Rambling in the Woods

May your holidays be full of unexpected surprises.

Here is the sun setting on the shortest day of the year:

Instead of doing something symbolic like lighting candles, I spent the better part of the day watching the Up Series which I found at the library. I had already seen the three most recent programs but was very happy to be able to watch the whole series from start to finish. While watching the series I finished up some knitting:

This is the Rippling Waters Scarf by Fiddlesticks using Fiddlesticks Knitting Zephyr Laceweight yarn which is a silk/wool blend. This pattern is the standard by which knitting patterns should be judged. The instructions are clear and concise, the charts are a nice size and easy to read at a glance. The wool was also great to work with. Being a laceweight it is very fine but it proved to be strong. It didn’t break while I was working with it nor were there any knots in the skein. When I finished the Rippling Waters scarf, I went on to finish this one:

This more rustic and practical scarf was knit in moss stitch using some Bluefaced Leicester wool that I spun a long time ago. In case you too are wondering what a blue faced sheep looks like you can take a look here. Perhaps they meant ‘blue’ as in melancholy. Even the ‘white hairs on black skin’ explanation sounds more likely to produce a Grayfaced Leicester to me.

I have a very wise friend who told me that the best way to handle the holidays is to choose a couple of traditions that are really important to you and then to just roll with the rest. Good advice. One of the things that I like is building my Christmas village. Due to some urban expansion, this years village has used up all available space and some real estate acquisition will be needed before this time next year.Like any good village, this one has the necessities:

But the clever residents of this village know that the holidays are not all about shopping. These kids have been playing in the snow every day for a week.

and these twins have been splitting plenty of wood in anticipation of a cold January.