Suitors

I need to find the Norwegian word for this, but it translates to "suitors." It is used for loose threads that catch on clothing and the little bits of wool and yarn that end up on the floor when spinning (particularly if, like me, you don't spin very well.) There are all sorts of fun traditions related to this. For instance, you can predict things about your potential suitor by wrapping them around your thumb or counting thumb widths as you go through the alphabet to get their first initial or reciting places you might meet them "cottage, kitchen, cellar, loft" or how far the relationship would go "on the path, to the door, to the church, the alter, the bed." In Norwegian folk belief, these small bits are part of the life thread and in her book Invisible Threads in Knitting, Annemor Sundbø suggests using them to decorate your knitting. This reminds me of the suggestion I follow occasionally of putting your orts in a clear Christmas ball adding the date and using it as a memento for the year.
Annemor shares the following (unattributed) quote:

A loose thread on a dress meant that a secret suitor was not far away. He is fair-haired if the thread is light and dark if the thread is dark.

What a fun tradition!

Quick and Cute Hardanger Candle

I've really gotten into Hardanger again lately. Of course, it helps that my seizures are controlled enough that counting is not a trigger. (Sadly, work that requires more analysis, like coding and sometimes even math, still trigger seizures or migraines.)

I found this adorable pattern for a candle the other night and today got the right colors of thread out of the Sonja Daughters stash at the lodge. It only took a bit over an hour. It will be put in a card for sale at our butik.

Free pattern from https://www.mabelfigworthy.co.uk/freebies.php