The next generation of Knitters

These are the members of the Monday Afternoon Young Ladies Knitting Class at Yarns etc... in Chapel Hill. Hannah is their dedicated teacher who makes it all so much fun!!!

The girls have all learned so much and are very creative with their knitting projects. I hear there is every bit as much talking and joking as when the grown- up knitting ladies come to class. I wonder which students listen better???

We are happy to be able to offer classes for children. We had a great Fiber Camp this Summer and now we have a regular knitting class scheduled for children. We are also pleased to offer Beginning Crochet and Beginning Knitting for children at Great Yarns in Raleigh.

It is so much fun to watch the next generation learn all about knitting and watching their skills and love for the activity grow!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

What an amazing year!

Since the beginning of winter last year, my life has grown in so many new dimensions.

I became a married lady, made wonderful new friends, improved my communication skills and became a better person for my human family and my planet.

Somewhere along this path I became a Knitter (uppercase) real and capable. I can knit most anything I want, teach, design and find my way out of many messes; my own and others, real and imagined! 

I have been blessed worlds over with the best people to resource for any task I would like to take on, blessed with friends and family that appreciate, request and praise my knitted accomplishments and most of all BLESSED with the most supportive and phenomenal husband ever!

I will call on all of your help as I am expanding my skills again... my super husband is so many things to me and he is also an instigator, a troublemaker and an accomplished expander of my world!

So here I go, back to kindergarten again...

I am NOT good at this, but it sure is FUN!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Peaceful Solstice, Wonderful New Year and THANK YOU to you all!

Life is so rich and astonishing, I am grateful!

It's beginning to look a lot like .....

It is looking like Christmas at my house! I have pulled all the Christmas decorations out of the boxes and am trying to remember where everything goes and how DO we hang all  those lights?Among our most precious holiday decorations are our Christmas Stockings.

This is my Christmas stocking that was made by my mother in 1962. It is a little faded  and has been repaired over the years but it is still a good stocking and holds many memories. All of my brothers and sisters had this same style stocking and we loved imagining what Santa would fill them with. We would hang them on our door knobs when we went to sleep and we would wake up throughout the night to check if they were filled. We all tried to stay awake to catch Santa filling our stockings but we never caught him.

In the morning we would all get up and open our stockings in bed. It was a delightful half hour or so to share what surprises we each received. We all had tangerines and bananas, chocolates, and for some reason we always had Kumquats. We never saw them at any other time of the year and I don't really remember eating them but it would not have been Christmas without them. We all had special surprises in our stocking that I realized later would occupy us for awhile before we woke our parents.  

All of my extended family has Handknit Christmas  Stockings. There are many traditions involved in who makes them and when someone who marries into the family gets one. 

When I was first married and needed extra money someone  asked me to make them a Christmas Stocking. I was excited that someone else's family had the same tradition. Over the years I have made dozens of stockings. Last year I think I made 12 for the holiday season.

It is part of my own holiday tradition- to make stockings for others in November and December.   

Here are 2 for a new baby Richard and a new daughter-in-law Weezie.

We had 2 new grand baby boys in our family this year. My mother knit the stockings and I sewed all the sequins on them.
This is my fireplace with all the stockings hung by the chimney with care. It really feels like Christmas when the stockings go up! 

I still get special surprises in my Christmas Stocking every year!

Sally Melville Workshop

We were so fortunate to have Sally Melville here for a weekend full of workshops and learning opportunities. Sally is a great teacher who inspires all of us in our knitting projects.

Sally is the author of 4 knitting books and has another due out in March. We are eagerly awaiting new ideas and designs from this new book that Sally is writing with her daughter.



Thank you to everyone who participated in the workshops and a big Thank You to Sally who came from Canada for the weekend to inspire us all!

Cool Tool

These are really cool tools!  

A sales rep recently showed me this really cool tool that I can't figure out what to call. It has a crochet hook on one end and a knitting needle on the other.  It is an essential tool for your knitting bag.  
You can use the crochet end to pick up dropped stitches and do simple crochet sts. With the other end you can do cables or hold stitches in place. I bet there are many more uses for this tool. I liked it so much that I asked the nice folks at Twin Birch to make some in a little larger size in their nice Birch wood.

This is a great, inexpensive gift to give a knitter friend - or a fun little addition to your own knitting tool kit.

Crochet Tea Set

If this isn't a Labor of Love for one little girl I don't know what is!

This whole tea set is crocheted out of  thin cotton and a little metallic for the spoons. This creative mom even made sugar cubes for the pretend tea! So special! 

Charity Knitting

There is lots of Charity Knitting going on in our community and we are so fortunate to be able to see how people are participating with their varied talents.

 A very creative knitter made these children's sweaters out of leftover bits of wool yarn. She created little masterpiece sweaters for Children in Common-  an organization that provides warm sweaters for children all over the world.

Another knitter was also very busy making all these wool raglan pullovers for the same organization.

 We also get lots of Linus Blankets dropped off at yarns etc.. and Great Yarns. We are happy to get them in the right hands so they can be distributed to children in out community.

Some other charity knitting projects we have seen lately have been for Afghans for Afghanistan, The Prayer Shawl Ministry, Hats for the Homeless, Caps for newborns, Helmet Liners for the soldiers in Iraq and many more local and national organizations.

There are so many charity knitting projects to participate in. If you aren't able to do any charity knitting and want to participate by donating unneeded yarn or needles we can make sure it gets to the right people. Please let us know some of your favorite organizations by leaving a comment on this post and we will include the information in a future post.

Thank you to all of you who donate their time and talents to those in need.