Few of you will remember my very first wire crochet Christmas baubles. Unbreakable, unusual, some of them still available ;-) Since then I have made different kinds of decorations, but most of them were wire knitted which I only realized after a conversation with a co-worker the other day. Why had I never tried to crochet around a bauble? Well, that could easy be changed. I had already strung some, okay, a lot of mixed color seed beads on a copper wire and I choose black baubles for the filling as the contrast would show the difference between the two techniques nicely.
After starting the wire crochet bauble, I knew why I prefer wire knitting for ornaments. To achieve the perfect shape for your bauble, you actually work on the bauble, at least I do. That's a lot easier to do if you knit because the wire structure isn't as dense, is much more forgiving when you press it against the bauble and easier to shape, and of course because the beads are between the stitches. In wire crochet you usually work from the inside if you don't have a flat piece and the beads appear on the outside, but try to do that if there is already a bauble on the inside! So I turned it the wire structure around after a few rows, so the beads are on the inside now, but you can still see them peek through. The other downside is that it takes even longer than knitting around a bauble, but it definitely has a very different look and also gave me two new ideas for later some time.
Now the wire knit bauble. You see all the beads perfectly well, the look is very airy and less "messy" as you have just one layer of wire whereas crocheting is more three-dimensional because you pull the extra wire through to make a stitch.
Here they are in one picture together, so you can compare them even better. Let me add that in the right light the wire crochet bauble sparkles more because the layers of wire and the texture capture the light better. I wonder which one would win the sparkle battle, though, if I had used only silver lined beads or maybe even crystals as the beads are so much more visible in the wire knit bauble. I also feel the temptation to see which one breaks more easily when dropping them, but the crochet bauble just took too long for that. In the end I guess it's just a matter of taste which one you like better (let's not forget these are quite unconventional colors for Christmas baubles, too ;-)).
This post goes well with my other posts about the difference between techniques like wire crochet, wire knit, netting, and Viking knit, by the way. You can find them here, here and here.
I have never been to a Renaissance fair. There have been a few near or even in my town, but not that many, and there's no chance I'm going there. It's the people or rather the number of people. I just can't deal with crowds anymore, not even for a while. Strolling through the city is already enough for me, but too many people in one place, no can do. This is also the reason why I have never been to the Esslinger Medieval and Christmas Market (if you have a look, ignore that they haven't updated all the dates, this IS for 2018), no matter how much everyone raves about it. Pity because it may have been the perfect introduction for this post. Then again a Renaissance fair is not always set in medieval times at all, but often in the era of Queen Elizabeth I. But how did they celebrate Christmas back then?
When I looked it up, this caught my eye first "Christmas customs are hard to pin down and harder still to identify as
verifiably in use during the Elizabethan era. (The past is not all the same place.)
With the shifts from Catholic to protestant and back and forth again,
some customs were banned or simply stopped, revived, then abandoned. Here are some of the things we're sure of." (from "Life in Elizabethan England).
Houses were decorated with all kinds of green, for example holly, ivy, yew and more. Hospitality was the rule, so whatever could be afforded, was there, from meat to pies, from spiced wine to drinks from hot cider, sherry or ale with spices and apples. "Eat, drink and be merry" (from "BBC History") was the motto for the Twelve Days from Christmas Eve to Epiphany. The merry part consisted of gambling, plays, morris dancing and general silliness. There was also the custom of the Yule log, a block of wood cut from a tree chosen for the occasion and put into the fireplace, then lit using a bit of last year's log that has been saved. The Yule log is expected to burn all night.
Okay, people, you know what you have to do, and don't you forget about that silliness! ;-) For decorating purposes I also offer you this selection of jewelry that could be worn at a Renaissance fair from the last Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge.
I don't remember how I first discovered Mrs Crocombe on English Heritage's YouTube channel or which one was the first video I watched, but like many others, judging from all the comments, I became a fan of the good lady immediately. Those videos are made so beautifully. Avis Crocombe is no fictional character, she was the cook to the Braybrooke family who spent the summers at Audley End House, their country mansion in Essex (I wish I had known about it when we were in Cambridge, so we could have gone there). A visitor to the house recognized the name which had been mentioned in a book handwritten by his aunt. This aunt was Avis Crocombe and it was her recipe book that he then donated to English Heritage. Most of The Victorian Way shows Mrs Crocombe preparing some of those recipes. This Christmas punch looks like something I could make. I'd just need some ginger wine and some more people to help me drink it unless I find out the perfect measurements to make some only for myself ;-)
You may not know who the Hogfather is, so here's a short explanation. He's the Discworld's equivalent to Santa Claus. You mean you don't know the Discworld, either? Sigh. Okay. A very smart, witty and funny man named Terry Pratchett told us about the Discworld, a flat world carried by four elephants who are standing on a giant turtle making its way through space. It's a magic place full of wizards, witches, trolls, vampires, dwarves and so much more. Back to the Hogfather. One of the things he does is to bring children presents on Hogswatch night in a sleigh pulled by four hogs. Until the Auditors of Reality pay an assassin to get rid of him, that is. So Death has to dress up and take on the job while his granddaughter Susan tries to save the Hogfather. When I got my pal this fabulous advent calendar for his birthday, I hadn't expected that I would be sent one free of cost, but it made me very happy. I have no idea why I didn't order one for myself in the first place!
It seems Gundel is determined to help me with my advent calendar (no, I didn't put her there) which is fine by me, but she's not getting any of the chocolate (no chocolate for cats, it's not good for them!).
P.S. Oh, and if you want to know more about the history of advent calendars, check out my post from 2010.
Gundel is in her favorite place on the stairs, Ponder has lost consciousness in his cat tower's plushy softness - a good moment to set up my Christmas tree. Last year I had been searching for my ornaments, I thought I lost my mind. Turns out I did, there were in the same box in the same safe spot they had been during the last few years, but you know how it sometimes is with those safe spots. This year my memory didn't fail me, so here they are. Yup, almost all of my tree decorations fit into a small box, but then my artificial tree is not exactly big, either. You can see the beaded bauble my friend Caroline made, some of my "pineapple slices", a few Christmas spider legs and my octopus bauble's tentacles peeking out.
As soon as I had the tree out, my second supervisor arrived on the scene. She gave a few branches a short nibble and went around the tree to check if I had bent all the branches the right way. Looks to me as if Supervisor Gundel is fine with what she saw.
The hardest part for me are the lights and the ball chain. Yeah, the baubles will hide the messy look, I think. As you can see my trusted wooden cats are helping to keep the tree in place (plus one of the branches is wrapped around the railing ;-)).
By then Gundel had decided she needed a second look. That chain didn't look very safe. Neither did it to me after she started pawing it! I still kept going. There are my earliest prototypes of wire crochet baubles, my wire knit and few beaded baubles, the beaded goodies from my friend, gifts from the neighbors like wooden stars and more, tiny baubles from my pal, the snowmen I made, the weird little octopus and the "mace" baubles. Last but not least I put my wire knit "flame" on top and of course Christmas Jack to guard everything!
It's a pity that it is such a grey day which makes it hard for me to take a good picture. Maybe I'll post another one if I find the chance and the light is good enough.
Well, and then the first bauble fell. While I had been decorating, there were some mysterious bauble shakes and I kept seeing a little black paw, but only when I was done, there it went - but didn't break! So if you feel like betting on the cats or the tree, let me know! ;-)
Pettson and Findus (Festus and Mercury in the USA) live on a small farm in Sweden, with knitting hens and small creatures that only Findus, the cat, can see - the Mucklas. Findus who is named after a brand of peas because he arrived on the farm in a box with their name when he was a kitten has been told about the Yule Tomte (Santa Claus) by the children, and now he really wants the Tomte to come to their house, so he can see him. Pettson decides to make a mechanical Tomte machine, but although he often invents things, his plan doesn't work out. One of the wooden gears breaks, one small wooden gear is stolen by a Muckla, and to make it even worse, his neighbor Gustavsson has promised that Pettson will carve a hundred Tomtes for the Christmas bazaar! What luck that Findus meets that strange postman in the woods whom he has to save from inside an oak tree ... or maybe it's not a postman after all? A lot happens until Pettson and Findus are finally waiting for the Yule Tomte to arrive. Pettson who made his invention work with the help of Miracle Oil from a parcel the postman gave to Findus thinks it will be his mechanical one, but instead ... Findus: Hi, Mister Tomte! Pettson: He's moving so smoothly. Findus, don't worry if the Tomte's voice sounds a bit ... Findus: Quiet, Pettson! Tomte: Merry Christmas everyone! Findus: Merry Christmas. Pettson: Don't be upset if he doesn't know you're a cat. He'll probably ask if you've been a good child. Findus: Quiet now! Tomte: Have you been a good little cat? Pettson: Well, actually he's a ... Findus: Yes! I've been very good! Tomte: That's just what I thought. You're a very good little cat and I've got a present for you. There you go. A surprise. Findus: Thanks for coming, Tomte. Tomte: Oh, welcome. Ho-ho-ho! Help the helpers help as we Tomtes say! Findus: That's what postmen say, too. Tomte: Oh, they do, do they? *laughs* Ho, ho, ho!
This was a spontaneous decision when I just put my hallway decorations up. How about giving the Cat's Wire advent calendar another try? This is harder than it may sound. I can't promise to come up with something fantastic, new or exciting every day, but I'll give it my best. Actually I will start this with a little cheating, though. It's already Sunday today, but I had to work yesterday and I was dead when I came home. Now, however, I'm sitting here listening to one of my favorite holiday channels, The Christmas Radio, so let's get this thing started, shall we? Decorations. I'm no master at them. My style has been called eclectic (one of the best words for making "what a mess" sound intellectual), whimsical, crazy, interesting and more, but that's okay because I think that rather fits me.
So this is what my hallway looks like this year. For those who have seen pictures in the past years, it's not the same. This year the little Lego house had to move to the window sill along with the little elf as I needed space for a newcomer. For the same reason I had to say no to my neighbor's offer to give me some quinces as deco.
What I love about it is that there are so many handmade pieces along
some others. The two hand sewn hearts from Christmas fabric hanging in the mistletoe (from my
neighbors' garden) on both sides were made by a friend. There is also a
lace icicle in one of the mistletoes.
Here's the knitted wreath that my other neighbor made, some of my wire knit
ornaments (including the "puffer fish" ;-)), my wire crochet star and
the lace snowflakes made by a friend who's no longer with us. She also
made the icicle and all three are ornaments I treasure a lot.
This is what the "first floor" looks like.
Can't do without my beloved Steiff Christmas tree, the mice and the ball! I got the little Villeroy & Boch candle holder at a sale some years ago. The Christmas kitties box was a lovely gift by co-workers (the candy is long gone!). The only handmade item in this picture is my wire knit candle with the little Christmas bauble in the flame to make it shine.
And here's the newcomer now. It took me two years to decide I really wanted to have this. I ordered it months ago and was so excited when it arrived! As you can see there are 24 little boxes which hold a small lampwork bauble each to put on the glass Christmas tree. It's the beautiful work of Paul from Phoenix Glass, check it out on Facebook!
Time for a cup of chai and maybe something to eat before I go finding something for the second door!
