A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year

With two children and family scattered about the country, Christmas is a crazy time of year for us, so I realise that today is the 6th day of Christmas and I still haven't wished you all a merry Christmas. So here it is,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our Christmas break started with the wedding of two friends I've known since university. The wedding was perfect, in a beautiful private house with lots of space for small people to run around. Unfortunately I missed most of the ceremony as my son decided that it was boring and needed to go out, but the rest of the day was lovely. The meal was more like a Christmas party than a wedding reception, with every table have a box of crackers containing a different party game - hand bells, wind-up creatures to race, balloon modelling... - party bags for the children and lots of wine and merriment. The evening reception featured a disco that alternated Christmas tunes with more conventional wedding disco songs. My daughter decided to be the party animal, staying up until gone midnight, while my son was asleep by 8.30.

We then headed to my parents house, via my heavily pregnant sister's for a bit of a run around and some fresh air (and some delicious mini mince pies - the perfect car snack, they fitted perfectly into one's mouth in one go, making for far less crumbs than most car snacks), and a chance to pass on their Christmas presents.

Christmas in Somerset was surprisingly warm; so warm in fact that we saw daffodils on Christmas Eve! Yes, daffodils in full bloom in December. I still made my daughter wear her Christmas pudding hat, even though it wasn't always totally necessary, which got many compliments and smiles. As we had arrived in Somerset a few days before Christmas, we helped out with a few of the festive tasks, such as collecting the turkey for Christmas dinner, and buying the odd last minute present. We also bought a frankly enormous pork pie (10-12 inches in diameter - we somehow managed to eat it before I got round to measuring it) - you have to make the most of feeding a crowd, I'm fairly certain my husband and I could not get through that size of pork pie on our own!

My daughter's best Christmas present arrived a few days before Christmas: two teeth. She then proceeded to spend the rest of the holiday testing them on her toys, and us if her toys weren't available.

I finally finished my daughter's Christmas stocking on Christmas Eve evening (I had almost finished it before we went away, it just needed a last-minute hanging cord), just after my son had gone to bed, so had to quietly sneak up to the bedroom to hang it without disturbing him. He, of course, had already hung his and left a mince pie out for Father Christmas.

Christmas morning started pretty late - around 8, apparently my son had forgotten it was Christmas and had to be asked to go and look in his stocking - and was actually pretty relaxed. A few of us went to church (where my son decided to use my daughter's hat to clean the pews, and spent much of the time throwing his teddy around so he could get up and fetch it. I don't think anyone minded, the Christmas day service is pretty relaxed), then headed home for the lunch that the rest of my family had cooked. By the end of lunch we were stuffed and the afternoon was a haze of Christmas presents, Christmas TV and more food. I love Christmas Day!

Boxing Day (apparently a peculiarly British Bank Holiday - the day servants and trademen receive a 'Christmas box' from their employers - only observed in former British colonies and Britain itself), the day after Christmas, used to be one of the few days of the year when everything was shut, but has become the first day of the sales these days. We went for the more traditional Boxing Day walk at a rainy National Trust property. At least the cafe was open, so I could be dry while feeding my daughter when she decided it was time for food, and my son had a lovely time stomping in muddy puddles with his grandad.

Saturday was special, catching up with school friends over a late lunch and meeting my friend's adorable three month old, who spent much of the afternoon demonstrating her tongue sticking out skills.

And then we headed back North. The middle of the country had been hit by snow, so the driving was slow in places, and we saw many more accidents that usual. Having reached my in-laws for dinner we decided to cut our losses and stay there on Sunday night to avoid any more hours sat in traffic. My son was pleased as it meant he got more time to play with the toys that he'd received from his grandparents. And driving home on Monday morning was much nicer, with far less traffic on the road.

We're now safely back in the North; greeted by heavy frost, much more festive! Now onto suitcase unpacking and catching up on the washing. At least the Christmas trees are still up. Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas stockings

I still remember my first Christmas stocking. It was blue with Snoopy skiing on it, made from one of those cloth kits where the design is printed on a sheet of fabric, then you cut out the bits and stitch them together. My brother had my stocking's sibling, which was red with Snoopy decorating a tree on it. They're probably both still in a drawer at my parents' house. I loved hanging the stocking on the end of the bed on Christmas eve and putting out mince pies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph.

Fast forward several years, and now I'm excited about my children hanging out their stockings for Father Christmas. This is the first year that my son is big enough to be excited about Christmas and he will be using the stocking I knitted for his first Christmas. It's red with cream fairisle around the top of the leg and round the foot, a Debbie Bliss design. Obviously I had a little over a year to knit my son's stocking, but somehow didn't quite get round to casting on until December 18th, and finally finished it late on Christmas eve, just in time for Santa to fill it with presents.

Of course I've learnt from this experience, and have my daughter's stocking ready to go for her first Christmas. Except that I haven't, in fact I haven't even cast on! I have made a stocking this year though...

A couple of months ago a friend emailed me to ask if I would knit a stocking for her daughter's first Christmas. She'd sent me a few pictures of things she liked: Scandinavian style striped fairisle stockings in red, green and cream, but not looking like the Italian flag. I deliberated for a bit about whether to go ahead and knit it, and in the end went with yes. Every child needs a stocking!

I chose a nicely rustic aran weight yarn, Drops Alaska, a 100% untreated wool (as it's a stocking it won't need washing very frequently, and the shade of red in that yarn was perfect, not too bright), and set to work charting some Scandinavian style stripes.

Once I'd worked out a few charts and decided which order to put them in, I got started on knitting the stocking. I don't have much experience knitting socks, so based my stocking on this basic pattern. I had to alter the stitch count a little to fit my designs on, but it did at least give me a starting point, especially when it came to the heel, which I wouldn't have had a clue on. The leg and foot lengths were entirely dictated by the widths of the stripes I'd charted (I shuffled the stripe order a bit so the leg and foot were in the right proportions).

Knitting the stocking was really enjoyable. I don't often do stranded knitting, but managed to get the tension about right so it didn't pull in too much (I have been known to pull it all in so tightly that the resulting fabric has no give). Really annoyingly I ran out of red yarn about 10 rows from the end of the toe, so had to order some more and wait for it to be delivered (no one locally stocks it, so I actually spent almost as much on the postage and packing as I did on the yarn, it was at least the right dye lot though, so not entirely frustrating; I was very well behaved and didn't buy any other yarn while I was ordering).

My friend had requested that I line the stocking to stop little fingers and odd-shaped presents catching on the floats, so I had to knit the whole stocking again, without the pretty bits, which was slightly less fun. My tension between the inner and the outer was a little different, so I had to adjust the number of rows for the lining. Once both parts were knitted I washed and blocked them to get them to approximately the same size, then I embroidered the recipient's name on the outer.

After the embroidery I mattress stitched the two pieces together, and voilà, one stocking!

I really like this stocking, and had a lovely message from my friend saying that she loved it. Now I just need to decide what stocking to knit for my daughter. I probably ought to get a move on...