Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

I don’t have a fire, but I do have this cozy new knit blanket! (Only the second blanket I’ve successfully finished in my life.)


It’s the Garter Squish on ravelry,  only I cast on way more than called for, by about oh 40 or so. On size 15 needles, 40 stitches is a lot.  I was just going to make a bigger blanket, but when I saw exactly how much yarn it was eating up I decided my stripes would just go lengthwise. I finished it about a week ago, and it has been snuggled by someone almost constantly since. It’s green, yellow, pale purple, orange, light blue, and darkish blue, all held double with a running strand of white. I could picture making another. It was a nice mostly mindless (I kept nearly messing up the i-cord edge, because I usually slide my first stitch) that was nice to take while I waited outside of appointments and such.
It may be the perfect cozy winter blanket.

Candlemas

Happy Candlemas! Febuary 2nd has many names, Groundhog Day, Imbolc, Candlemas, and several more interpretations of the same. When I was deciding which we as a family should try to pay attention to Candlemas resonated with me the most. It’s spiritual without being religious, it’s pretty without being pompous. So that’s what I went with. However, my son clearly liked Groundhog Day better, that’s all he kept saying “Happy Groundhog Day!” I wish I has prepared more groundhog themed activities.
Interesting side note, the idea of Groundhog day is so old that it originated in England where it is actually a hedgehog instead of a groundhog! The idea of a hedgehog predicting the weather is just to adorable for words! Of course the idea of wild hedgehogs puttering about is also just adorable.

But, back to the topic at hand. First we made candles! I got a beeswax sheet kit at the local craft store, and we made several candles to serve as birthday candles at the upcoming 6 year event, then we made several to just burn throughout the day.

The four blue, and first two yellow (closest to the blue) are for the cake. The rest were just to use. Not bad for $5! The kit was pretty easy to do. Especially for me, but all I had to do for the kiddo was to start rolling it so it was tight around the wick without breaking. As we rolled we talked about the earth and animals coming out of hibernation. We discussed the candles meaning that the sun is shining on the earth more, something we’ve been reading about anyway in some of our seasons books.

Traditionally today is a day to begin preparing the earth for harvest, sowing seeds to transplant later, and other gardening work. I intended to repot some houseplants but couldn’t find my empty pots or my potting soil! I didn’t want to work outside because it was below freezing, and I also am waiting for naturalized bulbs to grow and didn’t want to disturb them. I did however spend a few minutes outside checking for bulb sprouts. I have 8! I planted more than 100, but it’s still early, and as much as I love it I’m a terrible gardener, so 8 is joyous enough for me!

The ability of plants to grow through the hard soil, through the frozen ground, through the mulch, simple amazes me. The sprouts as so strong yet so fragile. I love the movie The Secret Garden, in the 1990’s version when it shows the quick growth of the plants. I often joke that I always wanted to be able to sing and to garden, and I’ve given up singing.
I also started working on the grapevine cone we’re going to use on our seasonal table. I didn’t presoak the grapevine, so it has to be finished tomorrow. Right now I have a wire mesh cone, and an arm full of scratches. 
Today is also a day for spring cleaning. I wouldn’t say that I did that, BUT I did clean and work. My Grandmother’s house is going on the market, so yesterday we made a day trip to pick up all our boxes of stuff. There were quite a few tears shed, and between that and some illness lately I just didn’t have it in me for deep cleaning. But my living room is full of boxes (half Christmas awaiting the attic, and half stuff from yesterday) so I unpacked and put some away. I talked to my son about how we got these items as memories of Grandma’s house. So now he calls them memories. The Memory breadbox makes a Memory Sandwich. “Can he use a memory mug?” I get it. The first thing I unpacked was the mugs. The dishes to match were still in the car. I had gotten home to late, to tired, to cold, to hungry, to carry a heavy box of dishes that were not well packed. I was afraid I’d drop and break them all.

A memory mug, full of coffee, on the memory breadbox, with what is supposed to be pussy willow being forced to root in the background.

I cleaned up the kitchen and unpacked the memory breadbox. It feels so good, just so heartwarming, to see it on my counter. We love my Grandma’s house, and nothing will kill the sharp tearing feeling that this sale provokes, but these little things help.

Candlemas is also a day to eat grains. So as a quick dinner I ate cereal, in one of my new memory bowls. The day was great, and was a nice way to both reminisce, and pull us out of the sadness. Which is a part of what Candlemas is, to pull through the cold, hard, depressing winter and move on. Happy Candlemas!!! Now on to Super Bowl Sunday! (I’m not a football fan, but I intend to knit my heart out, eat, and watch some commercials!)

Candles

Candles can be everywhere in winter. Tapers at a holiday dinner table, or candles in the windows to light the way home, or just scented candles in a seasonal fragrance. I try to always have a seasonal candle ready to light in my kitchen. Candles can also be such a décor element. One neat thing about candles is that by switching the holder, or the color, or the decorations around it, they can cycle through the seasons.

Incidentally, My grandmother’s house was one of those places with candles that are never lit. Behind her chair was a clock with a frame and in the frame sat two candles, never lit. On the coffee table two tapers, never lit. UNTIL, one day my brother, a young teen or so at the time, says “How comes these are never lit?” And he pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit them! It was like stepping on sacred ground. I gasped. And one of us, I forget which, immediately blew them out. Until the day when those candles were packed away they had just the tiniest bit of burnt black wick at the very top.

Did you know, you can use epsom salt as a fake snow indoors? Pour it into a candle holder, or vase. Or you can mix it with water to make a slush, then brush (use a bad old paintbrush) onto glass. But this next one uses something different, egg white and sugar!


I can picture this simple display shifting through the year. Take out the pinecones, add felt hearts, replace the greenery with roses, and you shift right from winter to Valentine’s Day!

What about you? Do you have any memories or traditions that involve candles?

Good Hours

BY: Robert Frost

I had for a my winter evening walk--

No one at all with whom to talk.

But I had the cottages in a row

Up to their shining eyes in snow.

And I thought I had the folk within:
I had the sound of a violin;
I had a glimpse through curtain laces
Of youthful forms and youthful faces.

I had such company outward bound.
I went til there were no cottages found.
I turned and repented, but coming back
I saw no window but that was black.

Over the snow my creaking feet
Disturbed the slumbering villages street
Like profanation, by your leave,
At ten o’clock of a winter eve.