Why am I not finished?

Well, I've stitched and stitched last year, so why aren't my favorite projects finished? If I had an answer to that, I'd think I won the lottery. Yes, I've stitched, but it seems like my favorite projects have had to take a back seat to the projects I made for others. Why, oh why, haven't I taken photos of them? If I did, I could look at this list and feel like I have accomplished something even if I didn't meet my goals.

So, my New Year's resolution is to take a photo of everything I stitch, no matter how small. I wonder how long it will take me to slip up on that one? Still, if I make a resolution, I will be more apt to do it eventually rather than not at all. I am also going to resolve that one of these projects gets done this year. My best bet is "Grandma Meinen" so that is going to be my target. I also need to get some Christmas ornaments done. A good friend is stitching with me and she is also doing Christmas ornaments so we can keep each other on track. Anyone else is free to join us.

New cross sitch project

My sister has returned from Alaska and she brought a some neat cross-stitch patterns she got in Anchorage. She's asked me to do one of a Sea Otter for her Christmas present. That's like getting two presents (for me). I get to stitch a great piece and I check her off my Christmas list. I like this! It is a darling design, but I can see that it has a lot of floss that is of a similar color. I'll have to hope for good weather so I can stitch in natural light. I've found that even the new Ott lights don't work as well as being outside, although they are a vast improvement.

We picked her garden and my daughter-in-law's and managed to get a lot of tomatoes, so we spent all day putting up stewed tomatoes, chili and salsa. It was so nice to spend the day working together and just visiting. I feel such a kinship with the women of the past. Our modern world doesn't make room for a lot of the ties that sustained our grandmothers.

She also brought me some wonderful hand dyed wool for making socks. This has been the focus of this year's knitting goals. I wanted to master all the skills you need to make socks and the only way I could figure to do it was to just makes socks and more socks until I was totally comfortable making them. A friend of my mother's taught me an easy way to graft the toes of the socks and that was a real key. That's the hardest part of making socks, at least for me it is. My sister also got some sock yarn for herself too and wanted me to show her how to make them. There's another thing that hearkens back to an earlier time...in two ways. First, women handing down traditional crafts and second, spending time together. When you add that to how hand knit socks feel, you can see why they are so popular.