The Tale of the Christmas Stockings

 I am casting on a new knitting project.  My sister's significant other (Bob) is due a Christmas stocking.  

In our family, big hand-knit stockings are a tradition.   My mom made me one, but never bothered to embellish it.   My sister had a small felt stocking made by her godmother and always complained about a tiny stocking being unfair, so the year that she was a junior in high school and we had an AFS student, I made two stockings from a pattern in McCalls Needlework magazine for our guest, Louisa, and Kimi.

Fast forward until 1987.  Our son was born and my mom knit JC a stocking.   Again, she didn't bother with the embellishments.  I thought it was unfair that Walt didn't have one, so I knit him a very simple one that said "DAD: around the top.

Another generation, 2009, my son had a boy and my mom bought the materials to knit Carl a stocking, but she was diagnosed with terminal cancer that winter and it was never cast on.  She did get to hold her great-grandchild once before she passed away.  

So Carl's first Christmas, JC asked me to put Carl's name on his old stocking, which I did, and finished the embellishments.  I gave JC his late father's stocking (DAD now being appropriate).   I knit Angie a matching "MOM" stocking in her favorite soft pink.  And finally added the embellishments to my own stocking.

When Alexis came along, I used the materials mom had purchased (intended for Carl's stocking) and knit my granddaughter a stocking in the same design style as her brother's (though my gauge is a bit off from my mom's and it's just a touch smaller).

Last Christmas, Kimi was sporting a ring, so I guess it's time to welcome my brother in Love into the family officially!   They haven't set a date, but it would not surprise me if they sneak off to Vegas at some point. So I'm going to see it I can make a coordinating version of Kimi's "Christmas Sweater" stocking for Bob.