Winter has finally hit Northern Wisconsin this week with a blanket of five inches of fresh-fallen snow. It really is beautiful and I think its a nice way to even out the shortening days, by making everything sparkly and clean in the sun and moonlight. Lilj was SO excited for the snow and of course he wanted to make a snowman however, the snow wasn't quite right for that. Instead, we did some sledding and walking in the woods. We had to wear our Blaze orange as its deer-gun-hunting season here in WI this week. I think his favorite part is eating the snow. I guess I can't blame him when it looks like the whole world has been frosted.We have found another house and are hoping to rent until next summer with the intention to buy. It is quite near us and has a gorgeous 40 acres of wooded land as well as a garage and a shop. I've been staying up nights redecorating it in my head as it needs some cosmetic updates: painting, cupboard painting, and eventually new flooring. We will be starting December 1st by emptying our storage unit into the garage and starting to clean carpets and paint. I can't wait to have a space to call my own again as I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels here at Mom & Dad's. I am looking forward to having some creative space for my yarn and fiber crafts as well as a homeschool preschool area for lilj.
Speaking of yarn and fibercrafts, I am steadily working on my Giftmas list and am finally on my last project: Dad's socks. I'm trying out a new pattern for these using an afterthought heel, which means you knit a tube sock and then add the heel as an afterthought. They are moving along swimmingly but would have more progress if I hadn't recently sunk in the hole known as Pinterest. More on that later.I've decided to make 2012 the year of selfish knitting and not knit for anyone but me! That's right, no birthdays, no giftmas, just me me me! And, I am going to try to knit a few sweaters for me while I'm at it. I figure if each one takes about three months I can knit four sweaters throughout the year. I have patterns in mind for all four so we shall see how that turns out. Of course I also have yarn and ideas for many small accessory type projects for myself: shawls, socks, mittens, hats. I am just so much happier knitting for myself than for others. It does make me happy to give the gifts I've knit, but in progress I HATE it. So, other than sweater yarn, I'm going to try NOT to buy yarn or fiber and instead to knit up what I've got so there is room for new yarn by the end of 2012. I also picked up a drop spindle at WI Sheep and Wool Festival so I would like to try to conquer that during 2012. What are your creative goals?
As I mentioned above, Pinterest has caught me and is giving a good fight. I'm happy we won't have any internet access at our new place as I spend way too much time online doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. There are so many cool ideas out there, but really when all you do is spend hours looking at them, you never get anything done!
You may wonder why I call this time of year Giftmas and so I'll try to explain it. I don't believe in God or Christ as a savior, I believe he probably was a pretty good guy back in the day. I believe the Christians have rewritten all the traditional pagan holidays in order to get the pagans to fall into line. Those who didn't were killed which is somehow Christian. I believe in celebrating the return of the light on December 21st or Winter Solstice and I think Santa is an ok belief for lilj. As far as exchanging gifts with others, well, I really do enjoy exchanging small heartfelt or homemade gifts, but that doesn't seem to be the norm. The big hullabaloo at this time of year I think is a lot more related to Gifts than Christ and therefore, Giftmas. But as a good raised-Christian girl, I think everyone should be free to believe what they want and we should still all get together and enjoy each other this time of year.
So, happy giftmas shopping!
