woolgathering at its best
Hello everyone,
I didn’t want to disappear like that – I wanted to blog on Wednesday, but then, somehow, it was Thursday, then Friday, and WHOOPS! Here we are. Ah well. Not much has happened anyway. But I brought pictures! Yay!
First things first … Knitting News.
The socks have seen some work.
Hello, sweet people,
a happy Sunday to you all. I hope you had a good weekend!
My weekend was … Yeah. It depends. Today was okay, but Saturday wasn’t good, and Friday wasn’t either. I’ll tell you more in a separate post, but for now, suffice to say that, as introverted and understanding as I may be, the whole situation is now starting to get on my nerves.
On top of this, work on the PhD has been very slow. I am now editing the current chapter to hand in to my professor. It’s 90 pages long and will still grow longer, but while the length might sound intimidating, the bigger problem is that Past Me was an idiot who, instead of doing the job properly, made charming footnotes such as “look this up in [name]!”, “is this a direct quote?”, or, my favourite “SOURCE needed!”. Needing an hour to edit one page, because you are constantly checking secondary sources truly takes all the fun out of it. AAARGH!
Look at this.
Isn’t this nice?
Continue reading “Less Would Have Been More”Happy Tuesday!
I hope your week started well, and that you are fine!
Today, I finally present you with a new Finishing Post, and this time, I’ll show you the socks I made for Lenka.
As I have said before …
Continue reading “Finishing Post #6: Scaly Social Justice Banshee”Hi friends,
I hope everyone is okay. Seems like not only people returned to work this week, but last year’s insanity did, too, and I just hope that this is IT for a while.
My plans for a project for me changed on Wednesday, after we took another walk and my fingertips were so cold. We have had a lot of rain and snowy rain and sometimes even snow, but even when there wasn’t some kind of liquid coming down from the skies in whatever form, the cold was wet, and this is the kind of cold that is nasty. “Dry cold” (which is what it’s called here) is fine, but as soon as the humidity is too high … brrrr.
Therefore, mittens it is.
Continue reading “Mittens Instead”My year began with a cold.
I’m not quite sure where I got it – maybe I should have put on a pair of jeans for the five minutes on the balcony at midnight instead of the pair of pyjama pants I was wearing. Or maybe I should have not spent most of the morning in my PJs in the kitchen while baking cinnamon rolls, the hair still wet from the shower.
Anyway, this is why I am a little late this year. ;) I hope you don’t mind! I’m already well again, though! I drank hot lemon and we went for a walk and apparently, my immune system is still good – and, most importantly, I could smell and taste throughout the whole time. No covid. PHEW.
Now, does anyone would like a CINNAMON ROLL?
We made those on New Year’s Eve, and I think you really have to say it
Continue reading “Happy New Y-ACHOO!”Hi folks!
After posting yesterday, I took stock of the remaining Finishing Posts I’d have to write, and since they’re gonna stretch out into the new year anyway, I decided to write the book post today. Tomorrow, I might do a short wrap-up post, and then show you the other projects by-and-by. On to the books!
Now, all the bad and stressful things aside, this year was a GREAT year for reading for me! At the beginning of the year, I put “reading” on the “Projects” page of my planner which I use as a habit tracker, and I can’t say whether it helped me to read more, but it was interesting to see how much I read (or manage to read) for pleasure.
As you will remember,
Continue reading “The Reading, However, Was GREAT! (This Post is Long. Beware.)”Hello, dear friends,
I hope you are fine and that you had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was very quiet, as we expected – on Christmas Eve (which is where you exchange presents), we went to see Philipp’s dad for coffee and dinner and it was a really cool, quiet afternoon. We got him the new AC/DC album and a book (John Lewis-Stempel’s Meadowland which I talked about in this blog post). Philipp and I both got money, and I got a LOT of books! (I’ll make an extra book post soon).
While we were there, I worked on my grandfather’s second mitten.
Of course, the first mitten had been way too long once the thumb gusset was complete …
Continue reading “Christmas Aftermath”Dear all,
I hope that, despite the craziness of this year, you can have a peaceful and quiet Christmas. I wish you and your loved ones health and happiness, and sugar and spice and everything nice and whatever else you might think of.
The picture above is the present we got from our nieces (per mail), and it’s the best! This will definitely be one of the most cherished Christmas decorations that we will put up every year.
I will be back soon, with stories about knitting, and yarn, and little mishaps, and bigger victories, and I am really looking forward to it!
But for now, Merry Christmas. May it give us all the hope we need.
Love,
Julia
This is a little story I wrote for the creative advent calendar I participated in for 2020. The story was for the 14th of December, so I’m sharing it here today. The original German version can be found below the English one. Enjoy!
Cosiness
»Sooo, this was the last tray of cookies«, Mirrn said. She put it on the table and stirred the chocolate frosting with quick paws.
»How many cookies have we baked by now?«, Guma asked.
»Enough for you and for me«, Mirrn said. »Doesn’t it smell like Christmas already?« She added a pinch of cardamom to the chocolate frosting.
»I think, it smells like cookies«, Guma said, his claw reaching for a little gingerbread star.
»I think it smells like Christmas!«, said Mirrn. She closed her eyes and sniffed. »I smell orange, and cinnamon, and the honey cakes we baked earlier.«
»I shmell the fir needles in she living’oom«, Guma said, chewing and spilling crumbs around the kitchen, »and the vanilla-shented candle that you lighted a momen’ a’o.«
Mirrn skipped into the living room, the hair on her tail standing up with joy. »Haven’t we done a splendid job?«, she asked, turning on the rag rug.
»I wish it were snowing«, she suddenly said, sounding down-hearted, »everything is better with snow.«
»I think, as long as we have cookies, it’s good enough here«. Guma toddled over to the corner next to the sofa where the cookie tins had been stacked, opened a green one decorated with snow flakes, and took out a sugar cookie with sprinkles on top. His leathery wings flapped happily while he ate.
Mirrn sat down on the plush sofa and sighed. »There is so much to be done still«, she said, »we have to get a tree, and I wanted to clean the windows. And we haven’t got any presents yet!«
Guma sat down next to her and gave her a biscuit with jam »I think it’s nice the way it is«, he said, »I do not need any presents. And if we bake another batch of lemon biscuits, we have enough to give them away as presents.«
»Do you think that’s enough?«, Mirrn asked, munching on her biscuit.
Guma nodded decidedly. »That’s definitely enough. And to not give everyone the same thing, and to leave some cookies for us, Frikkel will get the picture that I painted in summer. Wargel and Grumpfi can get the marble collection I wanted to give away. And-«
»- and Janka can have the cushion that I sewed!«, Mirrn interrupted him excitedly, »I know that she likes it, and I can make another one during the long winter nights!«
Guma wagged his ears and snorted happily. »Then we’re done«, he said. He toddled over to the fire place and blew into it; at once, tiny flames began to dance on the apple wood logs.
»Now it’s really cosy«, Mirrn said, and fetched two hazelnut cookies from a yellow tin.
»Very cosy«, Guma said, and then they sat in silence for a little while.
(© Julia Müller, 14.12.2020)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Continue reading “Story: Cosiness”
