Merry Christmas

Mt. Moosilauke

 Well, I made it here... finally! A few days late.

I'm enjoying a wonderful and magical festive season, I hope you are too. But has the time flown! Where did the last three weeks go to? I must say I'm noticing the short days more this year than ever before. Is it just me, or have the days actually gotten shorter? Someone said it's probably age related. The nerve. But the time between sun up and sun down sure does go by quickly (not that I experience the first 2 or 3 hours of sunlight.)

I thought I might get my yearly Christmas Eve video finished and uploaded yesterday but by the time I got around to working on tidying it up, it was already mid evening. It's uploading now, as I write this. I started making a virtual open house on the night before Christmas when the pandemic hit. There was a possibility I would forgo making one this year, but inspiration came, and not only that but I made one recapping my whole day. It's a half hour long! Hope it's not too boring. There is a mix of live sound, music, and voice over. Since several sections were filmed when the birds were awake I had to cut much of the sound. I have tried to be sparing on voice overs. Link to it is below. Best viewed in full screen mode.

Since I didn't get my tourtière (French Canadian meat pie) made yesterday, I made it today. The filling was finished yesterday so all that had to be done today was make the pastry, assemble the pie, and bake it. It's a traditional dish for which there are many recipes. I make something very similar to what my mother made. So delicious!

I use a pound of ground pork, a pound of ground beef, a shredded potato, a shredded onion, lots of allspice, lots of pepper, salt, and bay leaf for the filling. It simmers a few hours on the stove top. My standard pie crust works just fine for this pie: 2 cups flour, 1/3 cup butter, 1/4 cup shortening, 1 tsp salt, 1/3 cup water.

Then I made some mince pies this afternoon. The mincemeat is some I canned up a few years ago. Absolutely scrumptious! There's a healthy dose of brandy in the mince.

However you celebrate the holidays, I hope they are magical and beautiful for you.

Christmas Eve Open house video  ... (due to low lighting it's best watched full screen) :

The twist

 The 'twist' part of 'twistandvibrations' refers to adding twist to fibers, i.e. spinning.

My great wheel has sat upstairs--partly under my bed--for too long. Out of sight, out of mind. That's partially because one of the legs was so wonky that it would often collapse. I brought it down stairs last night and used plastic wood filler to make a repair and had it up and running this afternoon.

I want to get proficient at spinning on this wheel. To be sure, it's a joy to use, ever so quiet and smooth, and with it's minor's head (an accelerator gadget that takes the rotation of the great wheel and multiplies it by several factors) it spins f-a-s-t.  It increases the ratio of the spindle to big wheel to around 230 to 1 (one rotation of the big wheel will turn the spindle 230 rotations!).

The minor's head.

For this go around I'm using some multi-colored Merino top that I purchased at the NH Sheep & Wool last spring. In order to spin it 'woolen' with a long-draw technique such as this wheel requires, I'm carding it into rolags (fluffy little tubes of carded wool). The resulting yarn will likely be semi-woolen as these Merino rolags are not entirely randomized. I'm mixing this with a grey colored Shetland/Alpaca/'Bombyx (Bombyx is domestic silk) blend that is truly woolen.

There are primarily two types of yarn: Woolen and Worsted. In woolen yarn, the individual fibers are all mixed up going every which way. It is lofty and very warm. In Worsted yarn, the fibers are combed so that they are all parallel to one another. When spun, it is very strong and warm (not as warm as woolen, though).

Before carding the Merino, I'm separating it into solid color blocks. I will spin a colored rolag followed by a grey and alternate throughout. I'm hoping the resulting yarn will knit up into a cool looking speckled fabric. I want to knit a cardigan.

I don't name my tools. I know a lot of people who name their sewing machines and spinning wheels and pianos, but not me. But sometimes I think this wheel should have a name. She's got a personality. She will throw her drive band now and again. It's a bit of a jolt when everything's been going smoothly, and it seems I might be getting better at it. Whop! Off it flies. I think it's due to the minor's head not sitting tightly enough on it's peg. I need to research how to prevent it from loosening and twisting because that throws the alignment out between the big wheel and the head.

The 'vibrations' part of 'twistandvibrations' refers to music, of course.

I took a break from the cello, I really needed it. I spent the summer focusing intently on some new piano music. This morning I sat down with the cello for the first time in several months. I've really missed it. Playing cello is like having another voice. I was afraid I might have lost some technique but much to my delight that is not the case, not much anyway. I guess it's like riding a bicycle. To be sure, the finger pads on my left hand need to redevelop some calluses. But that won't take long.

I feel I have started a new chapter on the piano. I'm working on pieces that once seemed far off, and I'm so, so happy about it. Last fall I learned Debussy's "Reflets dans l'eau". I want to make a video of it one of these days. This summer I started learning Ravel's "Une Barque sur l'océan", from 'Miroirs'. I can now get through the whole piece, meaning I can read all the notes. Quite a way to go before it's finished. Funny things about this music, it looks daunting, but it turns out looks can be deceiving. Some of what sounds hardest is easiest to play! Some of what looks hardest is easiest to play! Case in point is a chord written: B#, E, Fx, B# (B sharp, E natural, F double-sharp, B sharp). When the mind sees the pattern those notes make on the page, along with the 4 accidentals, well, my mind just stops and wonders what the... Turns out this chord can be written a different way (if the key were different): C, E, G, C!! It's simply a c major chord. LOL. So, the looks of the music can be off-putting or discouraging but I'm learning to not let those things get in the way.

There is, though, one real toughy page and it's tough because of the harmonies. Very unfamiliar with some dischord. In my book, it's the fourth page. But it's coming along, slow methodical, repeated work on it. I hope to have this ready to play next spring.

I also read through Ravel's 'Jeux d'eau' a few weeks ago. I've looked at it before. Not easy, but more within reach now than before. I hope it will come together after I'm done with 'Une bateau...' And after that I want to tackle Debussy's 'L'isle joyeuse'.

All this music is so beautiful and blissful.

We had some snow fall this afternoon . . .