The First Gift of Christmas Was..................

In the movie, The Christmas Box, Richard Thomas enters Mary's (Maureen O'Hara) hospital room and says to her that he knows what the first gift of Christmas was.  It was a child.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Merry Christmas to everyone and may we all be thankful for such a gift.

And our lucky winner is TeddynBarbie.  Congratulations on winning a pair of our fingerless mitts.  Please write me at tehachapisockcompany@gmail.com with your mailing address and I will get those off to you next week.  Hope we made your day!

Some knitting news to announce:  the upcoming issue of Knitting Today Magazine should be out in a few weeks and inside you'll find one of our designs.  I won't spoil it, so you'll just have to peek inside!  If you don't subscribe to it, I've seen it on the shelves at JoAnn's and I'm sure other newstands will also carry it.

 I finished the "monsters" for our 8 year old grandson, Mitchell.  He absolutely fell in love with Rebecca Danger's book of knitted monsters and even asked for the book!  So, I included it and wrapped everything in a fun gift basket for him.  I can't wait to see his face tomorrow morning when we go to Bakersfield.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas tomorrow and thank you so much for your kind words throughout the year.   It's always fun to have so many friends from all around the country (and world) who share your passion for knitting and are always there with lots of encouraging words.  Merry Christmas to all!

The First Gift of Christmas

One of my favorite tv movies is The Christmas Box with Richard Thomas and Maureen O'Hara.  Have you seen it?  In it, Maureen O'Hara asks Richard Thomas if he knows what the first gift of Christmas was.

If you can answer this question with the correct answer, your name will be entered in our drawing for a pair of hand cranked women's mittens.  On Christmas Eve, I'll randomly draw one lucky name for our little giveaway.

This photo is not the actual mittens that we'll use, but I wanted you to be able to see the style when made on an antique sock machine.  The yarn will be different and I'll choose something fun.  Good luck and may this week before Christmas find you all in good health and enjoying this very special season.

I'm Knitting as Fast as I Can........................

Three of the four items for the magazine project are now finished.  Tonight I'll start the last one and then complete it tomorrow.  Once blocked out, everything will be ready to ship out on Tuesday.

I'm still trying to crank out a few more items on our sock machine for our Etsy shop.  What do you think of these Christmas mitts?  I sure wish they were as quick to make as the socks, but I still enjoy making them.  The construction is so different than hand knitted ones and you'd think that the thumb looks a bit landlocked, but believe me, it's not!  Total movement when worn!

Then these very berry looking socks turned out quite nicely, also.  We're down to only 9 pr of socks left in our Etsy store, so I really need to crank seriously the rest of the week.  I bet you're all busy knitting for Christmas, too!

Have a great week ahead.

Vacations are wonderful, BUT................

My husband's vacation is over and he's back to work now. Don't get me wrong, I adore my husband. He's a wonderful, wonderful Christian husband, father, grandfather and friend to all. We've been married almost 42 fabulous years. We think the same things and even complete each other's sentences! But, sometimes it's just a good thing to get back into your regular routine and have everyone where they normally should be.

He really is a great help around the house, but on holidays the safest place for him is to be out of the kitchen! Last year he volunteered to do the Thanksgiving dishes and unfortunately broke a favorite relish dish of mine. It was an accident and really was no big deal. But, this year I decided to just let him relax and I'd do the dishes.

I had everything neatly put away in the frig and everything cleared off the table except the butter dish. With my back turned, I heard a huge crash and quickly turned to see my husband standing ankle deep in turkey gravy. My mouth just dropped open. He had come into the dining room, saw the butter dish and decided to "help" by putting it in the frig. When he pulled out this one sliding rack, it caught the handle of the saucepan holding the gravy and slid it right out and onto the floor.

I didn't realize that gravy could splatter 5 feet in all directions - not to mention his shoes were covered in it. We had him slip out of them and just step backwards, hoping that he wouldn't step in anymore of it. The shoes were thrown out onto the back porch where Bo (being the yard dog that he is) completely licked them clean!

With that, the floor even got scrubbed, although I think bringing in the garden hose might have been easier! Next year, I'll remember to get everything in the frig before turning my back!

Knitting news: the mitts are going in the mail tomorrow! I hope to make a few pair now for Christmas presents and for our Etsy shop.

The project for the magazine is 1/4 of the way done now. I'm quite pleased with the results and will now focus on completing the rest. Hopefully, I can get a few more pair of socks made for our Etsy shop before Christmas.

So, I better get back to it and will write another post very soon - maybe even a little giveaway before Christmas!

Have a wonderful day!