just for Gayle...

....because she asked! :-)

3 decades, 2 makers, 4 reds....yet they all belong together

The stockings that started it all for my sisters and me.

The first two stockings I made + one for the next generation

more from my first year of making....

Actually, I was a bit surprised that I didn't have pictures of more of my 24....but here are as many as I could find tonight. I will try to take some more over the holidays (when they are out and up) to share.

Not that I want to push my wares, but if you're interested in sharing our family's tradition, I do have patterns and kits available. Email me in the new year and I will pass along the particulars.

one more makes twenty-four

I was a bit premature when I declared my holiday making finished a week or so ago. For starters, I momentarily forgot about a stocking I promised to make for the baby born in March....and then on Monday night I decided I wanted to whip up a few handmade ornaments for some special Christmas cards. Even though I had a few false-starts with the ornaments...I adapted quickly and in the end, I had developed a new process that I am certain to use again in many different ways (more on that later, probably in the form of a pattern next year).


But back to the stocking...you might not know, but AJ's Christmas stockings are the reason I started hooking in the first place. They've been a staple in our family's Christmas celebrations for as long as I can remember -- my sisters and I received some of the first ones she made, and ours were crafted in 1977. Each time a new baby is born or someone gets married, a new stocking is created (the only 'rule' is that they are never created for boyfriends or girlfriends -- only for husbands and wives....). My sisters and I wanted to be able to maintain this tradition on our family, and somehow I was 'voluntold' to learn how to do it.

I've since made several stockings for a new generation of cousins, and also carried on the tradition with a couple of my very best friends. With this year's stocking, I've now made 24 since I started. Every year, the number of stockings made gets written on the wooden template. AJ made over 100, so I have quite a few more to make before I get to that level!

+ + + + + + + + + +

P.S. Thanks for all of the Jumbo love over the last few days. You gals are great - and your positive comments are motivating me to get back to work on this project in January.

P.P.S. Today is my last day of work at my 'real job' until January 9th - yippee! - and I'm starting my holidays with a bang. Tomorrow I'm heading to Toronto to see Mary Poppins with my littlest niece, and once I get back up north on Friday we will be knee-deep in preparations for several days of feasting. Christmas is a very family-filled time for me....and since I will be pretty busy for the next while, I'm forecasting a bit of a blog break until early in the new year. I might be back sooner, but if I'm not....I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas, filled with lots of fun, family times, fond memories and, fabulous food.

christmas making continues....

I whipped up this stocking over the weekend for the newest member of our family -- my cousin Laura married Mark in October....and the tradition continues.

Yes, that is them (kinda) with a tree for their first Christmas as marrieds.
(If you click on the photo you can see the designs a little better -- crappy photos happen when you rush. sorry!)

Snowed In

We were the recipients of about a foot and a half of snow last night...and everyone continues to be advised to stay home and off of the roads to let the snow plows do their work. I don't remember EVER seeing so much snow fall in such a short amount of time. It is really crazy. Even crazier is that they are saying that we could receive another 50cm again before morning. Yikes! I was already planning to take the day off work today, but now I've been able to do it free from guilt! ;-)

So Santa's workshop is back in full swing...and so far today I've finished a hat for Sienna, Leah's stocking, and zigged around the snow chicks. This evening I will start sewing them together....while I cross my fingers I'm able to got out tomorrow - I desperately need to buy some much needed filling for the ladies, in order to finish them....

I've had some questions about the stockings of late....so thought I would give some background. The Christmas stockings were designed by my Auntie Jean (Jean Armstrong) and they are the reason I started rug hooking in the first place. AJ made stockings for my sisters and I in 1977...and continued to make them for our entire family, including husbands and wives, and babies and more babies. We were afraid that the tradition would be lost....and so I was nominated to learn how to make them, and took over as the "official stocking maker" about 10 years ago. To date, I've made 22.


A year or so ago, with AJ's permission, I taught a one-day workshop on our family's stockings...and in the process created an instruction booklet and paper patterns. A supply kit soon followed.


Both are available for purchase. The instruction booklet is $18 and the kit is $50. Pattern includes all the tools needed to create your own similar stockings...detailed instruction booklet with colour illustrations, charts for hooking a variety of decorative bands, full-size paper sewing patterns. Supply Kit includes pattern on burlap, pre-cut wool in 15 colours and pre-cut lining/backing fabric (enough to make two stockings....with leftover wool for more). Please note: the instruction booklet is not included with the kit.

This stocking I made earlier in the year for Evan was hooked with the kit colours....

stocking workshop recap...

Well it was a very busy day on Saturday! Once again, I forgot to take photos...sorry!

After teaching the same purse workshop so many times, this first stocking class was a challenge and a learning experience for me, too. People were very interested to learn more about making their own versions of our family stockings. A few struggled in figuring out the basic stitch - and if any of you are reading this, I have a couple of additional tips for you:

1. If you run the back of your hook along the row in which you'd like to be hooking - as though you're trying to draw a dark line with a hard pencil - it can help to separate the burlap threads a little bit (making it easier for you to locate the desired hooking row).

2. To make it easier to figure out where to hook the checkerboard at the toe....count 22 threads up from the lowest point in the foot. Hook one row all of the way across (in every-other hole • every 2 threads). Start hooking the checkerboard from the top, and work your down to the bottom.

Please share these tips with your friends on Wednesday (or sooner!) ....and thank you again for a really great day! Happy hooking!

things I know for sure...

1. Getting ready for a workshop take a lot of time. Evening and evenings of time...


2. I'm not charging enough for my kits, given the amount of time it takes to assemble them (dyeing, drying, cutting, counting, bundling, straightening, aligning, pining, cutting, folding, packaging...oh, and I almost forgot the printing, cutting, shopping...the list is endless).
3. I need to start placing a higher value on my time and my creations.
4. My apartment looks like a lint-bomb went off inside it.
5. I've had to brush snow off my car for 4 mornings in a row....and I'm getting a little sick of it.

On a more positive note...
I was asked to share more details about the upcoming stocking workshop. Our family's Christmas stockings are the reason I first learned how to hook. My aunt made these stockings....


....for my sisters and me back in 1977. With every birth and marriage, a new stocking needs to be created. Somehow I was elected to the post of official family stocking maker....and the rest, as they say, is history!

The stockings are very different from my regular style of hooking - and aside from the thrill I get from keeping the tradition alive, they are also a lot of fun to make. Plus, there a pretty quick project - relatively speaking, of course! I can hook a front in about 6-7 hours or 1-2 evenings of hooking. Since I took over from AJ in 1991, I've made at least one each year...for a total of 20. But I'm still a long way off from the over 100 that AJ produced.

When the ladies from North Bay invited me to come a teach a small project as soon as I was able....the first and best idea that I could come up with was the stockings. Naturally I asked AJ for permission, first....and then set upon the task of coming up with directions to explain the process to others. I've now created an instruction booklet, complete with colour illustrations, design charts, sewing patterns, etc. which will be available for purchase following my workshop this weekend (they will be my guinea pigs and I want to make sure that I haven't forgotten anything and that the instructions are clear before I print more copies). I'll post something on the blog when it's ready to go...

For now, I'm scurrying around, trying to organize the things I need to bring with me for the class....and just keeping my fingers crossed that I remember everything.

quickie post about the stockings...

My friend Marsha left a comment yesterday wanting to know more about the stocking workshop I'm teaching up in North Bay this Saturday. I haven't got time to blog about it right now, but if you go here, you can at least see a picture of a couple of these stockings. Such stockings have been a part of our family's Christmas celebrations for over 30 years AND they are the reason I learned how to hook! I'll try to blog more about it tomorrow. Happy Monday!

yep, it's a new post!

Well, four visits from the same Bell guy and a couple from his friends have finally gotten our high speed up and running at work again. For how long, we're not quite sure...they aren't promising anything because we're about as far away from the tower as you can get and still have service.

Not too much else is new around here. It's still snowy and I've been busy getting ready for Christmas. The shopping is all done....and I'm hoping to get it all wrapped tonight. I love wrapping presents...choosing the paper, making the ribbons into bows, crafting the gift tags. It's all fun for me. A good wrapping job definitely adds to the gift (or at least helps to make up for a gift that's a little less than perfect).

The scarves are all knit - I'm pretty sure I have enough - and I'm going to arrange them in a basket for their first delivery/selection tomorrow. In the end there were 7 made + 1 hat (knit from the leftover dyed wool from my whipping - here is the promised picture...)


The Clapotis (free pattern from knitty.com) is complete and even blocked. I think that I will keep this one for myself. The colours in this photo are not quite right, but I was in a rush to take the pictures this morning. I used some wool from Handmaiden called "Mini Maiden" and modified the pattern accordingly. It's 50% wool and 50% silk and feels so soft and lovely. If I could, I'd like to have a sleeping bag knit from it!

Thanks to Kathy, my sewing machine is back in business and I could no longer procrastinate the stocking making. For some reason this one came together quite quickly - I started on Sunday night around 5pm and hooked until bedtime...and then just a few hours of hooking and sewing last night and it was pressed and ready for hanging. I'll be dropping it off this weekend when I'm in the city for this.

9 and counting...

Well, I have been hooking for the last nine days in a row. I'm not sure if this is a record or not...but it is definitely much more than I have been hooking for the last year or so.

I finished the third checkerboard last week (I like it a lot more now--sorry I forgot to take a picture), and they are all pressed and waiting to be whipped. I am trying to decide how to finish them...and whether or not I should line the back or not (and hold it in place with the whipping) so they are temporarily on hold for now. Also, I was going to sew a skinny bag for the pieces (the mat would be rolled around the bag and tied with a strip of ultrasuede for storage)...but now I am wondering if I should just make a bigger bag for storing both the mat and the pieces. Any suggestions?

Meanwhile, my Christmas workshop continues to be busy. I started on the Christmas stockings on Thursday night...and just finished sewing them together and giving them their final pressing last night. Voila!

Tonight I am starting on top-secret Christmas Present #1 (of 2)...so unfortunately there won't be much to tell or show you about these for a month--but I will continue to keep in touch ;-)

Happy holiday gift making!

I'm back...finally!

Wow, what a crazy busy couple of weeks! The workshop at the Neilson Park Creative Centre in Etobicoke was great! A lovely bunch of ladies....and they were all excited to get to work on their purses. It will be great to see some when they are done.

While in the city I visited Village Yarns for the first time...what a nice shop! I think that I roamed around for over an hour admiring all of the beautiful yarns and colours--sometimes too much choice can be overwhelming and you can't decide or it takes forever. Eventually I picked (more than) enough to fill a bag....and I also bought a really pretty purse handle. The abalone shell handle reminds me of Table Cape (where we lived in Tasmania)....and I think that it will inspire another new pattern soon...

Christmas is creeping up quickly...and I still have many projects to complete (and several yet to be started). There are only two stockings to make this year ;-) I took a picture of my friends' stockings on the weekend and I will soon start making one for baby Adelaide. Sheri & Spencer's stocking were the first ones I made (in 2001)...

I also had great plans to make checkerboards for everyone this year, but the progress has not been swift--I have been too busy knitting of late--and I might have to suspend production until next year... There is always the One of a Kind show in a couple of weeks--I can always shop there instead ;-)

I am hoping to get a couple of solid days of hooking in this weekend, and will hopefully have some pictures early next week...