Day 39, 61 to go: more crocheting

Still working on that lacey hat.  It doesn't look like a hat yet, so I will hold off posting pictures until it does. 

We had a lovely, raucous Christmas Eve gift exchange tonight with all of my siblings—including one who was with us via Skype.  I wish we had had Skype when we were kids so we could have gotten to share Christmas Eve with our cousins who were back in the Motherland of New Jersey while we were living around the burgh.

Thank you Miss Lily!

Miss Lily surprised and delighted me by picking out a Christmas present for me at her school’s Secret Santa shop.  Her mother says this was all her idea.  Aren’t these fuzzy pink socks adorable?  We are pink-loving buddies, I guess.

She got a learn-to-knit kit for Christmas.  She wants to learn to knit and crochet.  Her mom (Borg #6 of 8) is an awesome crochet-er, but there is a little problem.  Lily is right-handed and her mom is a hardcore lefty. 

I would just like to point out here that her mother can crochet because I taught her, despite the fact that I am right-handed.  I had been showing my youngest sisters how to crochet, but she wasn’t really getting it.  Usually lefties are good at turning right-handed things around in their heads to figure out how to do a task lefty because they do it their whole lives.  But she couldn’t quite get the crocheting.  So I did.  I managed to hold the needle, yarn and work the way a lefty would.  It was awkward and slow.  I only managed to do it for a few stitches, but that was all it took.  She just needed to see the way her own hands would hold it. There are a lot of moving parts to crocheting.  You really do need to see it in motion a few times.  After she had those basics down, she could "translate" more stitches for herself.

And boy did she go to town after that.  She crocheted afghans for King sized beds for herself and a couple of our sisters.  I have crocheted a lot, but nothing on her scale.  She got really good and prolific.  I am thrilled that Lily wants to learn.  So, tomorrow I am going to take some yarn and my needles over to the family Christmas gathering at my sister’s (#2 of 8) and sit with Lily and see what we can learn.  The kit she got has nice big chunky knitting needles and fat pink yarn, which will be fun to make a scarf out of.  I’d like to start her with crocheting though, because I think it’s easier to learn to handle the yarn and one needle before moving on to knitting with two needles that don’t have a hook on them.

Stockings hung by the chimney with care...

This is a picture of something I made a long time ago which has come to symbolize Christmas at my mom's.  In the late 70s, I was inspired by the idea that Santa had 8 reindeer and my mom has 8 kids.  I made felt stockings with a silhouette of Santa's sleigh for my mother’s stocking and then silhouettes of reindeer on each of the kids’ stockings so that when they all hang in a row like this, it creates the tableau of Santa’s sleigh being pulled by Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and the rest of the team.  (This was so long ago, I made a 9th reindeer with a red nose for Grandma's stocking--she died when I was in college.) The felt stockings were smaller, decorated with glitter and quickly wore out. I remade them about 25 years ago in cotton velvet with red flannel cuffs --leaving out the disco-era glitter.  I still love the way they hang here under the crèche figures. They seem timeless to me. 

I love my sister's handiwork.

When our nieces and nephews came along, one of my little sisters (#7 0f 8) took up the stocking-making gauntlet and made these for them.  So even though I didn't make these, I am including them here because I am so proud of her. (And relieved that someone else took up this task.  At the time, we had no idea the number of grandchildren would stop at a mere 11) The grandkid stockings hang on the banister in the front hall--the fireplace being pretty much at capacity.  I love the way she embroidered the names of each child in glittery white floss on the cuffs. Grandma would be as proud as I am to see her seamstress legacy carried on into a third century.

Merry Christmas!

Day 38, 62 to go: Daring the Fates...

An English Tradition

I finished the list I was working on yesterday and uploaded it to our family website.  Let the changes of life commence. I have dared the Fates.

I learned a lot while determining the whereabouts of some extended family members, even managing to glean a story or two from my mother about her cousins in the process.  

Proper Cracker Procedure (See the crowns?)

What I spent the most time making today was: family bonds and memories.   I raided the local TJ Maxx for our traditional Christmas crackers with Borg #7 of 8.  Crackers are an English Christmas tradition—you and a partner pull them open and they snap loudly.  Inside, there are a paper crown, a toy or trinket and usually a slip of paper with a Christmas-themed joke or riddle.   Any British movie set at Christmastime will include a scene with at least one character wearing a silly tissue paper crown.  Now you know why.

Later, we went out to dinner to celebrate my sister’s birthday again.  It was the same crowd from yesterday plus our 2 oldest nieces and our friend Bridget.  The restaurant is a former Elks lodge hall complete with a wall carved with the initials of Elks of generations past.  They had an interesting gingerbread carrot cake on the dessert menu that I am going to have to go home and re-create.  The gingerbread flavors in a moist carrot cake are inspiring.  They serve the cake with a coffee caramel sauce which I did not have.  (Coffee and caramel are yucky to my palate. I’d rather eat Brussels sprouts.) I am thinking I will do a chocolate hazelnut sauce instead. 

Tomorrow will be the Christmas celebration with the whole family.  There will be so many people packed into my mom’s living room that we have to turn off the heat a couple of hours beforehand and sometimes even crack a window to offset all the warm bodies.  It is a noisy, joyous raucous time.  Disappointingly, my brother, sister-in-law and their awesome kid will not be able to make it in person, but at least can join us by Skype for the gift-opening and annual family portrait. 

Until the crowd arrives, I had better spend tomorrow crocheting the rest of that lacey hat I started the other day.