December Thoughts

#1 : Pomegranates are just the most fantastical fruits, and despite the fiddlesomeness of them I can't help but love them. Thank you for the advice about the extraction process - I tried the method you recommended, cutting around the equator and banging with a wooden spoon but I just could not get it to work. No matter how hard I banged, no seeds tumbled forth, not one! I wonder whether it's because it wasn't quite as ripe as it could've been? I've got another one sat in my fruit bowl so tomorrow I'll try the cut and bang method again. I shall report back on proceedings.

#2 : I think fresh fruit has to be my all time favourite food group, trumping even chocolate or cake. I've proven to myself this year that I can very easily go days/weeks without eating refined sugar, but I would find it very, very difficult to go a day without fruit. 

#3 : I have a massive, overwhelming hankering to try my hand at colourwork knitting, more specifically I desperately want to make this hat. A month or so ago I spotted a lady at the market wearing the most stunning fairisle beanie hat and I couldn't take my eyes off it. Afterwards I had major regret and wished that I had asked her about it and found out more about the pattern. Then on Saturday when I was queueing at the market to buy cheese I happened to see her again wearing the same gorgeous hat, so I stopped to compliment her and interrogate her about it. Thankfully she was the nicest lady and told me that her Mum had knitted it for her, and she thought it had something to do with the Shetland MRI Scanner appeal. It's so brilliant to have the internet to provide hatty info when you most need it - I came home and immediately found the pattern, woohoo!!!!! It's called "Harriet's Hat" by Harriet Middleton and you can find it here . I need to learn the twisty technique for knitting with two colours in the same row, but I'm determined to give it a go. 

#4 : Beady eyes arrived in the post last week and my festive creature got stuffed and stitched and is now happily living out life on my mantel. Animal faces are extremely tricky things to get right, and I'm not too sure I achieved the elusive Cute Factor with this chappy. He looks ever so slightly vacant and bewildered. I promise to show you more just as soon as I take a few photos of him in situ.

#5 : We had our first snow on Friday, a chilly morning of dancing flakes and white dusted hilltops. It didn't last and it didn't linger, but it was fun watching it from the cosy comfort of home.

#6 : I love my fire, I love it so so so so much. I never used to like the brick fireplace and dark wooden surround but over the years it has really grown on me and I couldn't imagine it being any other way now. It really is the heart of our home.

#7 : I spend a lot of time sitting on the floor at this time of year. The kitty obviously doesn't seem to mind too much - a warm lap is good enough no matter how low to the ground it is.

#8 : It's bauble time, and once again I am swooning all over the place at the sight of these glorious colours. These are definitely my kind of Christmas colours and I doubt very much that I will ever change. Little Lady told me yesterday that in the future when she has her own place and her own tree, she will smother it in white lights and have only white, silver and glittery decorations on it. Oh dear, I was honestly lost for words after that declaration. 

#9 : Coffee, coffee, coffee!! My mornings are simply not complete without it, and I am so happy that Lockdown 2.0 has ended and my favourite cosy cafés are open once more. It's such a pleasurable, treasured part of my daily routine, a luxury that I appreciate very much.

#10 : After a fair amount of wet grey weather last week, I've been so so happy to see blue skies and sunshine during the past few days. What a treat. It has put a welcome spring back in my step as I was seriously dragging my feet last week, weighed down by the heaviness of the gloom. 

#11 : With two weeks to go until the Winter Solstice, I noticed today that the rise and set of the sun is oddly in tune with the school day. I see the first rays of sun peeking over the top of the hill just as we round the corner to come off the canal tow path in the morning. And I see the last of the sun dipping down beyond the hills as I come off the canal in the late afternoon.

#12 : I lit our Advent candle yesterday, six days late. It meant keeping a vigil until we had burned down exactly the right amount to catch up with the days. We are currently two thirds decked out for the season here - two trees are up, the wreaths are up and one of two mantels is wearing it's seasonal finery. I've still got the other mantel to do and my Advent garland to hang, but I'll be able to see to all that tomorrow when J is back to work and I have a little time on my hands to faffle it all into place. 

And that about concludes my thoughts for now. I hope you are all doing OK as we plummet through early December, and that you are thinking happy thoughts and finding some joy in this season of twinkly lights and shiny things. I shall be back here very soon to show you the Bewildered Festive Creature, I bet you really can't wait ?!

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Comments

[Marcy]

I'm very late to say this, but personally, I like the water method with pomegranates. You put it in a bowl or sink full of water and tear it open. (After cutting it somewhere, this method isn't real particular.) And you tear and tear and agitate and get all those arils out, and then the peel and pulp float and the arils sink.

[Elaine]

Hi Lucy I rarely comment but love reading your blog! Top tip for fair isle/stranded knitting, if you can get into the habit of holding one colour in your right hand and knitting english style, and one i your left hand continental style it really helps to stop them twisting. Make sure you always keep background colour in the same hand and contrast colour in the opposite.

[Tracy Bache]

So sorry I haven't commented on your last couple of blogs.Been feeling a real grumpy gutts!
Fed up with lock down,weather (which in Dudley is poo).I said to Hubby couldn't even be bothered to put up Christmas decs!!
Thankfully my Eldest got them down from the loft and the twinkling lights have lifted my mood.
My Hubby has taken up wood turning and has made me a little snow man and 3 Christmas trees.They are so cute. Stay safe.

[Denise]

I have knitted the hat, using the kit from J&S (also helps support the MID appeal): don't be scared of it, it is much more achievable than it looks!

[Victoria Margerison]

I have serious mantle envy!

[Helen Mathey-Horn]

Hi Lucy, I bought tons of white or crystal/glass ornaments when I lived in Germany. I love the look on a tree. Also when I lived in Northern Germany (on the Danish border) and was teaching, the sun was just coming above the horizon when the school day began and just setting when I headed for home, so I can definitely relate to your school day walks. :) Happy Holidays

[Tonia]

Happy December! A friend and I walked through the murk and gloom to the top of some hills yesterday and broke through into wonderful sunshine! It did so much for our mood.
I tried my hand at making some crocheted toys once - they all looked perplexed! I couldn't ever get them to look happy, so my niece has a range of small animals apparently in the middle of an existential crisis!

[diana]

Happy December from Ottawa, Canada!
Thanks for this colourful update. Photo #10 made me laugh. I thought that there were cardinals in the tree (wow, so many, I thought) until I looked closer. Do you even have cardinals in England? :)

[Jacquie]

I love that hat too Lucy. My late Nanna was a master fair isle knitter and I think it's wonderful. I keep picking up needles and trying to get proficient a simple knitting, but it always ends in frustration when I drop at stitch and can't work out what to do to rescue it.
I have a small circular needle I keep meaning to try, wonder if that would help me?
Jacquie x

[Susanne]

Dear Lucy, you will absolutely love stranded knitting! As many other things it takes time and practice to get the hang of it, but the colourful possibilities are endless... I think this tutorial on Ysolda Teague's homepage might be useful: https://ysolda.com/blogs/journal/holding-the-yarn-for-stranded-colourwork
Best wishes from Heidelberg!
Susanne

[CJ]

Your daughter's comment has made me laugh out loud. I am sure she will see the joy of colour in the end. We have a very strict rota here for the lighting of the advent candle (person 1), blowing out the advent candle (person 2) and opening the advent calendar (person 3), which also involves everyone guessing what is behind the window. Then the next day, the rota shifts along one. We have it written on a piece of paper, otherwise it degenerates into an argument when no-one can remember whose turn it is to do something. Nevertheless, it still all turned ugly yesterday when it transpired that Sunday's blower-outer had let it burn down a whole day extra. Sigh. CJ xx

[Tineke]

You should definitively look at an Arne & Carlos tutorial, the masters of fair isle. I am an antique lover, most of my furniture is old, colours soft-toned. Lots of handmade blankets. Plants everywhere. My youngest has a white furniture dorm and no plants at all, the oldest has a mismatch of second hand and it's a jungle there. Kids always go in the opposite direction you go. It's much needed to rebel against your parents to go your own way. It got nothing to do with you, hun. I am so curious about the mantlepiece animal XD

[Charlotte (MotherOwl)]

PS. Stranded knittin is not as difficult as it looks. I'm quite new to knitting, and I'm, able to do it. Just jump in. THat hat sure is lovely.

[Charlotte (MotherOwl)]

Pomegranates are just a mess to eat, but worh the while.
You gave me a serious attack of fire-place-envy with this post!

[Teresa Kasner]

You will love fair isle knitting! I did some when I was younger and it feels like such an accomplishment. You will do fine. As for your daughter wanting an all white tree and lights, kids seem to rebel on what their mother liked.. but I will bet that she'll love color when she actually has her own place. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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[witloof]

Hi Lucy, re: the pomegranate. You want to hold it sideways, with the cut side facing your palm, so that if you're holding it in your right hand the round part is facing left, not upward. If you start smacking it along the edge of the outer rim, it will loosen up the ones on the outside and make room for the ones on the bottom to fall.

[Simon]

Christmas is not Christmas without multi-coloured lights, baubles and other decorations! Just white is so dull! Christmas can actually get me quite down at times, but all the different colours on the tree, and the variety of decs lifts my mood and makes me feel better. Now, if only it were warmer...

[Susan Dress]

This way really does work for seeding pomegranates. I have a lovely supply of them in my frig and freezer. I freeze them spread out on a parchment lined cookie sheet, then transfer the seeds to a canning jar after they're frozen, so you can scoop out just what you need.
https://www.saveur.com/article/Video/VIDEO-How-to-De-seed-a-Pomegranate/#:~:text=First%2C%20fill%20a%20large%20bowl,the%20water%20into%20the%20sink.

[Victoria Oyama]

Thank you for sharing all the warm Christmassy feelings and decorations in your home now. Absolutely lovely!
I could tell you were a little distraught by your daughter's comment but actually I thought that would be pure and elegant. Each to their own.
I too am eagerly awaiting the Winter Solstice although where I live about 100 kms north of Tokyo, we are blessed with blue skies and lots of sun in winter, even though the temperatures can get down to minus 8C.
My oldest granddaughter is in Grade 1 and she walks the 2kms to school in a group of the local schoolchildren in our area. This will be her first winter of walking to school but her mother did it 30 years ago so I guess she will too. Good exercise you get every day going to and from school with your son though!

[Deb, Wisconsin]

I love to see a fire - so cozy. I've never seen an Advent candle. One more thing I have to have! So nice your lockdown is over. Here in the US I think we'll being in store for some serious lockdowns with cases rising. Ugh...

[Aimee P]

I second what Gillian’s says about colorwork and Katie’s Kep. And YouTube has more video’s than you’d probably want, lol.

[Raymonda Schwartz]

I so look forward to your posts! I have done the Harriet's Hat, in a colorway set from Morehouse Farm. Plenty of yarn left over, so just finished matching mitts - there are patterns for mittens as well as the headband. As long as one color is consistently coming up from under, while the other is consistently coming over, your back will look as good as the front.

[Gillian Booth]

Hello Lucy, I’m fairly sure that fair isle knitting is simply waiting in the wings for you. All those colours ... ooh! In the last year I’ve moved gently from crochet and running my crochet retreats into knitting and fair isle. I love it! A whole new world of colour and yarn to explore. I’ve made three hats lately with real Shetland wool and using this years fund raising pattern ‘Katie’s Kep’. Everyone has been so encouraging as I didn’t even know if I could do this thing, but I can and wow those colours. They are raising funds for the scanner on Shetland. Now I’m making my first yoke sweater and discovering such wonderful designs and being tempted to start designing my own. So much to learn and it’s fun now we have modern circular needles and patterns. You will have that hat whipped up in no time.

[Becca L]

Christmas trees should be multi coloured and contain a complete random mix of ornaments a good number made by small children and shedding glitter each year. My Mum was pleased we followed on with the tree traditions of our childhood. Whether my two will do the same I'm not sure. At 7 and 4 they currently just love all Decorations!

[Linda from Boston]

Love your fireplace pictures. Is that the Meadow Blanket I spy on your lap???!!! Can’t wait. Started the Woodland Blanket, cuz I can’t wait for four weeks to work on something!! There’s only so many socks 🧦 one can make :).