Spinners the World- December 7th

Welcome to  day 7 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 Maria from Poland. 

I celebrate Christmas (Boże Narodzenie), with family and close friends. 
The most important moment of the celebration is supper on Christmas Eve. As we're Christians it starts with sharing the Christmas wafer and best wishes for everyone. There are gifts (gathered sooner under the tree) and after wishes and gifts the right Christmas Eve supper begins. There are lots of traditions connected with this particular evening and meal but I suppose that the most important is the additional plate on the table "for an unexpected guest, a wanderer". Sometimes it's just a symbol, but it's meant to be a real memento. It's really joyful evening. As a rule we don't eat meat on this day and don't drink alcohol. Usually on the Christmas Eve in the morning (or during the previous weekend) the tree is adorned.

My favourite thing to eat is Herrings and poppy cake.
My favourite herrings are prepared with sour cream sauce. We prepare herrings and sauce separately, then we mix them just before serving and adorn with something green (parsley or chives). Fish fillet is at first soaked in water or milk, then chopped in smaller chunks and stored in a jar. For a sauce the cream at least 18% fat is required. With grated apple and onion chopped finely (plus some seasoning to taste) it makes a great cream sauce.

The Poppy cake is baked by my sister. She has a blog , where you can find the recipe. She speaks English if you would like to ask her about this cake. (Ed- Google translate also does a pretty good job if you need an immediate translation!)

I like spinning lots of fibres. Mixed fibres are my favourites. But I'm also fond of BFL, corriedale and alpaca. And I'm a big fan of hand-dyed gradients. I spin for almost 4 years, much longer I'm a knitter and from time to time a crocheter. I tried also felting but meanwhile I don't have enough free time to pursue this hobby properly. For many years (since analog cameras) I'm taking photos and learning about this art and craft.
Of course I will spin (at least a bit) during Christmas (first and second day of Christmas are a holiday in Poland). Probably nothing special but at least I can use the daylight what is not a frequent circumstance for my winter spinning...

This year I've made 7 hats and a bigs shawl as gifts. I started in September so I wasn't knitting in a hurry, but it meant I had knitted for several months only gifts (almost, as I managed to knit two hats more for me). Fortunately, all recipients were happy :) 

Thanks to Maria for taking part, if you want to see more of the beautiful photos she takes of her crafting you can find her blog here. 
​Come back tomorrow for another spinner...