Recently I received an email from a man who thought we might be cousins. He had read an article on my website that my mother wrote about a piece of our family history. He was correct, we are cousins and it was a nice surprise to meet him. He had stumbled upon my website somehow, read my mother’s article and recognized the names of our great-grandparents and my grandmother.
He told me that his great-aunt, our great-aunt, had been an avid knitter and crocheter and that when she passed she left all of her handmade items, patterns, and tools to him. After visiting my website, he wanted to share some of the items with me because he felt I should have them.
It was a great treat a couple of weeks later to receive a box in the mail with a number of beautiful handmade items made by a very talented lady who came before me. He also included some her tools in the package; I think I will create a shadow box display of the tools along with at least one of her handmade items.
Although these are not knitted items, I wanted to share some photos of her gorgeous, detailed hand work. I am amazed at the fine detail and if you look at that one metal crochet hook (I suppose it is a crochet hook) the hook on the tip is so tiny I cannot even make it out very clearly without holding the hook up close to my eye, with my glasses on, and squinting quite vigorously.
The thought of using such an implement to create with astounds me, and to use it years ago when perhaps the lighting was not very good … how did she do it? How did her eyes survive it? When did she make the time?
Her name was Jestin, she was born in the late 1800’s in Virginia, and through the magic of the Internet I have been entrusted with a bit of her creative legacy for which I am humbly grateful. Thank you Great Aunt Jestin, and thank you cousin Joe for helping her reach out to me from the past.
Meanwhile, my own needlework has been on the back burner for the past several weeks. Finally, after this long hiatus I have three or four projects in various stages of “the works”. The first one I need to finish is a long overdue chemo hat designed and knit for my sweet mother.
After that, I will get going on a new Christmas Stocking design for little Sweet Pea. I am actually going to design and knit a pair of old-fashioned Christmas Stockings for mother and child using these beautiful, soft sock yarns I recently purchased from Fiber Optic Yarns. I love her low contrast sock yarn colorways, they suit my taste because I am not a fan of high contrast multi-colored yarns. For this project I bought Tomato, Watercress, and Pale Violet. The Watercress will be in both stockings, Tomato will be used in my daughter’s stocking and Pale Violet will be for Sweet Pea.
After the Christmas Stockings, I will be on to baby leg warmers to go with the Magic Tutus my daughter creates. Patterns for the above mentioned projects will be available sometime after the first of the year; I believe I will be able to get any of the patterns available before that time. If you want to know when the patterns are released, be sure to join my mailing list.
One other thing of note, I am selling my new line of firefly’s Country Cotton yarns at I Live on a Farm in 2.5 oz. balls and 14 oz. cones in ten pretty colors chosen especially for the things I love about the country and the farm. The yarn is available by itself, or in two kits: The Biscuit Blanket Kit, and The Sweet Pea Baby Blanket and Soft Block Kit.
What are you working on for the holidays?
Hope you have a great week!
~firefly
Copyright © 2009 J. L. Fleckenstein ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I just completed this Christmas Stocking for our dear little Sweet Pea. This will be her official Christmas Stocking that will stay on the farm with Grandma and Grandpa. When I first showed it to her, she let out a happy squeal and leaned forward to look more closely with a big grin on her face … at 9 months old she already appreciates knitting projects!
The Knitting Blog 