Light the Advent Candle Four

The entire family came to see Helen perform in Revels on the fourth Sunday of Advent.
It was a fun show with a great band playing Elizabethan instruments.

The rest of the week was spent helping Helen catch up with tests, homework, and sleep.

There was also lots of crafting. The sewing machine went nonstop for about 3 days. Helen moved it into her room and I heard it going into the wee hours. She not only got all her gifts made, but made a lot of cloth bags for wrapping.

Liz spent hours in her crafting tent.

I spent hours and hours knitting and watching Jane Austen. This is a personal tradition of mine, and I now realize that it isn't Christmas without a Jane Austen marathon.

This crafting is good for the soul.

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The Great Sock Knit-Off

Do you remember the great sock knit-off challenge I had with Lou? I have been working on this one sad sock for about three years. She was going slow with her own sock-knitting project so I challenged her to a knit-off.

Well, you may have guessed at the result...

She's wearing...um...two completed socks.

I won't even show you my one sock. I hang my head in shame.
More knitting knews to come though.

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The Great Sock Knit-Off

Isn't this a sweet sight?
My daughter,
knitting away at her sock....

Actually, she's saying to herself,
"Ha....this is sock #2 and look how far along I am."

"Take that, Mom--almost to the heel."

"See? How far along are you?"

"Not so far along," I say.
(and I'm only on sock #1, which, umm, has taken me about 3 years to knit).

We're having a knit-off. Lou has been working on her socks since the beginning of the school year. Things have been lagging, so I dug into the bottom of my knitting basket and resurrected this old project so we could have a contest. I must say, it has inspired her to get knitting.

I'm truly doomed. The child doesn't even need a pattern. She narrated the entire pattern to me in the car yesterday and then detailed how to do the kitchener stitch. Kitchener stitch? After she explained it, I realized that I had done it before, but didn't know the term. Apparently the kitchener stitch is quite famous in school because it's a "recess stitch." You have to stay in at recess to do it so you can have quiet concentration.

Then she told me, with great exasperation, how to do ssk (which apparently I didn't know correctly either).

Thank goodness there's a new Jane Austen to watch these days.
She has saved my knitting before.

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Feeling Ahead of the Game

I spent the afternoon with my dear old sewing machine today. It was my Grandmother's. It has had a hard life, but while there are times I'd love a more modern machine, it still faithfully sews just about everything but denim.

Nels and I have given each other handmade gifts since the first Christmas we were married. The girls now join us in making gifts which we open on Christmas Eve. I am often the last person to be up late making gifts after helping everybody else.

Last winter I declared that I would not have another Christmas with Jane Austen where I was knitting at all hours. Happily, I have come up with ideas early this year and have the most complicated almost finished. I feel so ahead of the game!

I know I'll probably be madly making some cute little thing like these to peak out of the stockings, but at least the pressure is off and I can hunt about for something cute. Any ideas out there?

I think it can be hard to come up with handmade gift ideas for the holidays. I know I am always searching for ideas. I put a category in my sidebar called "Handmade Holidays" which links to all my posts about our handmade gifts. Scroll down to the labels section.

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My Christmas with Jane Austen

For some reason, I decided to knit all our family gifts this year. I must confess that I get a bit bored while knitting and like to watch movies to make the time go faster. I can read while knitting, but things slow down and at this time of the year, time is in short supply.


Now I have to confess that I've never really gotten in to Jane Austen, but I got The Jane Austen Book Club off Netflix and then loaded up my queue with all things Jane.

I've been spending almost every morning before the family gets up knitting in my chair and watching Jane Austen movies. Sense & Sensibility took me almost all the way through one gift. Becoming Jane topped it off and got me onto the next gift. Pride & Prejudice is sitting on the counter for this week of early morning knitting. So....thanks Jane for helping me get my Christmas gifting finished. It has been a delight!

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