The Stocking Story
When I was a child, my Aunt Mary was my window into the world of craft, or as I think of it, art. She, along with one of my grandmothers, were the ones who could sew, knot, crochet, and opened that world to me. In many ways my Grandmother had a greater influence, but that is a story for another time. This is the story of stockings. Aunt Mary crocheted our Christmas stockings. A ballerina slipper with tights for me, and baseball and basketball shoes and socks for my brothers, and they were hund by the chimney with care my whole life, well into my adulthood while we still gathered at my mother’s hime every Christmas.
Fast forward to my 30s, I’m married and setting up Christmas for the first time on my own. By that time I had explored ribbon weaving a bit in simple pillows, so maybe that is why when I thought about his and hers stockings for our first mantlepiece, I thought of ribbon weaving. They were multicolored, scrappy, and made of silky ribbons. I still love them – even made a matching Christmas tree skirt at one time.
Then, my brothers started having children. I don’t know if they asked, or I offered, or I just pushed my way in, but as each niece and nephew were born, there was a new ribbon woven stocking. The patterns got more complex as time went on, and the pace of my production grew, especially since every time there was a new baby, there was a baby quilt to do along with the stocking. As of today, there are 9 family ribbon-weave stockings out in the world. No, make that 11, because my sister asked for one for her and her husband as well. Not all of the families use them, but I like knowing that they are there – this is what I do.
This year, for the first time in quite some time, no new baby. No new baby, but lots of left-over ribbon. I can never quite run out of ribbon and of felt scraps at the same time, so when I started out to use up the ribbon, I needed just a bit more felt, then a bit more ribbon. I still have ribbon, maybe as much left over as when I started this earlier in the fall, but I think I’m on pause for now.
What to do with them? Well, they are in my Etsy shop , not that I can claim to be doing all the things to promote them, but I’m experimenting with a few, so maybe they will find their way into the world and in to someone else’s family.