Two Roads

Two meandering roads converged into one last night. It was gentle, satisfying, surprising, and completely unexpected.

I turned onto Road #1 a few nights ago when a friend called several of us to come over, eat supper, and help decorate her tree. I was not planning on decorating a tree this year, since I will be driving to Columbia on Saturday to be with David and his family for an early celebration and I am driving to Mississippi on Tuesday to be with Jennifer and her family for Christmas. There is a bow on the mailbox, a wreath on the door, and a candle in 3 of the windows.

I was already on Road #2, thinking of my mom. She adored Christmas, especially the giving part. My mom was a needleworker extrodinaire and loved making ornaments for her friend's grandchildren (as well as her own children and grandchildren.) She was a knitter, of course, but was mesmerized by needlepoint on plastic canvas. Orders from Annie's Attic and Herrshner's filled her mailbox.

I have not been as generous to my friend's grandchildren- or even my own. The ornaments were Mamama, not me. I could never fill her shoes. It was her tradition. But this year I made these as as my gift to a friend's 3 grandchildren:


And those roads? I made a quick side trip to a box. The roads became one. I can gift like Mom. My Mom's gifts live on. These are a few of her gifts to me:

They became my Mamama Tree.

I have a Christmas tree.

Christmas Knitting

The Christmas knitting is done
and
the Christmas gifting has begun!

There are new homes for 60% of the dishcloths I made last spring and summer. All my coworkers in the Circulation Department at the County Headquarters Library will receive a "Christmas Clother" (my version of a Christmas Cracker.)

This is what they look like all piled together:

And this is the piece of gold in the center:

Ferrero Rocher

Charity Knitting

One of the charity projects for the Spartanburg Knitting Guild this year was making ornaments for a tree to be auctioned at a Festival of Trees to benefit Hospice in our community. I contributed a few miniature sweaters and caps.

I was not able to be with the decorators, but I assume the following photos were taken before the tree was moved into position with the others trees.



We were thrilled that the sale of our tree raised over $300 for Hospice!

Dishcloth Frenzy

I did it! I even did it about 3 months ago. I used up my Peaches 'n Cream and Sugar 'n Cream yarn...even almost all of the usable scraps! This is all that is left of my final mile of dishcloth cotton:
I have 42 new dishcloths, many of which will be given to my coworkers in the Circulation Department at the library.
However, some well-meaning friends, loot from our knitting retreat, and winning a door prize have put me back on the map...