Imbolc altar

I like to go a little more minimal for this season, as reflected in our outside world...bare ground and branches, a certain stillness and quiet before the birth of Spring. I use my heart rock collection (the big one and the quartz ones were gifts, the rest were found), my silver thrift store chalice, rose quartz and amethyst spheres, a precious glass heart box from a dear teacher, and Quan Yin for serenity. There's also a picture of me with my big girls, and a little doll I made many years ago...her name is Rosa.
Rosa is a curador, a healer. She is a midwife and keeper of herbs. She's made of green gauze and dressed in scraps of fancy velvet and various dress fabrics in red and purple, her favorite colors, all trimmed with roses. Her hands are bells and she holds tiny broom...her necklace is garnet hearts and a tiny hematite moon.
Come to think of it, I recently purchased some more of those little brooms at the thrift store...perhaps I should make more of these little witchy dolls.
I'm still working on taking better pictures. I've learned to turn off the flash and get the right light...now I just need to drink less coffee so things don't look so, well, shaky.
I like this picture a lot. Here we have the last of the merino I bought last October, in a beautiful robin's egg / cloud and sky combo. I am so proud of this skein, the first one I wrapped on a (borrowed) niddy noddy and it looks so professional! Next to the wool is a watercolor by P. #2. I believe this yarn will become a hat for her, I found a Disney Princess iron on patch that will be perfect on the front.
And in knitting news...
I'm making a little progress on the Oympic sock(s), which for obvious reasons I have nicknamed the Green Wonky. Do I have even the slightest idea what I'm doing here? You be the judge. The pattern is something called "tweed lace" and I suppose there are a hundred other names for it. My only consolation is that I'm not the one going 85 miles an hour down an ice tube on my back.