Knitting for a change December 20, 2009

Knitting for a  change – rather a play on words.  I haven’t blogged about my knitting recently, hence the title, but read on and you’ll read about other changes.  My knitting of late has been baby blankets or panels or whatever else you want to call them – I’ve been using 2 strands of sock yarn – one strand of multicolour self-patterning and one strand of solid colour.  I have been choosing yarns from my stash.  The strand of multicolour has remained constant but I have the fun of changing the strand of the solid colour every few rows.  Here are some of the results.                  I am partial to the purple based one on the left.    But the green based one on the right is quite nice also.      These panels are on the same idea as the grandaughters skirts featured in an earlier blog. 

The past couple of weeks I have been taking a blue and yellow panel to my weekly Kilternan Market but I haven’t featured it for sale among my hats and scarves and socks.   The hats and scarves and socks have been selling well.  One particularly discerning customer spotted the blue and yellow panel which I had casually displayed  behind the table.  She asked to see it and asked how much I was charging for it.  I kind of fumbled around and decided on a price – she decided it would be perfect as a lap rug for her elderly dad.

                      Blue and yellow panel (lap rug), sold at Kilternan Market.  I am nearing the completion of another panel and had decided to knit something else, for a change.  Well, this sale boosted my spirits, as happens when one makes a sale, and now I think I will knit yet another panel.           I’ll choose the yarns from my ever shrinking stash.  I think the next panel will be “brown based”.  Watch this space. 

One of the rugs in the house we are renting is a rug I wove quite a few years ago and was selected by my friend to put in her cottage down in the West.  The rug has somehow migrated back to Dublin and is now in the hallway of this house.   

                One of my woven rugs – a striking resemblance to my current knitting!

The Winter Solstice Is Approaching

The Winter Solstice is drawing near.

  photo from this source.

This year, according to my source, the winter will officially occur in Dublin at 15:47 , 5:47 p.m., tomorrow December 21.  Correspondingly, it will be 9:47 a.m. on the west coast of America, 8 hours behind us here in Dublin.  There is a really interesting website showing photos and explaining the winter solstice at Newgrange, a world famous prehistoric site in Ireland.  Around the time of the winter solstice the rising sun shines into the inner chamber for 5 or 6 mornings.  Some of the photos shown of the 2005 solstice were taken by Anne-Marie Moroney, a weaving friend of mine.

Anne-Marie is also a photographer and author interested in archaeological and mystic phenomena.  Anne-Marie and a poet  friend, Susan Connelly, produced a book about some of the holy wells in Ireland.  She used not only her own photographs but also some of her textiles as illustrations.  I would like to tell you more, but that will have to wait for another day.  My copy of the book is currently in a container on the SS Rotterdam Express, approaching the Panama Canal, en route to Seattle.

I have a diary called Murakami Diary 2009.  Haruki Murakami is Japanese by birth and his books have been translated into many languages.  According to the Diary, the Winter Solstice in Japan is called Toji.  And looking up Toji I found the following:

Japan:  Tou Ji or To Ji (literally means winter solstice)

A few weeks (about 15 days) starting around 22nd of December is called Toji [or Tou Ji : Winter Solstice].

When solar celestial longitude gets 270 degrees, the most south, the solar height becomes lowest in the year in Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, the daytime is shortest in the year and cold increase severity. In Japanese custom, we eat “Japanese Pumpkin” and Konnyaku (devil’s tongue) to pray for luck of money. Also, we take Yuzuburo (citron bath) to pray for health and fortune. From ancient times, there are many festivals held in all around the world to celebrate Toji (Winter Solstice), when sun approaches most in Northern Hemisphere. The festival of Christmas, which is originated in Europe is related to Toji this strongly.

Source:  http://www.b-zenjapan.com/nihon/12shiwasu.phtml

Winter solstice in Latin     sol=sun in      stice=stand still