I'm not exactly feeling the Christmas Spirit, but I am trying.
The tree has been up since the 19th. It's the artificial, pre-lit, one I bought in 2022. After this Christmas, it has paid for itself, and I'll think about what to do next year. It's a really stunning tree, and it is so much less hassle... but I miss the smell and feel of a real tree. The scentcicles don't do it for me.
I've been decorating the tree for the last few days. A task I'd previously been able to do in an evening (including decorating the rest of the downstairs) is now spread over several days.
I had a hankering for something peacocky on the tree. I bought some handmade baubles, which were lovely. I bought a peacock coloured feather boa, which is lovely too (although not really the thing for a tree). I picked through my box of baubles, adding the ones representing the hens and cats. I added twinkly ornaments. It's getting there.
An old friend sent me the most gorgeous Christmas card with a peacock on! It encouraged me to look, unsuccessfully, for more peacocky things for my tree.
Looking on the John Lewis website for inspiration, I saw some Winnie the Pooh (WTP) baubles. I initially scrolled past them as they were Disney branded, and I loathe Disney's WTP. However, I saw that Eeyore looked like the real Eeyore, and I went back. On impulse, I bought them. I collected them from my local Waitrose yesterday, and added them to the tree.
I'd also ordered some yarn from a lovely knitting shop (The Knitting Network) which arrived super quickly. It was "tinsel wool" and I'd had the idea of putting it round the tree. Shelby was besideherself, and started trying to chew the yarn immediately, so that was the end of that.
I had a go at making pompoms out of it, using a Clover Pom Pom maker I'd ordered at the same time. It wasn't a success, a combination of operator failure and unsuitable yarn, I think. I decided to implement the other idea i'd had: i was going to knit some tinsel.
My knitting ability is rudimentary at best. I've been able to form standard knitting stitches since I was a small child. Until last year, I hadn't learned to cast on or off, I hadn't learned to purle, and I'd never mastered the art of keeping the same number of stitches throughout. Last year I made ap point of dealing with learning the casting on/off and purling, and I improved at keeping the same number of stitches. Improved as in, I didn't add or lose quite as many as I had previously.
I didn't think it would matter if I was just knitting a length of tinsel. So, last night, whilst watching episodes 3 and 4 of The Ink Black Heart I had a go. I started with 5 stitches on a pair of large needles, which was ambitious as the yarn was very fine. Throughout my knitting journey, it varied between 4 and about 8 stitches, but the tinsellisation made it almost unnoticeable.
I knitted, and knitted and knitted. Shelby, our wool loving cat, was in a frenzy of anticipation. I had to keep hiding the ball of yarn, as she kept helping herself. At one point, she ran off with it, like the Andrex Puppy. It made me chuckle, but I had to stop her because she does eat the darned stuff. We'd once had to pull a whole load of wool out of her throat and stomach, and I don't ever want to have to do that again.
It wasn't great.
The tinsel was fab, but the peacock blue thing isn't working at all well, and I am regretting it a lot, It just doesn't work with the particular shade of green of the artificial tree.
The tree looks a bit of a mess really.
Never mind, it's only for a few days.
On the plus side, I ordered some reduced price Really Useful Boxes so that I could arrange my Christmas Tree ornaments by colour when I put them away. You may be wondering why that's a plus?
It's a plus because it's the first time in a few years that I've been interested enough in the whole thing to consider doing something like that at all.
