silk
    • Pigments
    • Nordic
    • Fibre Care
    • Gradient Packs
  • Resources
    • Videos
    • Garment Spinning
    • Flyers and Ratios
    • Skein Length
    • Plying Twist
    • Samples
  • Hand Dyed Warps
  • Accessibility
  • Ethos
  • Quick Links
  • About
    • Dugoed
  • Online Shop
  • Fibre Clubs
    • Time Travellers Club >
      • TT Club Spinning Hints
    • Never Ending Gradient Club
  • Online Courses
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Hilltop Cloud Community
  • Workshops
  • Shows
  • Spinning Hand Dyed Fibre
  • Packaging
  • Fibres
    • Bases
    • Tussah Silk
    • Pigments
    • Nordic
    • Fibre Care
    • Gradient Packs
  • Resources
    • Videos
    • Garment Spinning
    • Flyers and Ratios
    • Skein Length
    • Plying Twist
    • Samples
  • Hand Dyed Warps
  • Accessibility
  • Ethos
  • Quick Links

Spinners of the World- December 14th

14/12/2017

 
Welcome to  day 14 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 Elvira from Cottbus, Germany.

I'm still fairly new at spinning and don't have that much time to practice so when I have the time I try practicing or learning new techniques. I'm a knitter (that's why I learned spinning), I have a weaving loom and I know how to crotchet (but I don't do it very much). Apart from that I like to read (but don't do it enough) and I like photography - I have a small collection of analogue cameras (like ... I'm not only on my way to build a yarn and fibre stash ... I have a camera stash too).
Since I won't be at home during the holidays I can't use my spinning wheel. But I'm going to knit - and if I'm fast enough maybe I'll finish a shawl out of handspun yarn. I'll try to read a bit more and go out and take pictures with my film camera. And maybe I'll attend a wintersports event as a visitor - since there won't be enough snow around to cross country skiing by myself.
October three years ago I decided that I want to knit a blanket for my mum. I chose the simplest pattern that's possible (a rectangle bias) and bought some super bulky yarn. That doesn't sound super ambitious. But it took me three years to finish it. Three years! The alpaca yarn was so fuzzy that it got into my nose and my eyes and drove me crazy. The bulky needles aren't super fun to work with. Those garter stitch rows were sooo boring. So I left it in it's WIP box for a looong time until some weeks ago when I took it out and finished the damn thing. I'm never ever going to knit someone a present again. To much pressure.
My family celebrates Christmas Eve, but in a non-religious way. Ill be celebrating with my parents, usually with mysister (sadly not this year because she's on the other side of the world) and my boyfriend at my grandparent's home. On the following days my dad's brothers and their families come to visit too, so the whole family comes together. That's what the most important part of Christmas is for me.
During the Advent I like to get in the right mood by visiting Christmas markets. I love the lights, the smell. The Christmas tree goes up on the 23th December. We haven't had a "real" tree since years - the plastic tree is so much easier! On the afternoon of the 24th (Christmas Eve) we sometimes go to the church to watch the nativity play, even if my family is not religious. But it's nice to see how the kids and teens interpret the story every year. Before or after that we eat christmas cookies and stollen and have coffee or hot chocolate. Than the cooking begins. Some families prefer easy and quick meals for Christmas Eve but ever since I can remember my grandma cooks her variation of a traditional Silesian Christmas dinner: bratwurst, blood sausage and liver sausage with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. I loved this as a child - but I don't eat meat anymore so I think I'm going to establish a new Christmas dinner. After dinner we go for a walk or "looking for the elves". When I was a kid this was the time when one of my parents would put the presents under the tree. No need to do it in secret anymore but it's the perfect time to look how the other people decorated their houses and gardens. In the evening we have what's called "Bescherung" in German. That's when we give each other the gifts. Additionally everyone get's a plate with sweets, nuts and fruits that my mom prepares. We sing and play Christmas songs (some of my family members are really musically). Later we watch Christmas themes music shows on TV or listen to vinyls or CDs, play old or new bord or card games.
There are so many yummy things at this time of the year that it's kind of hard to decide. My mom is an avid baker and I inherited that to some degree so baking christmas cookies is mandatory. But there are a lot of things that I love but I can't make by myself like Stollen or Dominosteine (that translates to 'domino tiles' - it's a small praline like thing with a gingerbread base, a layer of jelly and a layer of marzipan, coated with chocolate in a cubic form). But I love basically everything!

One of my favourite types for christmas cookies are called 'Hirschknöpfe' (deer buttons) - I think it's because you put half of a walnut on top of it and it looks a bit like an antler?
To bake them you need:
500 g flour
200 g sugar
300 g butter
1 package vanilla sugar
1 egg
1/2 package baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tblsp. sugar
1 tbsp. cocoa
​
Mix together flour, sugar, butter, vanilla sugar, the egg and the baking powder. Make a dough and roll out rolls of 2 cm diameter. Mix cinnamon, sugar and cocoa. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet and roll the dough rolls around. Chill the rolls for 24 hours. Cut the rolls into 1/2 cm thin slices and out the half of a walnut on it. Bake for 10 min in 180° C. Enjoy!

Thanks Elvira for her post, come back tomorrow for another spinner...

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    January 2025
    December 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    More
     BlogPosts

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Bees
    Chickens
    Countryside
    Dogs
    FO's
    KitILove
    Non Wool Club
    Rhinebeck
    Shop Talk
    Spinning
    Spinningwithapurpose
    SpoinnersAdvent
    Weaving

    RSS Feed

    follow us in feedly

Hilltop Cloud

Hilltop Cloud- Spin Different 

Beautiful fibre you'll love to work with. 
Established 2011 

VAT Reg- 209 4066 19
Dugoed Bach, Mallwyd, Machynlleth,
​ Powys, SY20 9HR
Our Ethos
Eryri Ambassador 2023
Gwynedd Ambassador
Subscribe to our 
​Email Newsletter
Join the Hilltop Cloud Mighty Network