this is...

.... a photo from last year. no snow this year, not even the smallest speck! it's grey, windy, sometimes wet, but not really terribly cold either. which I don't really mind, it's just that I've lost my christmassy feeling by now - and the weather isn't helping:)

 

I suppose it's down to the usual "getting-everything-done-in-time" at this time of the year. I do listen to carols, I light candles, I even eat stollen and cookies - but the feeling is gone. which happens to me every year  - by the time I've done all the jobs I wouldn't mind moving on into spring - or at least to the time right after christmas. I think my head just moves on - after concentrating on all the things I need to do, have to do, should be doing - my mind is ready to try something else (typical gemini really?) - I am just a bit too early to start.

 

anyway, I have finished nearly all the gifts (just a bit of sewing to do on one batch), now it's down to the rest of the christmas cards, packing everything up, baking more cookies and getting the deco in. not too bad really, considering! I might even manage to frame the x-stitched christmas market and hang it up (of course, it wasn't a present, so it hasn't been finished yet:). sometimes I wonder how it would feel if I didn't do any gifts at all - would I miss it?

this is a hat, knitted from the dewdrop yarn I spun up last year. difficult to see the beads, but they do look a bit like water droplets. they don't dangle much, because I spun them into the yarn instead of plying with a fine yarn with strung beads. I found the pattern on ravelry, but I added one more repeat, because I wanted the hat to cover the ears! 

 the top forms automatically from the decreases - it looks a bit like a chunky snowflake.... I had so much yarn that I actually made two hats, the same apart from the rib. one will travel to germany, the other was a "secret santa" exchange gift.

after making two hats there was still yarn left, so I made a pair of wrist warmers in circular tunisian crochet - just by changing the hole into which to crochet the fabric looks very different!  

 

 

 

 

these are made in exactly the same way - but with the different yarn (black merino with pink cochineal-dyed silk) and a different stitch (the basic tun. crochet stitch) they look quite different. I added some skeletons and skull and bones for decoration:)  

I also knitted a lace moebius, called chameleon, from a handspun white merino that I plied with handspun, handdyed (alderbuckthorn berries) viscose. the colours are an icy blue and a slightly greener tinge - like a glacier, that's why I call the colour glacialis:) it's soft and warm, but rather difficult to photograph, due to the "bulge" and knot of a moebius. same for blocking, I had to do it in stages to manage....  

this is my latest "haul" - I found a supplier for charms in the uk. I splashed out on harry potter utensils - bolts, owls, books, snakes and

something like the deathly hallows sign. then there are the skulls and skeletons, snowflakes, bees with honeypots - and snowflakes and teacups. I want to use some in hp themed art yarns and some... for the stash for now:) but I am sure I'll find a use for them.  I see a prof. trelawney and her teapots - yarn coming up:)

 this is the gift I received at the secret santa exchange. a mug with a... hm, an "apron" in it? it even has the same shape, just no ties. it's very practical, standing on the table where I usually work at - and keeps all the bits and bobs handy that usually end up under a heap of paper or knitting or stitching etc... I like useful gifts:) and there's even some "purple" in the fabric!

 this is how the fabric part is shaped - it's folded in half and fixed with a velcro strip, when in use.

when I received one of my first christmas cards - from canada - I was rather surprised to the the picture on the stamp - I had the one with the christmas tree on it (I took the photo with all three from the internet). it's actually done in cross stitch! haven't seen any textile themed stamps in ireland - or in germany, come to that! I don't usually collect myself, but I am going to keep this one.

of course it's not all work - it's also food sometimes:) DS has been pestering me for a long time to make donuts again. well, they are not "real" donuts, there's no jam filling in mine. but they were nice and fresh anyway. not really a christmas treat, but because of the deep frying I wouldn't do something like that in summer. they were "inhaled" in one sitting - even worse than christmas cookies:) 

not much to show from the garden - but my lemons are finally ripening. they do take a very long time - haven't been growing in size for months, but not changing colour either. I'll wait with the picking until all 8 (one more than the last crop - and larger:) are yellow - and then I am going to make another batch miniscule amount of jelly with them - I think! they're so much more precious when homegrown!  

this is it for now - I doubt I'll find the time for another entry before christmas. I hope you're all going to have a wonderful christmas with lots of fun, a few fullfilled wishes and surrounded by friends and family - with or without snow:)