The Passing of the Torch

My mom has been making Christmas stockings for every member of our family since I was a little girl. She found the pattern for the knit stockings somewhere and made each of us three girls a stocking. When I married Rocketman, the first thing I asked her was to make him a stocking too. She got the gauge wrong and his came out huge which was great because he is a tall guy anyway.

She has made stockings for our husbands and continued by making them for each of her grandchildren. That was when she originally was going to call it quits but I convinced her to make a stocking for my first grandchild which was followed by two more grandboys, her great grandchildren.

As you see above, when we were home for Thanksgiving I picked up little Judah's. She had me cast on for this one because she had forgotten how to do a long cast-on. And repeatedly, she told me as she stressed about getting it done, that this would be her last one. She showed me the well worn pattern and also a brand new one she bought.

She was passing the Christmas stocking making torch to me and I was happy to continue the tradition. But she's not quite ready to give it up yet. She told me that she was thinking of making a bunch of stockings with the name blank and I can fill it in as needed with a needlepoint stitch or something. So I guess she's not quite ready for me to take over and that is fine with me.

Here is a photo of our little tree with our stockings. Mine is over 50 years old and still in great shape. Rocketman's is over 30 years old. It's an amazing legacy my mother continues to leave even though she does grumble when another one needs to be made. She also is proud of what she has done, that I am sure of.