Knitting – WIP Wednesday – Santa Mittens

 

My WIP this week is a pair of Santa mittens for the Pine Ridge children. I saw a picture online of cute, easy mittens with a Santa face – no pattern – but it will be easy to adapt my favorite mitten pattern. I’ve completed the hat portion and part of the face, doing two-at-a-time.  I’m using #4 worsted yarn and #7 circular needles.  My “go-to” pattern for easy mittens is here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/handy-mittens—with-fingerless-option

I completed the lace portion of the cowl that I started last week and, as I feared, the lace work was not up to par. I unraveled it and finished off the piece as a short neck warmer.

I’m still looking for a good pattern for a neck warmer that extends down onto the chest (without lace).

 

 

Visits to Santa Claus – 1956 to 1972

Throughout the years while I was raising my four kids (beginning in 1954), I kept a journal where I periodically made notes about holidays, school, vacations, etc.  As an occasion arises where I think one of my journal entries would be pertinent, I’m going to post it just as I wrote or typed it back in the day (except for an explanatory note or correction of a typo).  

The children will be known here by the nicknames their grandfather used when they were toddlers:  The oldest daughter will be Newsie (because she was as good as a newspaper for finding out the latest happenings), the oldest son is Bar (because he called Grandpa’s truck Bar and Grandpa called him Bar), the youngest son is Jackson, and the youngest daughter is Shanty (as in Shanty-Boat).

VISITS TO SANTA CLAUS

Soon after Thanksgiving, we got on a bus to downtown Cincinnati and the big Shillito’s department store to visit Santa Claus.   This one was taken of Newsy in 1956.  Newsy took one look at it and told everyone, “It is the most amazing picture I ever saw.”

Newsy, 2 years of age – 1956

Bar was shy around strangers and refused to have his picture taken with Santa.  Instead we have a snapshot of him where he was happiest – straddling his mama’s hip.

Bar, 2 years of age, 1958

By the time Jackson was visiting Santa, we found him in a mall and the pictures were in color.

Jackson, 2 years of age, 1962

“Newsy and I took Shanty to town on 12/20 to see the decorations and to visit Santa Claus.  She ate the two little candy canes almost immediately and pestered me to carry her the entire way through town.  12/20/72”

And now the great-grandchildren are having pictures taken with Santa.

Christmas Handiwork

 

Thanks to two talented daughters, I have a lot of Christmas handiwork to enjoy.  Over the past couple of years the oldest daughter has made primitive Santas….

…an embroidered picture and a handpainted apron….

 

…a kitchen wreath with vintage cookie cutters and decorations.

The youngest daughter made some craft decorations when she was a teenager …..

…and later, an embroidered picture ….

…and just this year, an afghan that looks like rows of Christmas tinsel and snowflakes.

It’s so nice to look around the house and see all these beautiful things that the girls have spent so many hours making.

Christmas Wall Hangings

 

I have 3 Christmas wall hangings that I’ve made since I started quilting 5 years ago.  Two of the earlier ones were made incorporating colorful primitive panels.

One of the wall hangings has a primitive Santa panel along with Bear Paw blocks from the Quilter’s Cache. 

This hanging is in the guest bedroom which has a lodge motif year-around.  Two Christmas stocking panels are combined with blocks made from flannel scraps and borders made from wonderful flannel with a village motif which was purchased at one of my favorite shops in southwest Ohio, Fabric Shack in Waynesville.

The third hanging is from a pattern called “A Scottish Christmas”, Mad Dog Marketing, PO Box 5608, Evanston IL 60204-5608.  The pattern was sized for a 37-1/2×54″ piece, much bigger than I wanted, and I sized it down to 17×22 and made a few changes/additions.  Since scotties are among my favorite designs, I love this wall hanging and it also won a blue ribbon at the Warren County (Ohio) fair.

The little crow picture above the scotties was made by my oldest daughter.

Primitive Santa Quilted Wall Hanging

In the early 1980s, we had just moved to a home in the country, on the Ohio/Indiana border.  It was a complete lifestyle change for me and as I was preparing for Christmas, I decided I’d like to have china that had a holiday theme.  I told my husband that’s what I wanted for an early Christmas gift and asked him to pick it out for me since I wasn’t familiar with the stores in the area yet. 

He stopped at one of his favorite stores, a small version of a discount store called Van Leunen’s.  He came home with a box containing four place settings of International China (Japan) in the Country Christmas pattern.  It was love at first sight for me.  The next day, I stopped by the store and picked up 8 more place settings to be sure I had enough for my growing family and to insure against breakage.  I never saw the pattern again anywhere until I chanced to look it up on eBay where I found it was selling for more per plate than we had paid for four place settings.  It was just perfect for our home in the country and has been used for every meal from St. Nicholas through New Year’s Day for over 25 years. 

 

Last year, I had the idea to make a kitchen wall hanging incorporating some of the design elements in the china and made this piece with a cow leading Santa’s sleigh. 

My oldest daughter liked it and asked me to make one for her.  Since she likes sheep so much, in this version a wooly sheep is pulling the sleigh.

To get the pattern, I took digital photos of the china, re-sized them and printed them out in black and white.  Then, I traced over the various pieces onto fusible material, ironed that onto the back of the individual fabrics and cut out the pieces.  An applique mat is really helpful in putting together the small pieces before fusing them to the background.  In each case, I used a vintage buckle as a hanger.  I enjoyed using a lot of scraps from fabric that had been purchased on our trip to Holmes County Amish country earlier this year.