Skip Navigation
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Free patterns, product alerts & special offers. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Retail Store New York City |
|
|
| Retail Store New Jersey |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Vanna's Sweepstakes |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Customer Projects - Get Inspired
Would you like to share a project that you have made from our yarns or
our patterns? Hundreds of thousands of people who care
about your favorite craft will see your work. Any submissions,
particularly original ones are welcome, as long as the project was
made from Lion Brand Yarn.
Click to post it!
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Christmas Tradition
Created By: Pamela Thalner
When I first thought to try crocheting and then knitting, it was going to be a hobby -- something to pass the time. I taught myself (from do-it-yourself guides) and, of course, both activities quickly grew into obsessions; I now have the classic yarn stash, take my knitting everywhere, and start many more projects than I finish.
It wasn't until perhaps a year after I took up knitting that my brother and his wife had their first son, Jack, who was also my parents' first grandchild. I crocheted a baby blanket for him, and not long afterward my thoughts turned to a family tradition: Christmas stockings.
When my father was a young boy, my great-grandmother knitted a Christmas stocking for him, using a pattern from a magazine. She also made stockings for his two younger sisters. As the years went by and the family expanded, my grandmother took up the task, making stockings for my mother when she and my father got married, then for my brother and myself when we came along. However, by the time my brother got married, my grandmother had long since given up knitting. My mother actually found someone and hired her to make a stocking for my sister-in-law, and the knitter did an admirable job of creating a pattern that fit in with the family's stockings.
By the time Jack was born, however, my parents had moved to another state, so my mother was no longer in contact with the woman who had made the stocking for my sister-in-law. It occurred to me that I should try to make a stocking for him, though I'd never even attempted intarsia -- or anything more complicated than a flat afghan.
Fortunately, my grandmother found some of the patterns she used for our stockings and sent me photocopies. I was able to use them as a template and designed a stocking for Jack. Although I forgot to make it so that the pattern (two candy canes) showed on both sides, it still came together surprisingly well. It was also a lesson in patience, since keeping all the bobbins of yarn untangled had to be one of the most difficult tasks there was.
I've since made another Christmas stocking for my second nephew, Charlie. It was really amazing to see all four stockings -- my brother's, my sister-in-law's, and my nephews' -- all lined up on the mantel this year at Christmas. It makes me happier than I can say to be able to carry on this family tradition that started when my father was just a boy. Maybe in the future I'll be able to pass it on and keep it going for the next generation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
