Friday, February 2, 2007

Happy Candlemass Day!

Candlemass Day is one of those obscure Christian holidays, I’m not sure off the top of my head exactly WHAT it’s about, something about making sure you have enough candles, and they all get blessed, and perhaps collected for the church – I should look it up again. I only found out a couple of years ago that it was February 2 – I’ve read many a British book that talked about going back to school for the Candlemass Term, and I couldn’t get a time frame – and I finally got it!

Meanwhile, to knitting. I’m slogging along on the facing for my SIL’s present – will be glad when I get to the interesting knitting.

So, at the moment at home I’m knitting on two lace projects, one the frogged Adamas Shawl, which is almost back to where it was when I ended up frogging.


And the other is the start of the Orenburg Scarf from Interweave Knits – I really like the way it looks—


I’m off to lots of singing this weekend – a song swap at friends tonight, and then tomorrow my husband and I both are performing at the Folklore Society of Greater Washington’s Annual Mini Festival – a day of folk music, dance, song and stories. Husband is performing with both his ‘electric folk band” and his Civil War reenactment group. I’m leading a workshop on Songs of the Times – songs that evoke a time period, or are very much of a specific time period (I’m doing one that’s WWI poem set to music, and one that tells of the French & Indian war up in Lake Champlain). Hopefully between the two evens I’ll be able to get the 18 rows of 351 stitches done and Sunday start on the FI part of the project.

Keep warm! We’re going nearly artic for the next week here in the DC area – only so far, NO SNOW! (After tomorrow, I want a FEDERAL GOVERNMENT closing snow storm!)
And to end – here’s a photo of my Maine Coons, Barnum and Bailey together. Bailey looks bigger in this photo, but she’s actually almost five pounds lighter then her brother.

5 comments:

SyrenMuse said...

Well... in the old days they would bless the candles used in the church for the rest of the year. Hence, Candle-Mass.

Hannah said...

Is it Michaelmas in the fall when the candles are dipped? That is one of my favorites.

The Orenburg looks lovely. What yarn are you using?

Amy O'Neill Houck said...

Ooh, the Orenburg is beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Like sooo many other Christian holidays this one borrows from the pagan. Candlemas is the cross-quarter day half-way between the solstice and the equinox. It marks the quickening of the year and the time when the return of the light becomes more noticable. Thus, I suppose, the blessing of the candles for the rest of the church year. (Other famous cross-quarter days are May Day and Halloween.)

Anonymous said...

"electric folk band”, eh?

Try http://lastgolddollar.com (still under construction, I'm afraid) to see a little of the band. If you try the song samples, be sure to mute the background music from the front page -- it doesn't stop playing automatically. Like I said, still under construction.

Bob (the hubby)