Welcome to day 12 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. We're counting down the darkest days by exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinners is Caroline, originally from Newcastle,who now lives in Teesside, UK. I love spinning, knitting and (very) amateur weaving on my kiddy loom... mostly things for the children, accessories as gifts for friends, but more recently I've adventured into bigger wearable projects for myself. I also enjoy dyeing. My favourite fibres are natural and why I love Katie's blends, and I enjoy playing with my blending board for a bit of Christmas sparkle or colour effects for spinning. Love raw fleece too, Border Leicester from the Doulton Flock who are just a short drive away, and any other beauties I spot on my travels to fibre festivals. My most ambitious gift yet was probably the jumper of doom for Jon, as he's 6ft and far from the build of a whippet... spun the yarn from John Arbon Jacob tops and really delighted with the result. Closely followed by the Pokemon Magikarp had I am about to embark on for my son for Christmas... I'm loving my advent calendar (10g of fibre from spinners all over the UK each day) but once the Christmas knitting is finished, I plan to do a combi or fade style spin for a sweater for myself. Also planning a fair isle yoke with some HTC Cambrian spun during Spinzilla this year. We have two celebrations, my son's birthday is the solstice, and we celebrate Christmas as a family. This year there will be my children, my partner and his children, and the extended families and friends (there's a lot of them!) We spend the holidays visiting places, lots of well wrapped up walks, baking and cooking, eating and drinking, singing and dancing... festive films and games. Candles everywhere to bring the light to the dark nights. We have just put up our tree, which is a beautifully chaotic mixture of 2 families coming together and ornaments the children have made. In terms of food, that's such a tricky question... but seasonal fruit cake and gingerbread are special treats, and cheese, preserves, pate, cracker in front of the fire :) I make my Christmas cake a month or 2 beforehand, but this is a great fruit tea loaf recipe of you need some in a hurry...courtesy of Nigella Lawson and tried by spinners at the Leominster retreat back in February this year... Soak 8oz dried mixed fruit in a bowl overnight with a cup of cold strong black tea. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to in 180c or gas 4. Stir 2 tablespoons of marmalade (the stuff with the big bitter bits in is the best!) Into the dried fruit mixture amd add a beaten egg. Fold in 4oz castor sugar and 8oz SR flour. Pour into a lined greased 1.5lb load run and make for an hour or until skewer comes out clean. Cool, slice and serve :) Huge thanks to Caroline for writing this post, and all the lovely photographs. Come back tomorrow, there will be a another spinner, in another part of the world.
Welcome to day 11 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. We're counting down the darkest days by exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinner is Janet from Greenfield, Indiana, USA. We celebrate Advent and Christmas, we try to celebrate as a family; husband, five children, five grand children, six doggie cousins. We attend Christmas Eve service with family. Then on Christmas Morning breakfast with homemade eggnog, forgotten cookies and stollen. We have glazed ham for dinner and cheesecake for dessert. Of course we have a grand tree and lots of presents. My family is fond of all sorts of board games after all the festivities the children usually pull you into one of those groups. This year we are headed to Chattanooga, Tennessee to our Police Officer son's and EMT daughter's home. The whole family is going there since their work schedules don't allow them to travel. I always carry knitting for the car and idle moments. I love to eat Christmas cookies; sugar cookies, iced prize cookies with mincemeat or candied fruit in the dough, molasses stars.... and Mamie Eisenhower Fudge! Our favorite treat comes from Grandma. They are called Forgotten Cookies. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with foil. Beat 2 egg whites until stiff, slowly add 3/4 c sugar and beat till smooth. Add 1tsp mint flavoring, a few drops of green food coloring and stir in 1 cup chocolate chips. Plop spoonsful onto the cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet into the oven, close the door and turn off the oven. Do not open the door for at least 5 hours or over night. Alternate fillings are chopped dates and nuts, crushed candy canes or just about anything you can think of! My first married Christmas I made a Christmas outfit for my dear mother-in-law. It was a long skirt and a red velvet bolero vest. I hand sewed braided rick-rack on the vest and the skirt. It took hours and since it was a surprise and I lived in their home because my new husband was in Korea in the service I was holed up in my room stitching for days. Mom and Dad were worried about me being depressed. They only understood on Christmas morning. Mom loved it and wore it for many years. She always pointed out the "perfect little stitches" to everyone who complimented her outfit. I just finished a lovely scarf made from a Hilltop Cloud fiber that I will give to a friend for Christmas. I will spin as much as I can as always. I've been spinning for over 7 years now, have accumulated three wheels and several tubs of fiber (mostly from Hilltop Cloud). I learned to knit nearly 60 years ago, but only started knitting in earnest 45 years ago. My favorite Christmas was back in 1976. We were assigned to Berlin, Germany and arrived there the weekend before Thanksgiving. We were all alone without family and feeling kind of glum, until someone invited us to a Christmas Eve service at church which cheered us up. We got ourselves and the 2 year old and 3 month old dressed and went to the place where they were to pick us up at the appointed time, but the bus never came. We stood in the freezing cold wind for a long time hoping, but finally went back up to our tiny efficiency apartment. My husband was so discouraged he gathered the laundry and went to the basement to wash clothes. I can't tell you where I found the supplies, but the Spirit of Christmas took a hold of me and I set to work. I created a crepe paper streamer Christmas tree on the balcony window with ornaments and a star on top. I took the glasses they gave us when we arrived and fixed some little candles in them, lit them and placed them around the room and turned out the lights. I went down to the laundry room and brought my husband back upstairs. He was so touched by the festive appearance of that little room. We had our own little service in worship of the newborn king and our love of family traditions was born. When we woke up in the morning the sun was shining bright, it was the first time we had seen the sun in over a month! We bundled up the girls and stood on that balcony fully convinced that God Himself had given us the best Christmas present ever! We adopted the Advent Wreath as one of our family traditions to remind us of those Berlin days when we learned to be a family. It's the little things; friends, family, traditions, home made gifts and home that show themselves to be the precious treasures of our lives... and memories. Thank Janet for sharing your Christmases with us. Come back tomorrow for another spinner.
Welcome to day 10 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. We're counting down the darkest days by exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinner is I'm Zwaluw or Z(ee) from the Netherlands. She currently lives in a tiny village, though is just about to start uni and move to the Big City, and here's how she celebrates. In terms of what festival I celebrate? This is an unexpectedly hard question, I was raised Protestant, so my initial reaction is Christmas, but at the same time, I do not believe any longer, but I do celebrate something? Let's go with Midwinter! I'm in a very apt period of transition, I used to celebrate with my parents and take part in their traditions, like acting in the church christmas play, but now I'm starting to do my own thing and celebrating in my own way so I usually celebrate alone, or with my cat. This year I'll be travelling with a friend so I get to celebrate in some way with her. I light a candle on the winter solstice, and if I'm alone on Christmas Eve instead of eating a normal dinner, I'll have something special. In addition to that I've taken to watching The Hogfather -a movie based on a book by Terry Pratchett about Christmas- at some point during the holidays, or on Christmas Eve while I have dinner. The great thing about being an adult(ish) is that you can eat your favourite things all the time if you want! I can't actually think of a favourite dish, let alone a favourite dish for the holidays specifically. I really enjoy radishes with salt though, and I'm fairly sure I got introduced to it during a lesson about the seder. If you want to try them for yourselves- Cut your radishes in half, sprinkle a little bit of salt over top and try not to question my poor taste when you bite into it! I think my most ambitious yet is the shawl I'm knitting right now. The pattern is Belle Filles by Porpoise Fur. I've only just started knitting again, and before all I managed was garter knit scarves, so for me this is pretty ambitious! My great-aunt was sweet enough to lend me her spinning wheel when she saw me spindling when I visited her, so she's getting my first handspun and handknit shawl. I'm going to be spending most of the holiday period travelling with my friend from Australia in England. Her trip here has been three years in the making and I'm ever so excited to finally meet her in person! I got the BBS advent calendar, so I'll be spinning that this month and possibly some of my stash, if I have time between the frenzy of packing for my holiday and preparing to move and start university. I've only been spinning for a month or two, so it's a little hard to say what I like to spin yet, I'd say I like everything! Right now, trying out different kinds of fiber and learning and getting better slowly is part of what makes spinning so enjoyable. I got taught how to knit when I was 13 but it didn't really stick, I've picked it back up again now, to do something with all the yarn that I'm spinning. The spinning has also gotten me into weaving. My grandmother was a spinner and weaver and I have some of her equipment, so there's a table loom in the middle of my room now and I'm doing my best to get to know it. Besides all the fibery things I sew as well and I write fanfiction too. Thanks Zee for taking the time to write this post. Come back tomorrow for another spinner...
Welcome to day 9 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. We're counting down the darkest days by exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinner is Kirsten, she lives in Sydney, Australia, and here's how she celebrates Jul. Of course down in the Southern Hemisphere it's currently their summer, so it's nice to hear from someone who's currently experiencing some sunshine In mid-winter there's the occasional 'Christmas in July', but Christmas proper falls in the middle of summer in this part of the world. In Australia, generally this means trying to adapt traditions designed to keep everyone warm and cosy into trying not to suffer heat stroke. My own family has Danish heritage, so at least all the cooking is aimed at Christmas Eve, and a cold meal on Christmas Day. I prefer the term 'Jul' (Yule), as there nothing religious in our celebration - it's a lovely chance to get together with family as we live across 3 major cities in Australia (300-1200km apart), and down time from work, study and any other commitments. My family all return to my parents house to celebrate there - it's not really an extended family, so it stays a small event. The house is decorated, there's a turkey on Christmas Eve, mandelgave (literally 'almond gift'), julesange ('Christmas carols'), and presents from under the tree distributed after everything else is done. Christmas Day is quiet and low key - I've found it's a great day to go for a walk or bike ride, as most other Australians are at home doing the more typical Christmas Day celebrations (and besides, everything is closed). My favourite foods are confusingly both traditional Danish dishes and fresh fruit - all the best fruit is in season, so it wouldn't be Christmas without cherries, mangoes, stone fruits, berries... Mandelgave is traditionally a whole almond hidden in risalamande/risengrød (rice pudding) - whoever finds the only whole almond gets a special gift. In our house, this has been replaced with fruit salad and icecream layered in a parfait glass (there's still a single almond). In terms of spinning my default seems to be fingering weight, and I love interesting blends of fibre, though I always like trying out methods and fibres I haven't tried before. I do a little bit of all the things (knit, crochet, weave), making me sort of adequate but not particularly good at any. I also like spinning better, so I end up with lots of yarn (and good intentions), but not so many finished projects. My other on and off hobbies include taiko (Japanese drumming), an assortment of dance styles over the years, various other musical instruments, sewing, and just recently trying karate. In an ideal world, I want to do all the things! For gifts, I try not to go too ambitious, I have made an iPad case, a few different types of bags, spun yarn (for recipients who can knit), and a number of things over the years that I have forgotten about...! Spinning over the holidays will be a couple of advent calendars which should keep me busy. As I won't be at home, it has to be managed on a spindle (no wheel), and I have to remember to take the fibre with me! Thanks to Kirsten for sharing her Jul celebrations with us, come back tomorrow for another spinner.
Welcome to day 8 of our Spinners of the World December blogposts. We're counting down the darkest days by exploring and learning more about the world we live in, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinner is Christie from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We celebrate Christmas, We alternate the 'actual day between my family and my partner's. This year we're having Christmastime Christmas with my family and New Year's Christmas with his family. All my siblings and their spouses, kids, and dogs and my grandparents congregate at my parent's farm. We garrison for as long as people can stay before having to go back to work and other obligations. We have a big Christmas turkey dinner and play games and do puzzles and various arts in each other's company. My mom runs a long-arm quilting business so we usually gather in her studio to spin, knit, sew, cross-stitch. My favourite thing to eat is Christmas Pudding, but I don't have the recipe. Every year I get together with my grandmother to make Christmas pudding. It's canned and has to age for a month before Christmas, so we usually make it sometime in November. She is the keeper of the recipe, which has been in the family for generations. I spin all kinds of things. My favourite fibre is probably still wool and I love to process from the fleece (sorting, washing, combing/carding). I mostly knit, but I also weave and sew a little. Aside from fibre arts, I'm part of a storytelling group that gets together about once a month. After Christmas at the farm, we have a few days at home to relax and spend time with my partner. I participate in a 12 Days of Christmas spin-along. I'm also hoping to work through a considerable backlog of fleeces I acquired over the past couple years. My most ambitious gift was a handspun lace shawl with less than a month to go before Christmas. Thanks to Christie for taking part, come back tomorrow, there will be another spinner, and another celebration!
Welcome to day 6 of the the slightly different version of the Advent blogpost series. This year we're still exploring and learning, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Today's spinner is Maija-Leena, she's from Finland, and these are her midwinter traditions- I usually spin for knitting, as it is my favourite of traditional crafts using yarn. But I have made also for example tablet weaving with my own yarn. I am having all too many hobbies and most of them are some kind of crafts. I celebrate Christmas, also 6th of December our Independence day, which happens to be 100th this year Ed note. which is why she's blogging today! Happy Independence Day Finland). In Finland we give presents at Christmas Eve and in the morning we might go to church. There is lot of food involved, much of it traditional dishes. My husband and I are usually joined by my daughter and my parents or his parents, sometimes his brother's family too. My favourite thing to eat is Ginger breads with milk (and I do not drink milk with anything else ever). I used to use the recipe I got from my Mum, but now I usually buy them from the store. The most ambitious present I've ever made is a reproduction of an antique porcelain doll. Thanks to Maija-Leena for taking the time to write this post, come back tomorrow for another spinner!
Welcome to day 5 of the the slightly different version of the Advent blogpost series. This year we're still exploring and learning, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Today's spinner is Katja from York, England, but originally she's from Germany, which might be where she's spending this holiday period. I don't celebrate any specific festival, but I am partial to all the treats that accompany this time of year. I usually celebrate with my cats :) Sometimes friends, every few years I travel to Germany to be with my family. I'll have a nice meal, probably a cheesy movie, unashamed couch surfing. I enjoy being at home and having time to spin/knit/sew however and whatever I want. Over this holiday, in terms of spinning, I helped another Raveller to relieve her stash of some never ending gradient packs, and I have some North Ron roving that'd amazing for that neutral grey cardigan I really need ... My favourite thing to eat is Roast Goose with red cabbage and dumplings, eaten on the 24th, which is the BIG DAY in Germany. This recipe is a nice way to roast it. I've only been a spinner for a hair over a year, so what I like to spin kinda changes daily :D But I've processed a handful of fleeces now, I really like a nice down or down-like fleece and am beginning to understand why everybody tells you that commercially prepared wool is just very different ... I mostly knit with my handspuns, and have been a knitter for a loooooong time, am proficient in crochet and have recently bought a rigid heddle loom. What can I say? Fibre addict through and through :D Other hobbies include sewing and reading. I work in IT/Software development, so it's important to me to have a creative hobby that has a tangible output. And because I live on the internet a huge amount of my daily life, I'm hyper aware of all the issues our overboarding consumerism is causing, so I try to be conscious around that. Making the majority of my own clothes, ideally with locally sourced materials, is my little contribution trying to preserve the amazing planet we live on for future generations. Thanks to Katja for taking the time to write this post. Come back tomorrow to hear from another spinner.
Welcome to day 4 of the the slightly different version of the Advent blogpost series. This year we're still exploring and learning, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinner is Maggie from Surrey, England. I celebrate Christmas and Hogmanay with family and friends. We usually get together and enjoy food, drink, decorations, and presents. Our food traditions usually involve Turkey, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake. This year we're away with extended family at a seaside hotel. So I won't be doing the cooking! I have nothing specific planned for spinning but my spindle will be coming along too. I love spinning natural fibres especially wool but also like to try spinning anything e.g. Plastic bottles, shells, wolf fur - which was lovely and soft. We got into trouble picking bog cotton on the nearby army ranges to spin as the ranger was convinced we were after rare orchids. She just couldn't get her head around the idea of spinning. Other hobbies I have are knitting, listening to audio books, walking at the coast and bird watching. I'm pretty ambitious with my present crafting, in the past I've made a Fair isle jumper, knitted cupcake!, and fancy socks. Thanks Maggie for taking the time to write this post, come back tomorrow for another spinner....
Welcome to day 2 of the the slightly different version of the Advent blogpost series. This year we're still exploring and learning, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinner is Elisabeth from Norway. I like to spin fiber that is easy to draft and that gives a smooth yarn current favorit is Polwarth. I do knit and occationaly I crochet since the only loom I have is a play/childs loom about 7" wide I don't really do any weaving. My other hobbies are singing (I sing in a choir, but it is currently inactive due to lack of members and that the conductor is bussy), reading books, watching movies and being with friends. I celebrate Christmas with my family. In Norway the big day is Christmas Eve. We get dressed up and have a nice dinner and then we open presents. This year I don't have any concrete plans, but I will be spending time with my family and some of my family that live 9-10 hours drive away will come to spend Christmas with me and my parents, I don't know how long they can stay, but they will surely be here for Christmas eve and Christmas day and if they get time of from work also on boxing day if not that will be when they drive back home. I particularly enjoy eating Julemarsipan (Christmas Marzipan). But this year I think I have to give it a miss since I need to stop eating so much sweets. To make homemade marzipan you need: Ground almonds, poudered sugar, egg withes and a bit of water (the quanteties depend on how much you wanna make). The only thing I pan to make for the holiday season is to make Kransekake (Almond wreath cake also called Ring king cake) with my mother, she sells them at Christmas time (The picture shows a small one I made to give to a friend as an extra X-mas present. I don't really plan my spinning I just spin when I have time and I feel like spinning. My Mother is also the recipient of my most ambitious gift, a Vitamin D cardigan. A huge thank you to Elisabeth! Come back tomorrow to hear from another spinner.
Welcome to day 2 of the the slightly different version of the Advent blogpost series. This year we're still exploring and learning, but I'm not the one writing the posts! Each day the post has been written by a volunteer spinner, they're be telling us about their mid-winter holiday traditions, and a little bit about the place they live. I still need volunteers, so if you enjoy this post please head over to the form here. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! Todays spinner is Lesley, and here's what she has to say... I learnt to spin using raw fleece, and carding it – but now I prefer to spin tops and roving – both natural colours and also dyed. I also like blending dyed tops to make even more unique colours. My yarn is either knitted or given away. I also participate in the British Trust for Ornithology’s Garden Birdwatch (https://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw) so time is spent watching and counting birds in our garden, which we also feed. So far, in over twenty years we’ve had thirty-nine different species – it has been interesting seeing how some species have declined and others have increased in that period – and how that relates to national trends, such as the decline of House Sparrow. I'm from rural south-east Worcestershire in the United Kingdom. I celebrate Christmas with two cats and one husband – all mine, though one of the cats likes to think she owns us! We celebrate by going to see the village Christmas tree lights switched on, carol service, having a Christmas tree and an advent candle at home, generally enjoying the decorations people put up outside their homes: I love the lights in the darkness at this time of year here. And, most traditionally of all listening to Carols from Kings on Radio 4 on Christmas Eve, and then watching a different version of it on the TV. I love the pot plants that occur at this time of year. We have two Christmas cacti which we’ve kept over the years, but they flower earlier and earlier. I’ve taken to calling them Advent cactus, but they both began to flower in November this year, well before Advent. My favourite thing to eat at this time of year is Stolen, and I also have a recipe for fat-free mincemeat. (Editors note this is traditionally put in small shortcrust pastry cases, and baked in the oven. Ingredients- 2lbs apples (eating or cooking) 2 lbs dried mixed fruit 1.5 lbs sugar 1 pint water juice of a lemon (or substitute with bottled lemon juice) mixed spice, ginger – or other spices as you wish. Peel, core and finely chop the apple, and simmer gently with the lemon juice, water and mixed fruit for 20 minutes. Add sugar and spices and boil for 20 minutes. Leave to cool, then put into jars. It keeps well – I often find myself using the previous year’s at Christmas. Can be scaled up – just keep the 4:4:3 ratio of apples, fruit and sugar. Weigh the apples before peeling etc. – 2lbs of chopped apples makes the apples too dominant. The most ambitious thing I've ever made as a present was the first item I ever made for a baby, though I didn’t realise it at the time! It was a sleeping suit, with a pixie hood and long sleeves, and then a body going all the way down to the toes, in a lovely shaded mint green. I had always been told that baby things took very little time to knit, so I was amazed to find out how long this one took. I think my error was in not realising that I was actually making a rather long item, far longer than a normal baby cardigan / jacket, which would have been quick to knit. Still, it was used, and that was the main purpose! Nowadays, babies tend to be made an Elizabeth Zimmerman surprise jacket. Over the holidays I'm hoping to spend time reading, maybe walking – depends on the weather. I’m hoping to get to start spinning the Cambrian I bought in the summer…but that depends on other projects being finished! Thanks Lesley!
If you enjoyed reading this then please head over and share your holiday traditions, without volunteers there will be no advent blog this year. Please head over to the form here and fill it out. This is open to everyone, please don't worry about your language skills, or even if you think your holiday traditions aren't very interesting, I want to hear from you! |
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Beautiful fibre you'll love to work with. Established 2011 VAT Reg- 209 4066 19 Dugoed Bach, Mallwyd, Machynlleth,
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