This year, on the top of my list was knitting 3 Christmas stockings. I have been knitting since I was 8 years old and I love knitting stockings. My children and I all have stockings that my mother knitted and Christine has a stocking that I knitted for her the first year we were together. She keeps asking me for the other one. She was not aware when she met me that I loved Christmas and that she would not only have a big Family Christmas, but also a Christmas stocking. We met in February and didn't talk about Christmas when we first met. When we did get closer to Christmas and I asked her what colour stocking she wanted and what design, she said red, brown and green stripes. This was the stocking I made her.
Last year I made one for my granddaughter Lilja for her first Christmas. I remember madly knitting every evening after baking over a hundred loaves of bread, rolling out pastry for fifty pies and making hundreds of cookies amongst other things just to get it into the mail in time for her to get it for Christmas morning.
The first one I made this year was for Calvin, his was Celtic Spiral work knitted in red and white with green trim, I started and finished it in early December. I always use the same pattern that my Mom bought from Mary Maxim some time in the eighties, but I change the needle size, the yarn and the design every single time. The one thing I always do is the same number of stitches and I use the graph for the letters for the names. I love that pattern.
The second one I made this year was for my daughter-in-law Britta. I had my son Erik's stocking and Lilja already had hers and now it was time for Britta to have one made by me. I chose natural fibres, bamboo, silk and Merino wool in blue and white with an edging of handmade lace that I bought in Barkerville in the early 90's. She loves natural fibres and is quite talented with fabric arts as well. This stocking had to be knitted by December 15th in order to have my daughter Boedicea take it to the States with her and give it to Britta. I started it December 8th or 9th and finished sewing it together and adding the lace the evening of December 14th. Just enough time to take a photo and give it to my Boedicea to pack on December 15th.
The final stocking that I knitted was for my daughter-in-law to be, Mandy. I always want to do something special for each person that I knit a stocking for. I want it to represent them and have something on it meaningful to them. I have to say it is a lot easier to do that with adults than children. When my son Kristoffer and Mandy got engaged in early December, we saw the ring and I found it very interesting. a green stone on a silver ring with a tree. I then went and looked at her facebook page and kept seeing pictures of trees. After a big long search for a tree pattern that would fit in 28 to 34 stitches, I found the tree of Gondor pattern and I knit Mandy's stocking in yarn that my mum had in her stash and some from my own, in a nice soft green with a brown tree and the name, heel and toe all in a nice deep red. I finsihed her stocking on December 22nd and delivered it to my son on December 23rd while out doing the last of our food shopping and some gift shopping for my parents.
That was it: December 23rd, all stockings done, all food bought, all decorations up and all gifts ready to go. I felt so good to have been able to get everything done so that I could just spend the 24th with the woman I love, cooking fabulous food for a small group of friends and family. Then Christmas dinner at my moms' the next day and it was an incredible Christmas. I was surrounded by people I love and we all had good food.
Now the decorations are down, the food is all gone and the stockings are put away for another year. Part of me is a bit sad and wondering who will I kit a stocking for next year? Maybe Christine will finally get that second one she has been asking for.
1 comment:
Great Christmas stockings, Janet! And sounds like you had a lovely Christmas. So glad to hear it. Hope to see you both before too long!
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