Best wishes for a happy & safe season to all!
Our Peace and Quiet plans got thrown last Friday when N woke-up with a bad rash. It’s shingles, and this quickly became a painful week for him. The treatment is working but his skin continues to be very tender.
While making do without a tree for Christmas time, the new woven runner & a special delivery are both giving much needed cheer at our place.
A beautiful potted Poinsettia has also been doing a very good job in the living room. We have traditional ham, etc. looking forward to as well.

Festive colour splash, thanks to handspun
The winding of my handspun for weft created a regular break for showing the yarn’s colour gradient. The repeat is enough to bring the break together, and I love seeing the bands as I walk through the hall.
In planning, I allowed 15% extra Harrisville Shetland warp each for shrinkage and take-up after weaving. This weaving of 55″ with 3″ hems on the ends has washed as a 46″ long runner for our vintage Singer sewing machine. The width is 13″ (i.e. down 2″ from the reed width after washing).
When not posing for pictures, the table sees good use holding keys, spare change & so much paper.

Reverse – festive bubbles!
The fulling process did wonders for the reverse of the fabric as well. I love the handspun pops. The plain weave hems are hand-sewn with some of my late Grandmother’s thread.
The hems’ weft is also handspun that I dyed this spring – the rejected ‘soft’ sand weft in my Colour of Water guild show scarves. It is 50% silk/25% buffalo/ 25% white cashmere from Sericin Silkworks. With under 200 yards, I am having fun with it.

Little Lithuania gloves
Knitting for the sick one is going to be today’s big task. The incredibly mild weather – hello, 16°C in our town on Christmas Eve – takes some of the pressure off but I would like to finish 3 fingers, and 2 thumbs.

Stranded, and his choice of pattern
The design is Little Lithuania, and N chose the Rhichard Devrieze fingering weight yarns in Prato & Cold Pressed. I have added rounds to the top of the pattern’s chart to get the length it calls for.
Needing to size for N, and correcting an unforced knitting error in the second glove (thumb placement matters!) have made this a race to the deadline but that’s okay. It is not like he is headed outside or like outside is very cold.
Wishing joy, and kindness
Please be kind to yourself, and to others. This season can be so full of expectations, loss, strife. Via Irwin Elman on Twitter, If the holidays are hard for you, doing these 4 things really could help.
Whatever your observance or none, wishing you joy!