December 2023 Round-Up: Christmas Blast

Rebecca

Dec 30

I had one (1) goal for December this year: Keep Christmas simple enough that I could actually enjoy it. For me, I succeeded. There was stress, there was yelling, but much less than usual. There were coping mechanisms, there were screens, but there was not as much angst about it. We prepared the way for something. I'm not entirely sure it was all about Jesus, but it was about peace.

Advent

So I made the kids this advent calendar. Each envelope contains a colouring page and a few pieces of candy. And wouldn't you know, we've kept it up.

We've been reading through the e100 passages, which are not short. But it's a big chunk of actual Bible getting into their ears, and they usually notice something in it. My quiet times have become fewer and further between, so it's feeding me too.

Stringbean always coloured her pictures; Dooner sometimes did but usually ran out of time. MiniMighty's illustrations got more and more... creative.

I remain pleased, relieved, and surprised that we've finally managed to work family devotions consistently into our lives. Something about the combination of candles, colouring, and having to do this together before any evening screen time has really stuck. Even if they don't particularly want to do it, they remind me about it. I'm so, so thankful. I feel like a crazy person who has been halfheartedly throwing darts at a board and hit the bullseye.

The beverage advent Jared got us was a lot of fun. It came in these little non-plastic brew bags that encouraged reuse. Jared would brew his coffee in the morning and I'd have a little bit, then re-brew his coffee overnight to have later. My teas were mostly herbal, so I'd brew them up in the evening, and then make second brews that I'd either half at a random time or store up in the fridge for an interesting iced tea. It was silly, it was fun, it wasn't too much.

The kids had their Christmas concerts, and their classes rocked the house. They are all three born performers. It's not like they have no anxiety, but they have no shyness. At all. School concerts are always great fun as community events.

And we carried off our Christmas pageant again! This is my number one stresser at Christmas, so I was as strategic as I could be. Jared helped me get the costumes out early. The Lord provided the perfect idea to ask a Mary who has a baby in her life to play Jesus, and they both did great jobs. I've used this same basic pageant plan since I learned from my friend Karen umpteen years ago, and it was actually fun. Even for me.

We made it. The snowball rolled to the top of the hill, and rolled down into the sea. I hope Jesus was glorified along the way, though in all honesty I was too wrapped up in the ride to be very spiritual about it. Now comes the deep winter. We'll still be busy, we'll still be crafting, but it's all a little more cozy.

Spinning

I've been focused in on the 15-a-day for spinning. Because reasons, I really need to spend the bulk of my crafting time knitting, so I limit myself to fifteen to thirty minutes. Still, it's always surprising how much you can get done in that time. I polished off this qiviut blend skein of about 70g cormo, 10g qiviut.

The rest of my spinning has been all about the hexies. I finished this batch of four complements:

And this batch of 6 mixes with solids. The above have been knit up, the below have not. But the spinning, man, is almost done on this project. I estimate about 8 more days of singles at my current rate.

Dyeing

Yep, I snuck a little bit of dyeing in there. Just in the washing machine with Rit dye, something I've actually never done before. I did a batch of forest green and a batch of indigo, as reflected in this wildly inaccurate picture:

This just happens to be the only picture I have of the blue. I did the blue to make the rest of my green houndstooth fabric into a curtain for Jared's office as a Christmas present. Imagine my surprise when it turned out that the fabric... already was a curtain. I forgot that I had bought it that way.

The green was for my overalls. The green-and-white was just a bit too stark for me. I'm quite happy with how these turned out.

The value contrast is successfully muted, but the resulting fabric is very green. Who knew, if you take green and you add more green, you get very green! It's a good thing I like this green, because it takes a strong affinity for me to wear this bright of a colour on this much of my person.

Worn over leggings and a long sleeve shirt, with a red sweater overtop, this has been my go-to casual Christmas outfit. Lots of fun.

Sewing

I've already told you all about my funky quilted bog jacket made from old socks.

This year I really flubbed Christmas for Jared; I just didn't know what to get him and waited too long to figure it out. But I came through with a few sewn gifts. There was the aforementioned curtain - which I didn't sew into a curtain, but I did hem - some reusable facecloths he had asked for, and one real surprise.

One of the other firefighters made parkas for the team, and he's been wearing his lots, but it had no fur. With the help of a friend I found a fur to match his new mitts. Christmas morning he opened the fur, and I sewed it on Christmas afternoon. He looks happy, doesn't he?

Knitting

I am in crunch time with my Secret Project, knitting on it 2-4 hours a day, working on other aspects of it at the same time. I expect it to completely take over my January, and it was a large part of what I worked on in December. But a few big things got done or saw real progress.

I finished the Attune Shawl at the beginning of the month, which is such a win. I wrote all about it yesterday.

To take Attune's place, I started another relatively mindless project that I can do in spurts when I'm between things. In this case, the Solaris cardigan - which I will make a vest - and am making out of handspun. I've actually finished this whole ball, I just haven't taken a picture of it! I'm loving the broken rib fabric for this bright tweed.

And, of course, HEXIES! I've knit several more since this picture was taken. I laid them all out like this to get some idea of how I'd assemble the quilt. I like grouping them by hue like this.

As I said above, I have four more colourways to spin, and at least eleven more to knit. Probably more like sixteen, plus whatever of my other Year of Colour samples I decide to make into hexies. As I say, this will likely languish in January, but the end is in sight.

On Wool n' Spinning

It has been a month of review and reflection at Wool n' Spinning. On the Radio show for December (free), Rachel and I talk about how our year went, especially reflecting on the Year of Colour. On the Wool Circle, Episode 107 was all about Supercoil yarns. Specifically, the one wrapping around this wreath. I stumbled on a hack for making Supercoils that could make this famously time consuming yarn into something I could production spin.

I wrapped up the year in Episode 108 by wrapping up balls of paper and scrap yarn in funky art yarns, making Christmas ornaments that I sold at the community craft sale. I kept about half of them, adding a few to our ornament collection, sending a few to family, and adding a few to the wreath above. I also took plenty of time in that episode to reflect on everything we covered on the Wool Circle in 2023. It's a longer episode, but was very joyful to make.

Rachel and I have been working hard over the last few months bringing a plan together for 2024-25. We're working together through this book:

The Spinner's Book of Yarn Designs: Techniques for Creating 80 Yarns by Sarah Anderson. It's a beautiful book that many of us have been talking about for a while now. It's not quite as cut-and-dried as our last sample-based book study, 51 Yarns by Jacey Boggs Faulkner. It will definitely benefit from working together.

I'll hopefully remember to say more about this when I do my post looking ahead at next year, but in the meantime, a full description is available on Rachel's blog and on the Wool n' Spinning patreon. And on January 1st, we'll have a new Radio episode out that will walk you through what to expect. The short version: There are ways to participate in this book study that range from paying nothing to paying at a high tier for extra content and even a dedicated zoom study group (led by me), that range from being self-directed to following a detailed plan. This is an excellent opportunity to learn with a supportive community, whether you're a newer spinner looking to try new techniques, or a more experienced spinner trying to get more technical, get out of a rut, or just dig deeper into a few topics. OK, no more salespitch, I'm just genuinely really excited about this.

Merry Christmas everyone! This post will go live on the sixth day of Christmas. I only have three geese, not six, and they're not laying anything except laying around. But they are merry. Be blessed, dear ones.