Old Habits Die Hard – 12/29/2019

When our children were young, I could hardly wait for Thanksgiving to pass so I could decorate for Christmas. Wreaths with bows on all the front windows, candles in every window. We had an artificial tree, so it could be put up and left for a month. My Santa collection on shelves and mantel. Once daughter was old enough to recognize that her birthday was right after Thanksgiving insisted that I not decorate until after her birthday, so the most I would do is sneak up a door wreath.

When we would visit hubby’s parents after Christmas, I was always bothered that my mother in law no longer decorated, to the point that on a couple of occasions when they weren’t coming to us and hubby’s sister for the holidays, I sent a small decorated potted fir tree to them. I didn’t understand. As I have aged, it has become more difficult to haul the big plastic bins up from the basement to decorate, but eldest son and his family, then later daughter and her family lived here and it was fun decorating for the grandkids and I had help hauling bins around.

This year I was very late attempting any level of decorating. I got the huge artificial wreath decorated with the hand stitched ornaments made by my sister in law and step mom, the collectible Santas and gnomes, the door wreath out and up, tiny tree decorated with Hallmark minis, and quit. That wasn’t done until at least the second week of December. About a week and a half before Christmas, we went to cut our tree and got it decorated, which gave me the incentive to get the rest of the Santas and Christmas linens out.

It hasn’t felt like Christmas. With temperatures in the upper 50’s to mid 60’s except for the ice storm, it has just been too warm.

But when I was still a work outside of the home gal, I traditionally took down the decorations either the weekend after Christmas or New Year’s Day. Since I retired, the decorations sometimes stayed up longer. This year I am already done with having it up. It is more difficult to dust and vacuum, the dogs tails were knocking ornaments off the tree with no packages under it to make them keep their distance. A couple of days ago, I put baskets, crates, low stools, and other obstacles in the way to keep them away, but that looked so tacky.

This morning, after my morning coffee, I took the decorations off of the tree, unplugged the mini tree, and brought the tree ornament boxes up and boxed it away. After lunch, the tree was hauled out of the house and off to the woods and the few fallen needles vacuumed up. The wreath on the sled on the front porch and the door wreath are down. The door wreath will be replaced with the winter one, the little garden banner by the front door replaced with a generic winter one. The linens washed and folded and packed away along with the little tree, wall hangings, and soft sculpture decorations. The Santas and Gnomes are still up, but it takes a full day to decorate and a full day to pack it up and I prefer to split it up into two or three days.

Over the next few days, the rest will be packed away for another year and I will celebrate Old Christmas in Colonial costume at Wilderness Road Regional Museum.

Three Days After – 12/28/2019

The Christmas loom was warped and woven using the sample pattern in the booklet that came with the loom. I didn’t care for two of the 8 pattern techniques, so I only used 6 of them. The booklet didn’t tell you what the end length would be and I am not experienced enough to realize that the amount of warp was insufficient to make a decent length scarf for the width. I am not concerned about that as it is just the right amount to make two purses. I will buy the lining fabric and twill tape to make the strap and hope that they will be a nice addition to the shop.

This is it folded in half and drying after it’s bath. I think the fringe will need to be shortened about half or two thirds to make it look right. My idea will have a slip pocket in the back of the lining and woven tape down the sides and under the bottom for extra support and then woven tape to create the strap.

Christmas brought us some news that has the loom already rewarped with cotton. The warp is white, the weft is variegated, but I don’t think it has enough color, so tomorrow a trip back to Joanne’s will be made to try to match one of the colors in the variegated yarn to add stripes of color.

This is a 135″ weave. When cut in thirds and offset, it will make it color blocked. I think the solid color will be a textured weave of some sort. Until I get the remaining yarn, I will continue to knit some Romeldale CVM from Sunrise Valley Farm that I am knitting into fingerless mitts for me. I really would like to have them finished by next weekend when I will participate in Old Christmas and the burning of the greens at Wilderness Road Regional Museum. At that time, I will be donating my sitting quill wheel to the museum and when I am there spinning or teaching, I will use one of their wheels that I have repaired or this one that I am donating and will no longer have to haul one of my wheels to the venue.

The Rabbit Hole has deepened – 12/25/2019

My love added to my fiber toys this morning. Under the tree was an Ashford Samplet 16″ rigid heddle loom.

We began our morning with Huevos Rancheros, a dish I traditionally fix on Christmas and New Year’s mornings. It is a special treat for him, one he grew up with. It was just us this morning so no rush on opening gifts, he already had most of his with his new leather chair and his refurbished “new” computer, but there were a few minor surprises under the tree for him.

We took gifts to daughter’s house and had an exchange with them, then home and I upacked the loom box.

When our house was being built, I made several 5 gallon buckets of home-made paste floor wax. The instructions said to wax or seal the wood before assembly, so I opened on of the remaining buckets, scooped out a tin full of the wax and spent about an hour hand waxing the pieces. Then assembly commenced.

With my recent lesson, having warped my friend’s borrowed loom, and the very detailed instruction booklet, I successfully warped the loom with some of my hand spun dk weight yarn.

My stocking contained a Barnes and Noble gift card, so a book or two of projects and techniques will be added to my growing collection of craft and fiber history books, several had been added by eldest son’s family for my birthday and Christmas. The booklet with the loom has a sample scarf with instructions for several different weaving techniques to try in the meantime.

The Let it Snow box in the photo above was the gift from daughter and her family. Treats and a beautiful cribbage game in a wooden box. I used to play it with my Dad and plan to refresh my skills and teach her and her kids.

Youngest son and his family sent us a pair o mugs with all of our grandchildren represented on them. Tonight I am enjoying my evening tea from mine.

As a Christmas bonus, the year old hens produced 3 eggs today. We have been getting 1 or 2, and I have never had hens lay in the winter before. Such a treat to still be getting farm fresh eggs to eat and cook with this time of year.

I think my favorite gift from hubby today is a tiny music box in my stocking.

It plays, “You Are My Sunshine.”

Here’s hoping you had Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah.