A new toy to play with

Todays "Happy Thought" calendar has the most appropriate saying for a crafter on it ..... 

 

Full moon time again, this month the full moon is called a Snow moon or hunger moon.  It's given this name as February is the month when many areas still have the ground covered with winter snow and if you live off the land its a time that you might be feeling a little hungry as crops are scarce.

The moon this evening looks fabulous, so full and bright - no pics as they didn't turn out - must try harder and learn better photography skills!

I can show you a picture of my new toy .... a wooden spinning wool holder.

 

It holds your ball of wool as you are knitting and stops it rolling around.  The top twizzles (that's a nice word) as you pull the wool off.   Very simple, but so lovely.

 

I've been enjoying trying it out and knitted up a cardigan for my granddaughter.

 

 

I've also attended a days quilting class.   This time we were making a table runner.  Here's how mine looks after the class -

 

Still quite a bit to do on it to finish it.   The tutors finished runner looked like this ....

 

I've done a little stitching, the February challenge at needlecraft Haven is stitched and i'll get it made up before Sunday which is reveal day.  I'll show you that next time. 

 

 

Hospital appointments have been attended, just awaiting the results of some not nice tests now, hopefully not too long to wait for those.  I've also been nursing a cold for the past few days too, I wonder where I caught that?   Sending this little note germ free to you ......

 

I'm a little behind on blog reading but hope to catch up over the next few days.

 

Love and blessings to you all

 

Julie

The gift of giving

The 15th of each month is time for a Gifted Gorgeousness post. 

Created by the lovely Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching, a way to show what kind and wonderful people crafting folks are with their lovely gifts they send out to others.

 

The rules are quite simple and can be found on Jo's sign up page at the top of her blog  February's link up page can be found HERE if you want to see what Gifted Gorgeousness posts everyone else has made.

It's been a busy February so far.

A finish for the February Joyful World SAL.  I chose to stitch mine on a piece of hand dyed pink from a birthday gift grab bag at Polstitches Designs.

We've had a Chinese lunar new year on 8th February with this year being the year of the monkey.  Not my year as I am the year of the rabbit (who would have guessed that!)

It was Shrove Tuesday on the 9th when pancakes were enjoyed

Valentines Day, a day of love - such a beautiful card, inside the little envelope is a little golden key to the padlock...

 

Sunday, Valentine's Day was also opening day of the biscornu exchange for the meet up ladies at Needlecraft Haven.  

 

You may remember at our last meet up in the autumn one of our ladies had the most awful accident on her way home and broke her wrist and shoulder  She's been healing well and stitching a little.  I was the partner she got in the exchange and she was kind enough to make me this little beauty and include some chocs and a handmade valentine card too. 

 

 

Thank you Angi (no blog), I know you have had such difficulty stitching since your accident and love the wonderful biscornu and card you made for me. 

 

I stitched and sent to Lindsay.  I chose to send a dozen stitched roses on my biscornu, there were 8 on the front ...

 

and four on the corners of the back...

 

I also added a couple of felt heart shaped coasters and a card, but forgot to take a pic of those. 

 

Friends have birthdays this month and two gifts were made and sent out.

 

My LHN Kitty Sampler was turned into a cushion for one friend.  I love the cat fabric that made up the border.   The chart has now gone off in the post as a gift to another stitcher after she admired mine.

 

Barb has a birthday today.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU ......  I chose the Sheila Sheep free design from Brookes Books for her birthday gift and made a little pillow with a peg to hold her knitting 'to do' list.

 

Just for fun I added a little note clipped on the peg .....

 

Wishing you a very Happy Birthday Barb, I hope you have a wonderful day.

 

At the knitting group we sit on hard chairs and have been given a feather cushion to cover.  I'd got some cotton yarn in my stash and used that to cover mine like this ....

 

and the other side, a different colourway.  It's very comfy to sit on lol

 

I think this post covers GG.  The Joyful World free chart gifted to all stitchers, 2 stitched birthday gifts sent out to friends with one of the charts I gifted to another stitcher, an exchange and a cushion gifted to me. 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the other posts for this months GG

 

I hope your February is blossoming into a good month.  For me, I've had/have hospital visits and we have suffered the loss of a family member so a time to meet with wider family this week and think of memories of happier times.

 

Blessings to you all

 

Julie

 

 

Meandering into February

My American calendar says today is Groundhog Day, I've enjoyed reading about it and learnt also today is celebrated by a quite a few differing religions.

Pagans call it Imbolc, it is exactly midway between the winter solstice and the Spring equinox.

In the Christian calendar it was known as Candlemas and celebrates Mary's return to the church after her 40 day confinement after giving birth.   A day when candles are taken into the churches and blessed for the coming year. 

Weather watchers would remind themselves of this proverb to see what mother nature had in store for them:-

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another fight
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain
Winter won't come again

It was also known as the 'festival of light' and homes would light candles and place them in their windows to remind their neighbours they were still there after the winter weather when many times they had not seen each other due to the conditions.  Women would come together and time for creating/making was once more as there would be more light to see by after their chores had been done.

There is so much to read about today and learn of times gone by and how things have changed over the years. 

Our cathedral was preparing for Candlemas yesterday, I was there attending the lunchtime organ recital and I lit a candle to offer blessings to my friends and loved ones.

One old superstition states that it is said to be unlucky to bring snowdrops (or candlemas bells as they were known) into the house before Candlemas and if you didn't take down your Christmas decorations on twelfth night then today is the day to do it.

Twelfth night has long passed but I have finished my stitching on twelfth day from the Plum Street Samplers 12 Days SAL  -

It now completes the set, and they will definitely be made up ready to hang next Christmastime

 

 

The last Sunday of the month is reveal day for the stitching challenge at Needlecraft Haven .  An online free Christmas chart chosen by Christine for us to stitch and make up anyway we choose.   This month the design was from Aliolka (chart here).

 

Here's my finish, the others can be found in the gallery, everyone did a super job in January

 

.

 

WIP worked on last week too, letters all added.  Mr Kitty should be in residence next time.

 

 

A little knitting and my socks are now keeping my feet nice and warm

 

 

January went by quickly, so it seemed, but I did have a good few finishes, 12 in fact - 5 being the 12 Days SAL and 2 pairs of socks knitted - that's what happens when we still have dark nights and hunker down early and sit and enjoy our hobbies.  I also read 5 books during the month.

 

I've updated my 'to do' list for February and added in a new chart.  I was lucky enough to win this in a drawing on Jacqui's blog.   Her finish was superb and with it having a little bunny on it, I just had to put my name in her bucket.   It arrived with me on Saturday, want to see which Tra La La design it is .....

 

 

Jacqui has put a page inside the chart so it can be a travelling chart and names and blog details can be added so stitchers who receive it can track where it has been before (and maybe visit new blogs to them).  Once i've stitched it during February it will be offered here on the blog to someone else for them to stitch and pass on.  

 

February is the month of love they say, what with valentines day and also a wedding anniversary in our home it certainly will be here.

 

I hope your February is filled with love, friendship and many happy times

 

 

Love and blessings to you all

 

 

 

Customs, cultures and Traditions

At Christmas I was given the most beautiful calendar.  It is full of lovely sentiments and sayings and is by Susan Branch.  She has lots of wonderful things on her blog and in her online shop.  You perhaps remember the book I read last year by her that was so lovely called A Fine Romance - Falling in love with the English Countryside.

The calendar is from America so some of the dates have things that are different to us here in the UK.  Saturday, January 23rd has a little wolf and the word Wolf Moon on it. 

I checked my diary and yes it was the full moon and so I looked up Wolf Moon to see what that meant. 

Native American tribes used names for their moons to keep track of the seasons.  Algonquin tribes who lived in the area of New England had perhaps the greatest effect on the early European settlers in America, and the settlers adopted the Native American habit of naming the moons. 

Traditionally, in January, snow gathers deep in the woods and the howling of wolves can be heard echoing in the cold still air, hence this months full moon being called the Wolf Moon

I found this saying from White Elk and the image shows a wolf moon

 

and here is White Elk himself -

a chief of the Oto Nation

Photo by Edward S. Curtis

 

 

I'm going to enjoy seeing the different things on my Amercan calendar and finding out about new and interesting subjects during this year.

 

Here in the UK, today January 25th, is Burns Night.  The great Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) is remembered on his birthday.  

 

 

There is a formal air to the evening and the Order of the Supper. The eating of a Scottish meal of haggis, tatties and neeps (turnips) and the drinking of whisky is traditional and of course a recital of his poems.  His most famous of course being Auld Lang Syne that we all sing on New Years Eve or Hogmanay.

 

You may know this one, A Red, Red Rose.....

 

O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

 

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!

 

I'm not Scottish, although my late maternal grandfather did marry for a second time and his wife was pure Glaswegian so I came to know some of the Scottish culture and its customs.  I've celebrated Robert Burns birthday today with a cup of tea and another traditional Scottish food, a piece of good old shortbread (a tin left over from Christmas lol)

 

The 12 Days of Christmas is another tradition, and it might have passed, but I'm still stitching on mine.  This weekend saw Day 11 completed.  One more to stitch....

 

 

A date for next months calendar is Valentines Day, something else we all celebrate.  I can't show you what i'm stitching for that as its an exchange, but it is looking really pretty.

 

I can share some sock knitting, sock one is finished, and sock two is halfway there ...

 

Kitty Sampler had a little attention too with the building being erected ....

 

 

 

When I showed the oven mitt challenge some of you asked to see what others had made.  Last Thursday we had a show and tell.  Three ladies had really gone to town with theirs and others had decorated similar to mine.  

 

Here's the one that was voted the winner.  Desert Island Discs from the Radio 2 programme with the mitt being used as the island.

 

We had a fabulous witch.  the mitt was stuffed and the thumb became her nose, clever idea ....

Here are some others, the yellow haired doll is a bookend and quite weighty, she's called Belinda Bookender and won a prize for the prettiest.

 

A few ladies had to sit in the naughty corner as they had not completed the challenge!!

 

and to round off my post, here's today's happy thought from my page-a-day calendar...

 

  

 

and yes, we had a little of the lovely sun today, just a little peek out from between the clouds, but it was there.

 

I hope those of you who come to visit and live in the snow hit areas overseas are ok, the news here has been full of the happenings and how hard it has been for you all.  It certainly makes my little bit of snow that I posted look very poor.  Stay warm and safe and i'll look forward to seeing lots of lovely updates on your blogs of what you've been doing whilst having enforced stitching days at home.

 

Love and blessings to you all

 

 

 

 

  

Brrr it's mighty cold

The weekend came and so did the white stuff, our garden looked like a magical wonderland

 

A granddaughter, step grandchildren and a sledge made for fun activites on the park Sunday morning but boy was it cold.

 

After a lovely Sunday dinner cooked by my daughter, I was glad to come home, light a roaring fire and sit stitching for the afternoon.  

 

A finish of the next day on the PSS 12 Days SAL happened.  Just two more days to go.  Can I get these completed by the end of the month? 

 

 

Last night saw another finish, this time the Joyful World SAL with the Snowflower Diaries.  This wasn't on the plan for January, but I couldn't resist any longer and needed to see it up for what's left of the month.  A simple flat ornament finish and it now stands on a cheap wooden easel. 

 

It's quite big being stitched on 28ct but hubby really likes it, he's looking forward to February's Mr Drake and his wife now after I showed him what I had printed off - not that he is wishing the month away he says. 

 

  

Wednesday is parlour evening with Barb and the ladies at Needlecraft Haven - virtual stitching group meeting and working on an LHN, CCN or Sampler Girl Design.    A little more was done to LHN Kitty Sampler last week and of course as today is Wednesday it will be out again this evening.  Unfortunately, the picket fence and food bowl doesn't show up too well on the fabric in this picture, it's a bit clearer on the actual stitching.

 

 

Cold weather means cold feet and I was complaining to DH about that as he sat there with his woolly socks on.   He commented that hadn't I bought myself some sock wool not so long back to knit myself a pair?  Thinking about it I seemed to remembered I had .... foraging through cupboards I found it and duly casted on a sock

 

 

I've looked back on blog posts to see if i had blogged it.  I was going to knit me some socks in February 2012  .... golly doesn't time fly when you have other stash to knit and sew... oooops!

 

Have you been hunkering down under the fluffy blankets crafting more with the cold temperatures?   I've seen lots of lovely things being made recently on blogs.

 

I've had an email from a lady to tell me I've won a giveaway on her blog. A lovely chart that I intend to stitch in February. Something else that wasn't on the plan for next month, oh well ... that's life.  I'll tell you all about that when it arrives in the post.

 

A new start tomorrow will be a biscornu, its for the exchange we had at the Autumn meet up with the 5 ladies who were there.  The theme was a valentine themed biscornu and opening day is Valentines Day.  Sorry, but no clue or details about what i'm stitching, that will have to come as a Valentine surprise for blog readers when it's opened and I open what I've received.   I still need to stitch the challenge design chosen by Christine this month, there's still 11 days left of the month, I wonder if i'll get it done for the first deadline of the year which is the last Sunday of the month?  Good job there were 5 weekends in this month.

 

Here's todays happy thought from my page-a-day calendar ...

 

 

Love and blessings to you all