Preparation for Knitting Surgery

I'm still contemplating Santa's facial surgery. Unfortunately, the pink yarn for his face and yummy angora yarn for his beard are no longer in my stash. I was watching a program a few nights ago about surgeons realigning a young child's face that was misshapen from birth. It is absolutely astonishing what doctors can do nowadays! This reconstructive surgery was not just for cosmetic purposes- he was able to reenter life as a "normal" boy. He still doesn't look "perfect," whatever that is, but he is happy. I've been so worried that I would not be able to fix Santa's face (yes, I tend toward perfectionism) but the show last night humbled me. Even Harrison Ford has a wonderfully crooked smile!

As I was rambling through my stash, I found some glitzy yarn that I was planning to use for another Christmas project. Aha! I'll just pick up the dropped stitches with it and add a few duplicate stitches on other parts of the beard to tie it all together! Then, I'll embroider some sort of wonderfully crooked smile!

I'm still a bit scared to start the surgery, so I decided to start the other project with a portion of the stash yarn. More later.

One hug completed

The Waterfall prayer shawl for my friend has been completed. Since I had started it when we we all together at her beachhouse in May, I sent a strand of yarn to each of the girls with a request to carry it around with them for a few days, hug it, and pray. When the yarn was returned, I used it as the fringe. Now, we have all had a part in the making of this shawl, so it is full of hugs and prayers and comfort for our friend. She had surgery yesterday. One of the other girls and I will drive down to visit her in a few weeks and enfold her in the shawl. Unfortunately, she is still facing more chemo. The color makes me smile. I hope it will do the same for her! We have known each other since first grade, and not only do we share the same name, we also spell it the same way! (This was very confusing to me as a six year old!)

Oral Surgery

The tree is decorated and ready to slide down the chimney, but ole St Nick still looks a little glum- matter of fact, he is toothless/mouthless at this point. I don't know why I did the eyes, nose, and mouth intarsia-style and just didn't knit them in the background color and do duplicate stitch for the features. Live and learn. I guess I just wanted to prove to myself that I could change colors for just a few stitches and make it look neat. It did look neat, but it was not a happy smile.

I will ponder Santa's reconstructive surgery for the next day or two. Don't worry- he's not in any pain. I haven't decided if his eyes and nose need help- I'll just have to see how this first surgery turns out!!

Christmas in July

Merry Christmas!!! Why do people talk about "Christmas in July" when Christmas is actually 6 months from June 25? Maybe it's because when July rolls around, there is less than 6 months until Christmas. Maybe it's beacause when the heat rolls in and the thunder rolls over we begin to think of the cooler days of December. Maybe it's because there are 2 syllables in "Christmas" and "July" and it rolls of the tongue in a more melodious manner than "Christmas in June." Maybe.....oh well.

In the past 35 or so years, I have knit more Christmas stockings than I could count on all my fingers and toes and then some. Most were made for Church bazaars using old but fun patterns. There were more orders than could possibly be filled back then, when more people were doing crewel work, cross stitch, and needlepoint than knitting. Eventually I made stockings for my four grandsons using patterns picked out by their Moms. In cleaning out a box, I found this almost completed vintage stocking and wondered why I never finished sewing it together.

Now I know. Santa looks sad. The tree looks bare.

Searching through my other treasure stashes, I found all these mini-decorations that were destined to go somewhere. So much for Manifest Destiny! I plan to use these to decorate the tree before Santa stuffs it down the chimney.

I think his smile needs adjusting, too. He looks like he is bearing a heavy load on his shoulders and in his heart. I must cheer up this so-called jolly guy!