On the Other Side (of Christmas)

It was an amazing kind of Christmas in my house this year!

All three of my siblings, and pretty much all of their families, were here for the best of Christmas feasts. We put three tables together end to end and had a sit down dinner for 19. Very many hands went into the making of that meal.

In my three bedroom home, I had a total of 11 overnight guests (for three nights).  The photo above is of the small tree I think of as "the children's tree" in my living room. It usually goes in the family room, but this year it and the bigger tree swapped places to make more space where it was needed for dinner tables and air mattresses and gifts and celebration.

I hope that your holidays were merry and bright and full of love!

White Skies Ahead

A friend of mine once told me that I am an optimist for calling a sunless winter sky "a white sky".  She said that most people would call it gray.  (I have that going for me.)

On New Year's Day 2015 my family and I unexpectedly lost a good friend and neighbor.  (Too soon after the death of my aunt and godmother.)  Sometimes planes full of people accidentally fall from the sky, and sometimes school buildings full of innocent people are shockingly and senselessly destroyed in violent attacks by others who have lost their own humanity.  These are difficult things to wrap our minds around.  We must try to remember that life, even in its darkest moments, must be appreciated each and every day because of the fact that all who live will die one day.

Today we have white skies, and even though I do not want to begin putting away Christmas things, that is largely what this day will be about.

An angel sat on our treetop this Christmas season.  I took this photo Christmas evening.  (I used a photo editor to add more light.  Not one of my better photos, but I did have a houseful of people that night.)

I am thankful that my own home was so full of love and laughter on Christmas day and then all through the evening with both close and extended family members.  I was surprised that most of them came back again the very next night!

Our angel was a gift from my mother.  I do not remember what year she gave it to me/us, but I believe it was before my children were born.  This year, after a week where our little angel shone as brightly as ever in her lofty perch, her lights went out.  Most of the bulbs (many are inside the skirt) were burnt out and blackened.  It was the day before Christmas eve (my late aunt's birthday).  I fetched my step stool and brought our angel down to begin replacing all of the (10) bulbs.  I plugged her into a nearby outlet.  She lit up for about a second and then she burnt out again.  Next, I enlisted Mr K who tested the bulbs (and other things?) with his (voltage?) meter (maybe someday I will tell you more about my total non-desire for knowing more about all that is electrical).  Mr K did his testing for a while until he actually found a partial break in the cord, near the plug end.

I forgot to mention that somewhere in between my replacing all of the bulbs and Mr K finding the damage to the cord, we went out to dinner with our dear daughter.  While out, we stopped for replacement watch batteries at a Rite Aid store.  I never in my life thought that they would have a small string of white lights on a white cord, but I asked my daughter to look.  She found just that, and it was half price, and I bought it.  And so it was that late on the night before Christmas eve, I found myself pulling the old light strand out of our angel and replacing it with a new and brighter (20 bulb) one.

I am getting a little long here, but I took some photos of other Christmas things that my mother gave to us before I packed them up ready to go back in the attic.   

      
My mom always enjoyed going to "ceramics" where she would purchase unfired clay pieces that had been formed in molds.  She cleaned and painted them for glazing in a kiln.  The taller tree was a gift to me when I was in my 20's.  The smaller two were made for my daughter and son when they were little.

I had fun with this centerpiece set by filling the bowl with two of my most recent yarn purchases.  I always love a good red (Malabrigo Rasta).  The variegated forest green sock yarn was the November 2014 colorway of the Rockin' Sock Club (the photo does not show its true beauty).

I wish you a happy and healthy 2015!  Remember to look for as much white lightfulness as you can find when skies turn gray (and cherish fond memories)!    

The Lantern Festival

Happy Valentine's Day!  Happy Lunar New Year!

February 14 is the 2014 date of the Chinese Lantern Festival which marks the end of the 15 day celebration of the Lunar New Year and the Chinese Year of the Horse.  The horse is part of a 12-year-cycle of animals that make up the Chinese zodiac. These interact with the five elements: wood, metal, fire, water, earth. This is the year of the wood horse, taking over from the year of the water snake.

Paper Lanterns on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, CA

The lantern festival is held on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Some of the lanterns may be works of art, painted with birds, animals, flowers, zodiac signs, and scenes from legend and history. People hang glowing lanterns in temples, and carry lanterns to evening parades under the light of the full moon.

Paper Lanterns will soon make another appearance on this bog, but for now, a few more photos (from sunny CA)...

Holiday Reflections

On Christmas day, in the evening, 2013

Hours after dinner, most of us are still inside... a moment reflected on a window and caught by a camera...

It was after desert... (the candles are already burning low)... but before the traditional family card game of Apples to Apples.  Thirteen for dinner and ten for Apples to Apples.

In the morning we awoke to a fresh coat of snow.

The house of...

For about a week now I have been thinking (but only in my own head) that this "Kern household" is really the "Carolyn Kern House of Design".  A bit of a stretch, but all of these things have happened this week:

I finished my work on a super secret project for a design to be used by a very famous (to the online knitting community) yarn company.  That yarn was amazing!... It was such a fun knit!... I will share it with you when the time is right.

A nice little cube of a box came in the mail.  Inside of it was probably about three times the yarn that I will need to make another super secret project that will appear in a widely distributed print magazine next year.

I think the idea that, as soon as one goes out, the next one is already here, has gone to my head (but it's OK, because mostly I keep it to myself).

Just yesterday, I received one of those polite emails with the words, "thank you", "we had so many great submissions", "can't use them all", "don't have room for yours" and "hope to work with you in the future".  It is true that rejection letters are just a part of the whole process.

And...

This house is also a family home with Christmas coming... I have a lot of work ahead me!  Today there was some shopping and there will be sugar cookie baking.  For various reasons, we will not begin to decorate until next weekend... there is still a wreath with autumn leaves on my front door.  I will be cooking two rather elaborate traditional dinners.  (I always do.  It is one thing that I take in stride.  One step at a time, and really worth all the work.)  There is a lot more gift shopping, and all of the gift wrapping, as well as one very special birthday coming up soon!

Whew!  I can do this though, just one day at a time, and every day with some knitting in it :-)

I like to include at least one photograph in my posts.  Here is my latest  (non-secret) FO, Tartan Mitts made in Titus yarn by Baa Ram Ewe, project name: Sir Titus Tartan.

I will be giving them to my daughter for Christmas.  (They are not a surprise.)  I am keeping the red ones for myself!

 

It's Gift-A-Long Eve!

OK, Okay.  I do know that today is a real holiday.  Happy Halloween to one and all!

I would like to announce to all who knit or crochet that today is also Gift-A-Long Eve!

You may well be asking, "What is 'Gift-A-Long'?"

To jump start holiday gift knitting & crocheting, a group of over 150 designers who offer self-published patterns for sale on Ravelry, have joined together in a promotion named "Gift-A-Long".  The first phase of this promotion starts tomorrow with thousands of patterns being offered at 25% off after applying the coupon code "giftalong".  The official dates for the discount are November 1-15 (with most designers using GMT).  I am one of the designers, and all three (wish there were more) of my self-published, for-sale patterns are included.

 

Clockwise from top:
Two by Two by Two, Version 1
Jemma Cowl
Two by Two by Two, Version 2 (Both versions are included in one pattern.)
Fingering Weight TATU Socks (Four sizes included.)

There are soooo many wonderful patterns to pick from!!!  I now quote the group page for the "Indie Design Gift-A-Long" group:

"Prepping for the holidays as only fiber folks can, with special deals from tons of indie designers!

What is Gift-A-Long? It’s a multi-designer promotion to help you kick your holiday gift-making into high gear!

Put plainly, from November 1st until November 15th any pattern listed in the “List of Participating Patterns” thread is 25% off when you use the code “giftalong”.

Once you’ve got your Gift-A-Long patterns, we encourage you to join a relevant KAL/CAL! (For instance, if it is a cowl, please join the cowl KAL/CAL.) KAL/CAL participants are eligible for lots of lovely prizes (check out the Prizes thread for details) but you gotta post to win!
KAL/CALs will run until December 31st, plenty of time to knock out all your holiday knitting and crocheting.

On your mark…get set…. GIFT!"

Did you get that second part of the promotion?  Using any of the patterns offered in the Gift-A-Long (GAL) promotion, start a project (link it to the pattern page) and post about it in a relevant KAL/CAL thread on the group's discussion board.  There will be contests, and random prizes will be awarded to anyone who posts about their GAL projects in those threads.  When you finish a project made from one of the GAL patterns, post about it in the FO thread (one post for each FO, and one FO per post).  There will be two major giveaways (with hundreds of prizes) for GAL FO's: one in the middle of the GAL KAL/CAL and one after the December 31 ending date.  Please take a moment to join the gift-a-long group, where you can learn of any updated information.

Surprise!  Tomorrow is here!  I wrote this post a few days ago.  Then I learned that the organizers wanted all participating designers to keep it quiet until November 1.  Then I learned that November 1, 0:00 (midnight) GMT = October 31, 8:00 PM EDST.  So, (while I may be a bit late with my Halloween greeting;-) -- I waited to post this until now to be able to say:  The sale has just begun!  Here is a link to my post in the "List of Participating Patterns" thread.  From there you can begin your pattern browsing.  Enjoy!