Christmas Stockings!

For those of you who have read my blog, you know that I love to knit Christmas Stockings and every year, I look for new people to knit stockings for. Last year, I offered to make stockings and a few people contacted me about my offering. Now you can see the stockings that I created this year and a little story about each one.

Stocking # 1

 This first stocking that I knit was started in July during my volunteer shifts at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. It took me a while to figure out what design to do on this stocking as I was asked by a friend from high school to knit this for her mother-in-law to be. After my many questions, I chose this yarn that I bought at Baad Anna's on Hastings street in Vancouver and a bit of yarn from my mother's stash and started the design of a candle.

It felt right to me that Joie should have some light in her stocking along with a traditional look in colour and design which is why I chose the candle. This was the first stocking that I knit this year and the last one to be delivered on December 23rd. Just in time. The friend who asked me to knit it and her partner were absolutely delighted and said it was perfect. I spent 5 hours visiting with them when I delivered the stocking and thoroughly enjoyed my time. What gifts we can bring each other.

 This is stocking number 2 that I started knitting on my way to the Western Canadian Oireachtas, which is the Western Canadian Regional Championships of Irish Dance for my daughter. I was actually half way through stocking number 5, but ran out of yarn and had to re-do it causing this one to become stocking number 2. This is for a little girl who lives in Victoria who has amazing parents that I am blessed to know.

I originally met Bliss Prema years ago in another incarnation. We have seen each other through many changes and I am grateful for each and every moment that I have had with her. If you have any interest in personal growth, spirituality and following your dreams, look up her name online and see her latest offerings to the world. She is a gifted woman and her husband Seamus form Ireland is a beautiful man. I look forward to knitting a stocking this year for their next child. Thank you for giving me the gift of knitting Uisce's.

This stocking is for Leslie, my daughter's Irish Dance Teacher for about 11 or more years. This is my version of the logo for Scoil Rince de Danaan (Leslie's Irish Dance school) and it took several musings in my mind to figure out what I was going to do for an incredibly intricate design. This was the last stocking that I started even though it was not the last one to get finished.

This one came about in August when I asked Leslie's Daughter Beca if she thought that Leslie would like a handknit Christmas Stocking from me and Beca replied emphatically yes and that all of their stockings had disappeared and they (Leslie and her two daughters, Meredie and Beca) didn't have any. As soon as Beca said that I knew I would be knitting three and the process of design started.

I design each stocking and sometime I draw out the graphs or I go on Ravelry to find a design that works for what I want. On Leslie's I was trying to figure out how to transition from the dark blue to the lighter blue and my daughter, Boedicea, made her first graph for me to use on her teacher's stocking. She created the graph for the swirls and that is her design.

This is the stocking for Meredie and her name is on it in red even though it is hard to see as the red and green were both quite dark. By the time we got to the De Danaan Feis the first weekend of December, I still had 2 1/2 stockings to knit that needed to be finished by December 17th. So I knit all weekend while volunteering at the Feis. This one I had folded over and safety pinned together so that the name was not visible as Meredie, Beca and Leslie were all at the Feis, and Beca knew that I was knitting a stocking for Leslie, but did not know about the ones for herself and Meredie.

Meredie is a musician and I had to make sure that this one was musically correct, and it is. I knit this one in one weekend and alot of knitting was done during the Beoga concert. They were impressed with my ability to knit musical notes. Silent night is the song on this stocking and Meredie was delighted when she saw it.

This is Beca's stocking and I did have a bit of a struggle at first with this one. I was not sure what to knit for Beca. She does hair and make up and all sorts of things for all the Irish Dancers at De Danaan. I feel like I have know her forever, but I think it is only since she was a teenager.

I wanted to knit something for her that had some classic elegance with an Irish flavour but was not too fussy. I started working on this Aran style stocking and realized that a take off on Belleek china was where I was headed with this one. I crocheted the little shamrocks to put inside the cable Christmas tree.

I normally knit the names in, but I wanted to do Beca's in a more scrollwork pattern and so I crocheted the gold yarn to be able to sew it on the stocking. This method also made it easier to knit at the De Danaan Feis as there was no name to identify the recipient of this stocking.


These were the stockings that I knit this year and I hope to knit many more next year. I have already got three orders for next year and will be starting on them soon.

If someone special to you deserves a handknit Christmas stocking, contact me.

Knitting stockings is something that brings me immense pleasure and I really look forward to making more.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May your house be full of humour, your heart full of love and your belly full of good food and may your New Year bring you all you need!

Janet

12/12/12 - My Mother Robin's 68th Birthday.

We have all been told about this most auspicious day and many have planned events to celebrate or prepare for the disaster to come, depending on whether you are a pessimist or an optimist.

Nothing has prepared me for this day and I have entered into it with much else on my mind. 2012 has been quite the year and much has happened in my life. One year ago, my mother Robin was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and she is now at a stage where there are many things that confuse her. Her level of cognition is such now that she will remember certain things and hang on to those things tightly because nothing else is making sense to her.

I am quite sure that she will remember that it is her birthday which is interesting in itself as I never really remember her liking her birthday that much. But I was thinking about what my daughter and I could do to wish her a happy birthday and let her know that we remembered which is rather ironic knowing that we are not far off her not remembering us. If we talk to her on the phone, she will often forget that we called and if we go see her, there is nothing to remind her we were there, so we sang Happy Birthday to her and made sure it went on the answering machine so that my mum Christine can play it to her every time she says,  "Why didn't Janet call for my birthday? " or "Did Boedicea wish me a Happy Birthday?"

I have spent 2012 watching my mother Robin disappear at an alarming rate, piece by piece of her reality, her personality and her memories leaving her faster than any of the rest of us can keep up with. I can see for myself and for many others that yes, this day is causing a great shift in our world and yet the shift is within, not dissimilar to what happens with Alzheimer's. A shift inside each person I know has been occurring this year changing how they perceive the outside world and what they expect to get from within and what they expect to get from outside of themselves.

What I can see in having been around Alzheimer's for the last year is that those of us who will fare well are those who see the positive in each and every change that we have been lucky enough to be part of. That is right, I see it as lucky to be going through changes in my life and I am grateful for all those around me supporting my dreams. I know that my mom Robin is in a place where she is fearful of what will come and the truth is that Alzheimer's is fatal. The anxiety shows up and she becomes miserable. At the same time, I can see that when she is in a place of peace, she has almost a delighted look on her face.

So on December 12, 2012 my mother Robin turns 68 and even though the woman I grew up with has disappeared, there is a replacement that physically resembles her and I wish her the happiest of birthdays and most of all I wish her internal peace a gift I think we all could use. I will focus on Grace.

Happy 12/12/12. Make your life your own.

March 2012 Northern California coast

at mine and Christine's Wedding

Janet 

Workshops!

I still love workshops and teaching people how to bake. I also love spending time in the kitchen. Recently we had the cookies workshop and this weekend on Saturday, there will be the tourtière workshop.

cookie dough ready to be rolled up.

cookies cooling

And after!!

Cookie dough rolls ready for the freezer

Then an evening of Shortbread and the final workshop of the season will be Stollen on Sunday December 16th.

During the cookies workshop we made three different cookies and baked a few of them and good fun was had by all. There was plenty to take home and to eat as well.

I have enough cookie dough for the holiday season and now I can make something else. Check out the Spelt Bakers website for more information on my latest workshops!