The start of December brought the beginnings of my advents and the rush to finish Christmas gifts. I have two advents a fiber one from Jillian Eve and a tea one I got off of Amazon. I also decided on and started some new Christmas gifts.
Fiber Advent!
The crafting that has taken up the most amount of time by far is my fiber advent. I can not put my excitement for this advent properly into words. There are 12 boxes each with one ounce of fiber to be opened on odd days of December. I have now gotten to open three of said boxes and they have not disappointed. They are gorgeous and luxurious and AMAZING! I am having a blast spinning the contents and learning so much from them. I have decided to split each ounce in half to spin half now and half later. Doing things this way gives me enough time to spin and ply before opening the next box. I have written notes for what I think would look good/ be fun to try with the other half.
Box 1 had a BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) and silk blend that Evie dyed. Box 2 had wool from a mystery breed sheep with beautiful natural colored wool that was 18 microns (VERY soft) but also very short stapled (bob length hair compared to shoulder length hair of the BFL). And box 3 had more BFL and silk blend that had been dyed in another beautiful colorway.
Christmas Gifts
I have decided to attempt to finish some Berlin Woolwork and turn the rectangles into pillows for a few people for Christmas. We took a trip to Jo-Ann’s and got some velvet and some cording with a band for trim and a backing. And I started the process of blocking the very out of shape wool on canvas pieces. Fingers-crossed I can get something that looks good out of these. I feel very much out of my comfort zone with these as I am doing this for the very first time.
I also finished most of my Christmas Cards! I still have a few I need to letter and stamp. But these ones are lettered and stamped.
Other Projects
I finished Gwen’s knit hat and… IT FIT!! I am so proud of this hat and it looks great! A pompom was added to use up the small amount of yarn that I had left at the end of the project. I also have to note that self-striping yarn is 100% more satisfying with knit projects than with crochet ones.
I also started and finished a pair of knit mitts. These were made with stash yarn to keep my hands warm while working on projects while Gwen is in dance class as the front room of the dance studio is generally quite cold. I am actually pleasantly surprised at how well they turned out.
My mom’s group also did a treat exchange so I needed to make something for that. I also wanted to make something for the person we have coming to take care of our house and cats while we visit family for Christmas. I have a biscotti recipe that I love and add flavors to all the time to just experiment and have fun with. So I made some very festive cranberry orange biscotti for both people.
I spent some time (after ordering supplies) cleaning and waxing the spinning wheel in prep for the parts I am having commissioned for it. I can not believe how much better (and cleaner) it looks now. My youngest daughter even helped me clean and wax it. I do have to figure out what I want to do about a portion of the front leg of the wheel that has slipped. And is now blocking the tension system for the wheel which is an integral part of the spinning process. I am thinking of trying wood glue first. If that doesn’t work or hold just carefully sawing off the portion that has extended above the table.
We also had the junk from the detached garage taken away so it is no longer just chilling (literally as it has gotten quite cold now). But I think that is about it for this week. The next few weeks will mostly be prepping the house for the holidays and getting ready to fly to visit family for said holidays.
