Holly, Berries and Fingers

The Holy and the Ivy is one of my favourite Christmas Carols!

I am contributing to the Jolly Club Stall at the All Saints' Christmas Fair this year. Having made a few mini wreaths, I have moved on to holly leaves and berries. The yarn is exactly the same as the mini wreaths so I already had everything I needed.

The crochet shapes are relatively easy if you already know how to chain, slip-stitch, and single, half-double and double crochet stitches. My biggest issue is the finishing off: as some of the leaves are small, weaving in the ends and attaching pins or hooks is really fiddly. Thankfully Twisted Yarns has a great pattern that shows you how to work the initial tail into the initial chain, one less thing to weave in!

Now the weather is a bit colder, my finger joints clunk a bit more than usual. As with any thing we do repetitively (e.g. playing an instrument or sport, even hand writing) there is a fine line between doing a lot and over doing it so to keep my fingers supple I am trying to play the piano for at least five minutes on an - almost - daily basis. The other day I found a playlist of 40 simple exercises made by Play Piano in a Flash which has made my endeavour feel easier and less lonely. Who knows, maybe I'll even get back into actually playing piano pieces someday too!