Let's drink a cup of kindness yet to days of Auld Lang Syne

Another year has come and gone as we made one more crazy, sometimes fantastic and sometimes sad trip around the sun. Never mind my personal life I have done so much this year. I officially kicked started my business, not selling much but enough to say I can do this. I started a blog. I apologize if it sometimes seems disorderly, and poorly written, I am working on it. That and my head is a bundle of over a thousand years of human history and fiber arts, and cooking, oh and song lyrics. Things are sometimes a bit muddled. So now I am going into the year of the sheep (I am taking that as a good sign for the year) and continuing to do what I love.

New Year is amazing. We set new goals for ourselves,  some we succeed in and some we don't.  By today's calendar we mark it as January 1st. The Chinese mark it this year on February 15, 2015 and as I said before this year will be the year of the sheep.

Even today depending on what calendar you look today is very different days. Today is December 30, 2014 by the Gregorian calender. Today we use the Julian Gregorian calender which sets the the first of the New Year as January 1st.  The earliest Gregorian calender set the first of the new year as March 25.

Viking calender was by the lunar months, a common occurrence across cultures.  Others were set by the seasons, often set the planting of the fields starting a new year. Some set more by the stars. While others were determined by what we today call the solstices, four in total. Winter solstice today lands on December 21st and in the northern hemisphere is the shortest day of the year. It is thought that the hedges found scattered throughout England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and even a few in France were built by the Druids of the ancient Celts to help mark the summer and winter solstices.  The actual reason behind them is as big a mystery as the druids themselves.

So no matter what calender you go by have a Happy New Year. Here is to the hope it brings, the knowledge,  and best of all the friends who come with it.

The stockings are hung on the couch with care. ..

I love Christmas, the songs, the food, the drinks and of course the gifts. One of the reasons I love it is the traditions. My family has a few. The first is our stockings,  each hand knitted, my mom's,  father's and mine all by Great Grandma B, my mother's Grandma. My brother's was either made by Grandma G (Grandma B's daughter), or Great Grandma G. Every one has our names, birth year and a picture. Mine is the snowman and Christmas tree.

Family stocks. The old cloth one is my dad's from when he was a kid.

So we have the stockings laid out, next is the food. Dinner varies from Ham, roast beef, turkey, lamb, or what ever nice looking meat my mom decides to buy. Since we grow our own produce there is unusually potatoes, butternut squash and beans. Cookies if we remember, or have time is soft cookies and peppercorkers. The later cookies' recipe seems to get milder with each generation,  was one from my Great Grandma N. I am sure that when she brought it over on the ship it was in Swedish but the recipe was either translated or written down by my Grandmother K, her daughter. It still states in its opening "simmer molasses over open flame."

Of course we have drinks, egg nog in our home is of course a must but not as important as glug. Another recipe from my Swedish Grandmother, this concoction of cranberry juice, brandy and port wine will kick the cold from your chest. Not only is it a Christmas recipe in our house, it is also a cure all.

Then there is the tree. You know the tree from a Charlie Brown Christmas Special.  Yea that is our tree.  As a kid we would go to our wood lot, my brother, father and myself and find the perfect tree and cut it down. We'd get home and it was Charlie Brown all over again. The only year it didn't happen dad had cut the tops off some large trees at Grandpa's house. Despite the look we would decorate. Mom's homemade angel sitting on top. Tractors, boats, campers and cars hiding all over it, paper decorations made by my brother, my cousins and I. In our family we even have a superstition about the tree. We have three birds that decorate it bringing us luck for the next year.

So there is our family tradition. Yea it is simple, and I give hand made gifts but it is ours. Through history Christmas traditions have changed. Queen Victoria brought the now popular tree which used to only be a German thing, Santa now reaches around the world. Even songs have changed. In my own family things have changed. Secret Santa's became swaps, what used to be 10 of us Ks gathered around the table is now only 4. So whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kuanza, or just being together, Happy Holiday Season from my family to yours.

Have your own tradition you would like to share, please share in the comments. 

Dream cloth

So last night I had a nightmare.  It didn't involve the typical bad dream ingredients, liking running or falling, but was horrible none the less. I dreamed I was sitting in my garden at work, wearing a woolen petticoats, linen waist coat and my best hat. I was talking to visitors when a moth landed on the petticoat. Now for any one who knows fibers it is a well known fact moths and wool do not mix. I swatted the moth a way, it wouldn't leave in fact another one joined it. Eventually I started hitting them, they wouldn't die. I started rubbing my hand on them and although the wings were gone, the legs and most of the body squished they kept enjoying the petticoat.  So I stood up, waved it about and the petticoat disintegrated between my hands. Luckily in my dream I was wearing two but it was at that moment I woke up.

Never mind the fact the petticoat was a forest green with a brown band on the bottom and I have never seen it or worn it before in my life, I have never seen meaner moths. Today cloth is relatively inexpensive, though wool does tend to be on the more expensive side, so when the evil moths do eat a bit of wool we are less upset. Yet wool was the main source of cloth in the Northern European countries, (Linen next) and it is a rather laborious material to prep. From tending the sheep, shearing, than cleaning, next carding or combing, then to spin it, and finally weave or knit it.

Knowing all that it is hard to imagine how upset they might have been to find said moths in the wool.

Author's note: I told this dream to a baking friend of mine. Turns out she is haunted moths too but they are always eating her flour, not wool. Those pesky moths haunting our dreams.

Looping to Lucets

So in D.I.Y blog number 3 I am going to show you how to make lucet.

1 Take your lucet in your dominate hand and thread your string into the hole so that the end is on the front. You will be using this to keep your tension.

2. Wrap the thread around the front of the left prong.

3. Wrap thread around back prong to the front.

4. Bring around to left prong wrapping to the back.

5. There is now two strings on the left prong. Take the bottom one and pull it over the top string and prong. Pull the main string to tighten.

6. Wrap thread around right prong and take bottom thread and again pull over top thread and prong. Pull tight but leave enough slack to move the thread.

7. At this point I like to start turning my lucet so that I am working off the right prong. Continue to wrap thread around prong and moving the bottom thread.

8. To finish clip thread. Continue wrapping around as you do pull the thread through the loop closing the loops.

9. Enjoy your new lucet cording.