Saint Lucia

I've always wanted to incorporate the traditions of Saint Lucia in our home.  Thanks to the American girl doll book Kirsten's Surprise, this is probably one of the few saints I had heard about as a child and the story caught my imagination.  I even dressed up like Saint Lucia for a speech in eleventh grade with real candles on my head.  However, with a shortage of daughters and plethora of other advent traditions, I've never managed to really incorporate this day with more than a story and perhaps coffee cake for breakfast.

A couple days before Saint Lucia day I found myself home with sick children on the day of a good friend and neighbor's daughter's birthday.  They happen to be partially Swedish and we had talked about wanting to do more with Saint Lucia... so on that day of changed plans I found some white cotton, some red silk, and felt in greens and white in my stash of fabric.  I dyed some wool roving with turmeric and went to work.  It really was a delightful task.  I so rarely have a whole day to put myself to the task of creating something and there are few things that make me as happy as throwing myself into a project.  

And the bonus of the project was that Saint Lucia visited our house in the evening on December 13th with cinnamon rolls and told us that she wears her lights on her head so she can serve with two hands. It was lovely and I have another crown cut out, because surely now that they know cinnamon rolls are involved a boy will volunteer to be Saint Lucian next year!