Spinners of the World- December 5th

Welcome to  day 5 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!

Today's spinner is Katja from York, England, but originally she's from Germany, which might be where she's spending this holiday period. 

I don't celebrate any specific festival, but I am partial to all the treats that accompany this time of year. I usually celebrate with my cats :) Sometimes friends, every few years I travel to Germany to be with my family. I'll have a nice meal, probably a cheesy movie, unashamed couch surfing. I enjoy being at home and having time to spin/knit/sew however and whatever I want. Over this holiday, in terms of spinning, I helped another Raveller to relieve her stash of some never ending gradient packs, and I have some North Ron roving that'd amazing for that neutral grey cardigan I really need ...

My favourite thing to eat is Roast Goose with red cabbage and dumplings, eaten on the 24th, which is the BIG DAY in Germany. This recipe is a nice way to roast it. 

I've only been a spinner for a hair over a year, so what I like to spin kinda changes daily :D But I've processed a handful of fleeces now, I really like a nice down or down-like fleece and am beginning to understand why everybody tells you that commercially prepared wool is just very different ... I mostly knit with my handspuns, and have been a knitter for a loooooong time, am proficient in crochet and have recently bought a rigid heddle loom. What can I say? Fibre addict through and through :D Other hobbies include sewing and reading. I work in IT/Software development, so it's important to me to have a creative hobby that has a tangible output. And because I live on the internet a huge amount of my daily life, I'm hyper aware of all the issues our overboarding consumerism is causing, so I try to be conscious around that. Making the majority of my own clothes, ideally with locally sourced materials, is my little contribution trying to preserve the amazing planet we live on for future generations.

Thanks to Katja for taking the time to write this post. Come back tomorrow to hear from another spinner.