Robert's Reindeer Christmas Stocking

 Well, I didn't quite finish Robert's reindeer stocking by Christmas.
Here it is without antlers.  You can see that it was entirely functional anyway.  Santa filled it to overflowing!

Today I finally finished it.  It's not exactly like the one my sister made for Katherine many years ago, but it is sweet enough. 

Crocheted Reindeer Christmas Stocking

Years ago when my sister's children were born, she found a pattern for this adorable crocheted reindeer Christmas stocking in a magazine called "Ladies Home Journal."  It was in a November or December issue sometime between 1980 - 1983.  Over the next few years, she made reindeer stockings for all the members of her family.  She made this one in the photo for my daughter, Katherine, for one of her first Christmases.

This year, Katherine and her partner, Robert, are coming to California for Christmas and Robert doesn't have a Christmas stocking.  So I am making one for him.  I do much more knitting than crocheting, so I had to get help to get started.  Now I have the hang of it and am having fun!

After I took the photograph pictured above, I noticed a glaring error in the middle of the stocking.  You can probably see the error if you click on the photo to see it up close. It was impossible to ignore, so I ripped out to that point and corrected my error.  It's actually a lot easier to rip out crocheting than knitting! The yarn is a microfiber with rich chocolate color and nice stitch definition.  The stocking design has interesting texture patterns.

My Russian Orenburg Shawl

Welcome, my Russian friends! In honor of visitors to my blog from Russia, I am posting photos of my exquisite handknitted lace shawl from Russia.  It was given to me as a gift when I lived in Moscow in 1976. The person who gave it to me alluded to its uniqueness and value and said the women who knit these lace shawls do their knitting using bicycle spokes for knitting needles.

From Three Orenburg Shawls to Knit: The Gossamer Webs Design Collection by Galina Khmeleva: "For over three hundred years, knitters from the Orenburg region of Russia have been creating Gossamer-style lace shawls and scarves from a series of basic elements and patterns handed down from generation to generation."  The author also says that the shawls are knit with the "special Orenburg-down fiber," but she doesn't elaborate on what the fiber is, exactly.  According to the Wikipedia page on Orenburg shawls  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orenburg_shawl), the fiber is a two ply blend of silk and the down of indigenous Orenburg goats (finer even than Angora goat down).

I don't know if my shawl is an authentic Orenburg shawl, or an Orenburg-style shawl made by a Russian knitter outside of the Orenburg region.  If any of my blog readers know how to identify authentic Orenburg knitting, I invite you to leave a comment on my blog.  I would also be grateful for any instructions on how to safely wash my shawl.  Through the years it has become slightly yellow colored and I have been afraid to wash it, it is so delicate.

Here are a few more photographs.  I encourage you to click on each photograph so you can see the fine detail of the knitting up close.

Red and White Aprons for Christmas

My daughter and I found this adorable red and white egg beater fabric last year and made my mother an apron for Christmas.  My mother's favorite color is red and she has red throughout her kitchen and her house.  We also made one for Katherine.

This year I went on line and bought up all the red egg beater fabric I could find.  There is no more!  Katherine and I made aprons for her Danish grandparents and her Danish aunts and uncles.  Red and white are the colors of the Danish flag and Danes, being very patriotic people, love anything that is red and white.  We've made a total of eight aprons!

,

My mother asked for some pot holders to match and here they are.

Knitting Mindfully at the Monastery

I just returned from a weekend at Deer Park Monastery, a Buddhist monastery in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh in Escondido, California.  This weekend marks the start of the annual 90-day winter retreat.  I had heard that the ceremonies to begin the retreat are beautiful and touching, and they were.  

Saturday afternoon with some time to myself, I sat in the gazebo by the big bell (pictured above) and knitted a bit on my baby blanket.  Mostly, I just sat and listened to the sounds of the birds and insects in the canyon below and enjoyed the immense stillness.

My Danish Nostepinne

 I continue to knit on my baby blanket.  When I'm ready for a new skein of  yarn, I wind it into a center-pull ball using a wooden hand tool called a nostepinne.  I bought this nostepinne at the Funen Village Open-air Museum outside the city of Odense in Denmark in 1993.  Katherine and I watched it being made (turned on a lathe) by a man dressed in traditional Danish farm workers clothing at this beautiful historic museum.  We have searched for and even purchased one or two nostepinne here in the United States in the years since we returned from living in Denmark, but they are all much larger and not nearly so nice as this little one.

Welcome to Will Knit Mindfully!

Welcome to my new blog!  I am an oncology and palliative care nurse.  I am also a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, practicing mindfulness to transform my heart and mind.  When I am not nursing or meditating, I love to knit, handweave, and quilt and I am learning to tat.  After enjoying my daughter's knitting blog, Will Knit for Math, for a nearly a year, I decided to start my own blog.  We both enjoy a love of handwork passed down to us from my grandmother, Baba, who was born in 1903 and who made many beautiful things by hand during her life in New Mexico and north Texas.  Katherine also has a rich heritage of handwork from her Danish grandmother on her father's side of the family.  My own start with knitting came at age 8 when I taught myself to knit from an article in the Book of Knowledge, a children's encyclopedia that my parents bought for me and my sister that year.  In addition to posts about my handwork projects and mindfulness, I may also share a bit about my vegetarian, gluten free wellness lifestyle, since I have celiac disease and like to cook.

This is my current "carry with me everywhere" project, a beautiful little baby blanket knitted using self striping sock yarn.  The yarn is a machine washable wool nylon mix.

The blanket is knit in small pieces which are sewn together in a modified log cabin patchwork style to make the blanket.