The Stockings were hung by the Chimney

The Stockings were hung by the Chimney
Originally uploaded by hjdong

by the chimney with care.

First, thank you all for your kind comments on my Christmas table. And I know. It's nearly the New Year and I'm still on Christmas Eve. I promise, it all hurries up after Christmas Eve.

My other sister, L, knit the stocking on the left, the one for Jamie. When we were growing up, her grandmother knit stockings for my brother and her (not my grandmother, on of *those* complicated families). As we grew up, all three sisters learned to knit, practically simultaneously, all as adults, independently, living in different states.

Now, I knit the right hand two stockings. And, I really can't explain about them. See, all three stockings are knit from kits from the same company, so they would coordinate. It is, of course, a question of gauge (the difference in sizes). But you would thing she had knit the two far stockings and I had knit the middle one, and very tightly I might add. But no, that's not the case. I did not gauge swatch because, well, no one had to wear them. The only possible explanation: for the middle one, I got a new needle. I actually went into a yarn store and bought a new needle. With Jamie. With him there with me. In a yarn store. There is a chance I got the wrong size and just never noticed.

Anyway, back to the mushy stuff. My sister offered to knit Jamie his stocking. She half thought, probably half hoped, that I would say, "No, I wish to knit it myself." But, when Jamie opened his gift he said, "It's a stocking." And when I said, "Your Aunt knit it for you." "Oh, well then it's *really* special." And so it will become part of the the family mythology, every year, unfolded, hung up. Really special.