Grandma lives on

Growing up, my favorite part of Christmas was opening stockings. All of the kids in our family had the same stocking, but with our own name stitched in. Our grandmother had made them for us, and we each still have them. I had a friend ask me to make stockings for her kids, and I wasn't happy with the idea of cloth stockings. There was something about the stretch of a knit that allowed parents to cram more goodies in them that made a knit stocking so much more appealing. So I learned how to knit. And I made Kim's kids stockings, and they are all huge, and I am sure in the spirit of Christmas, she has nothing but curse words about me when she is trying to fill them. Many knitting projects, and years later, along came my niece. What was she possible going to do for a Christmas stocking? I offered to make one for her, since grandma is no longer around to make her one. While searching on-line for ideas and inspiration, I came across something that brought tears to my eyes. I found a website Ruthless Knitting, that had permission from the Bernat company to publish a vintage stocking pattern on her blog. This pattern was the exact pattern that my grandmother used to make our stockings. While I sent a lot of ideas to my brother and sister-in-law, I was secretly pulling for this one. They agreed that for sentimental reasons, they wanted the same one. I thought it needed a little updating, and because Alexandra is such a ridiculously long name, I had to do a little altering of the pattern. But I am thrilled that the next generation in our family will be able to share in the same stocking traditions.