good-bye September

How quickly did it fly by for you? It feels like I was only just anticipating Autumn's arrival, and once I can officially wipe my dry-erase calendar of September, I will be basking in the cool fall air.

This week a bug has bit me. It was the deadly FinishYourUFOs bug. Thus:




I think I blogged before that the reason I wanted to learn to knit was so that I could knit Christmas stockings. My great-grandmother had knit everyone in her family Christmas stockings very similar to these. In fact, as soon as my mother would announce the birth of my siblings, we'd soon receive a hand-knit stocking for the babe.

When I married, my husband very solemnly hung a tube sock next to my well-loved hand-knit Christmas sock. I nearly fell over in shock. Although my stocking was a great decoration, he said, one of the best things about his family's regular-old-sock tradition was when he'd hang up a bigger sock every year of his childhood. Couldn't we consider his tradition, he'd asked. Umm... I don't think so!

A few days later, the tube sock was replaced by a "temporary" fleece stocking, then a still "temporary" tapestry-like stocking (it's now five years old). I began to wonder when I'd learn to knit. It wasn't until 2003 that I took a knitting class at our community college, and of course, I began my search for the stocking pattern. The search ended in a little knit shop in Colorado in 2004. Finally, a similar pattern to the stocking I had at home! This pattern was actually part of a kit, sold with enough Lamb's Pride for one sock, and is from Yarn-Craft Supplies in Wisconsin.

2005 came and went with nary a stocking stitch. After my last child was born, though, I began knitting on the stockings in earnest. Spring of 2006 is the official start date of these four stockings. Today is the finished date. Only 18 months later. How sad is that? I'll be overjoyed this Christmas season, though. And every one thereafter. And hopefully my children will want me to knit stockings for their families, too, remembering how they hung their stockings at home so long ago.

I really need to finish my Louisa Harding sweater, too. I have to seam the sides and the set-in sleeves. I'm a bit intimidated, since I've never set in sleeves before. $100 in yarn may end up an expensive lesson in how not to seam. Oh well, though...

The last project I have to share with you is my newly begun Hedgerow Sock. I'm loving the pattern, since it's easy to memorize and I could knit it while watching Grey's Anatomy premiere and catching up on anything I've DVR'd in the week.



Have a great first week of October!