Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care

I'm taking down the Christmas decorations today. I know, I know, it's early but I'm in a snit and am ready to be done with Christmas, okay? (Anybody else wanna fight?)

About 35 years ago when our daughter was wee, I knitted her a Santa Claus stocking. When our son-in-law joined the family ten or so years ago, we learned that his family never did stockings at Christmas. So I got out the old pattern I had used for that first stocking all those years ago and made him one of his own. Keep in mind I used the same pattern, the same needles, and the same weight yarn. But for some reason, his came out bigger. A point my dear daughter never fails to bring up.



Then several years back, she decided that it really wasn't fair that Santa went to so much trouble each year filling a stocking for her and her hubby, but her dad and I didn't have one. She said that if we did have a stocking, Santa would see fit to fill it each year. Didn't take me long to whip out the old knitting needles and yarn. Granted, ours are on the smaller size but still manage to be filled with lots of fun stuff come Christmas morning.




So, you ask, what does Santa leave in our stockings? Ooooh, lots of good stuff. We might find gum, an issue of a special magazine, a dark chocolate bar, a new nail clipper (wahoo! - no, really, I asked for it), post-it notes, bars of special soap, colored bandanas, a bottle of specialty beer, hand lotion, colored paper clips, etc.



I just have to show you a picture of something I got in my stocking this year. They are thumbtacks (for the cork board I have here by my desk) made to resemble old typewriter keys. I think they are just the coolest!

Okay, I'm going back to my un-decorating job now. Hopefully, I'll pack Scrooge away in the boxes with the other stuff. :o)


3 comments:

Chicken Mama said...

You should repost Chainsaw Tommy's stocking with something common alongside it to give a sense of size comparison 'cause that thing is AT LEAST 3' LONG . . . UNfilled!

RuthieJ said...

Let me tell you my knitted Christmas stocking story.....
A couple years ago, the ladies at my local yarn shop called me because a customer had come in and needed a Christmas stocking knit for a new family member (by marriage). The design had Santa coming out of a chimney on one side and a Christmas tree on the backside (I'm sure you've seen the pattern). I didn't want to do it because I HATE intarsia knitting. However, I'm incapable of actually coming right out and saying no, so I told the girls in the yarn shop to tell the customer that I would knit it for $95--thinking that no one would be stupid enough to pay that much for a stocking but honest to God, they did! I forced myself to knit 10 rows of that intarsia chart every day and the stocking was done in a week and I was $95 richer. (But I'm sure it was much larger than all the other stockings that had been knit by Grandma years before too.)

Mama Pea said...

Ruthie - Your story illustrates one of two things: Either we, as knitters, devalue our craft by not charging enough for our talent, or there are people out there who have a heckuva lot more money than the rest of us! Thanks for commenting -- :o)

P.S. Hope you're enjoying your few days off!