Making Winter: the cosy story so far

For much of December I was working on a potentially exciting project that took much of my time and energy. Along with Christmas commissions and the twinkly event itself it left little time to give to mundane tasks such as laundry or checking to see how frightening my hair may have become overnight. The washing mountain rivalled Mt Fuji by the time the girls went back to school. Dogs began barking at my hair, such were its horrifying dimensions.

On Instagram the Making Winter hashtag seemed to split into two (one with and one without the underscore) and there are now close to 4000 images of seasonal creativity and ways to survive the greyer days of the colder season.

It was a joyous task (although rather belated) to look through December's Making Winter contributions over on Instagram. The nine above spoke of Hygge to me - that wonderful Scandinavian word meaning cosiness, light, good food and meeting with friends during winter. For my Hygge also means making as craft is so therapeutic and effective at lifting mood.

From top left:

31chapellane,  superduperthings, owl _emma

live_and_bloom, dockandnettle, absinthemindedswede

emmas_garden, gemmakoomen,  hanbullivant

I also fell for this tiny knitted menagerie by dear lucylocketpocket1 using Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits' pattern (Julie has recently joined Instagram too). I would like to stuff my pockets with these little creatures. Their FROCKS for crying out loud!

My favourite image from the Making Winter feeds in December was from Jax of liveotherwise. This encapsulates the project for me - finding something small and beautiful on a cold dark day. I adore the shapes of the branches and the horizon in the distance. It reminds me of Jan Pienkowski's silhouette landscapes and fairytale illustrations. I'd rather like to take a walk right there. Jax, please email me your address and a parcel of handmade goodness will be on its way to you.

Image by Laura of Circle of Pines

Meanwhile bloggers added wonderfully inspiring posts to the two Making Winter bloghops: Val's tiny willow stars, Rachel's Parkin,  Julia's ginger biscuits, handcrafted advent calendars, Fenland Lottie's delicious homemade mincemeat,this wonderful Christmas pudding hat  and Laura of Circle of Pines' little dried orange peel garland were definite favourites.

The weekly #makingwinter Twitter hour has become a wonderful way for makers to share their seasonal designs, yarncrafters to show their cosiest projects and bakers to make us all yearn for more cake. Thrillingly the hashtag trended on Twitter a week or two ago.

THANKYOU for joining in with Making Winter. For many these weeks after Christmas can be the toughest- the days are still short and sometimes interminably grey and we have already laid down a store of visual loveliness, recipes, designs and also, in some cases, friendships that will keep the grey grims from the door. Every tweet, picture, blogpost and stitch will help to cheer the road to Spring.

There are two months to go until Spring proper arrives. I'm planning a project that will bring cheer to even the dreariest days that remain in January and February. Stand by with ink pens and writing paper.....