knitting inspiration

Last Thursday Astrid and I went into Loopy (a new yarn store in town that is a COMPLETE visual delight to walk into with all the bright beautiful colors!) and got all the things I needed to knit Astrid a Christmas stocking. Astrid picked out her colors with a little help from her Mama.

Grammy Madgie has been on my mind so much these past few days. She was the one who taught Genevieve and I to knit when we were maybe 9 or 10 years old. The knitting skills have been dorment for 25 years but the motion feels so natural and familiar! Gram knit our childhood stockings for the four of us...so I feel this newly discovered connection with her coming full circle.

Not only am I remembering the knitting and all the crafting she and Grampy used to do... but the smells of her delicious cooking when you entered her home are coming back...and you would almost always find some fresh cukes from their garden in vinegar on the table at dinner... This knitting thing has brought me a BIG WARM HUG from both of them, and I'm so thankful.

I got the stocking pattern from my friend Sharon. It's from a book called "Knit One, Felt, Too". It's a stocking that you felt and that sounded like just the pattern I wanted to start with since, there are imperfections...and...hopefully they will be hidden in the felting process!

After a couple nights knitting on this thing it's nearly 2 feet long and I'm on the heel . Even after a call to Sharon yesterday, I'm having trouble visualizing how to turn the heel. So, as soon as Astrid wakes up from her morning nap we are going to make a pilgrimage to Loopy to figure out what happens next... I'm so excited! If they don't know how to do it I may have to crash the next meeting of the "Wednesday night knitters" (Sharon, Lisa, and Monica), and I don't think I can wait that long!

If this goes well, I think there is a stocking for Jeff in the plans, too. He already has told me his colors...a yummy deep brown for the main color and this same deep blood red for the top.