It’s time to show off my Christmas goodies!
First I have to gush about my bag of gorgeous unspun wools from Spindies’ Etsy Shop. Spindies is a group of fiber artists who contribute to the “Paint Box” wool collections. This “Paint Box” bag is called “Wisteria,” about five ounces of fiber altogether. There are ten batts of fiber in the “Paint Box,” all hand-dyed.
Unfortunately, Spindies doesn’t have anything in their shop at the moment. Hopefully they’ll restock soon, because I think I’m addicted. I love squeezing them in my hands: wool, bamboo, merino, alpaca, silk! They’re so pretty I’m afraid to spin them. I’m a very inexperienced spinner and my spinning wheel is having hiccups again. So for now, I’m just going to admire them.
Only two books this Christmas: first, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool. I’ve only skimmed it, but it seems to be an invaluable reference for an aspiring historical novelist (ahem) or anyone who enjoys reading 19th century literature. For example, in the chapter on “Balls,” Pool writes:
The dances were not without their downside…wax dripped from the overhead candelabra and chandeliers onto the dancers with some regularity. The wilder dances involved mad sorties across the floor…with the bracelets that some ladies wore, in at least one instance someone slammed into another girl cutting her arm and sending blood spurting all over.
I can imagine a villainess wearing a spiked bracelet for the fiendish purpose of impaling our heroine…
Lastly, I got a copy of Sweet’s Anglo-Saxon Primer, which has been called the best textbook of its kind since it was first published in 1882. Now I can learn to put the frog in frogga and the sun in sunne, and the fairy in aelf, which I’m going to catch with Prof. Dalrymple’s Patented Fairy Catching System. Happy New Year to everyone!
