Chapter 21 What the wind blew in

We had a real bad wind storm on New years eve and into the first. When I went outside to survey the damage, I found some one's Christmas wreath on my porch. I asked all the neighbors, but no one claimed it, so I brought it in. Amanda and Nicholas had to ham it up with it, so I took a few cute pics. So even though it is after Christmas, I have to post the pics.

I started the New Year with my knitting. I am really working on finishing the yellow baby sweater. I finished the rest of the front, so now I have the back, the front and about 1/3 of the first sleeve done. I am hoping to finish it by the middle of January. Then I only have the multi colored baby sweater and my sweater thing to finish. I have promised myself I will not start any new yarn projects until I have finished these three. Man that is hard to keep. LOL I have also decided I would like to create a band sampler to help me work on my crazy quilting. I really need to improve my embroidery so my seams look better. have been doing a little bit of searching on the Internet and have found a few sites that help explain the band samplers and stitches. I am hoping to start that in February. I really want this to be the year I finish some UFO's. I also want to really improve my knitting and embroidery skills. Aunt Marie cot me a cross stitch kit for Christmas, (which I can add to my other 10 kits LOL) and I am hoping to finish at least 3 of them this year. lofty goals. But then, if I replace some of my mindless eating and stuffing myself with working on these projects, and spend more of my free time keeping my hands busy, I could get a lot more done. I really feel the need to "connect" to my ancestors. Which in my family involves "woman's work" such as knitting, crocheting, embroidery and cross stitch. My earliest memories of the women in my family all center around these. I can remember sitting in my great-great-grandmothers lap when I was 5 and helping her pull the floss through as she worked on embroidered dish towels. every Sunday afternoon into evening we had a family dinner where everyone gathered and the women all "retired" into the other room and worked on hand work. As the older generation has passed on, the tradition has slowly disappeared. Although both my aunts still knit and crochet for some strange reason they never taught their daughters. My grandmother is legally blind so she can no longer see to do embroidery. I still call home each Sunday and talk to them (they are in CA and I am in MD) and usually My aunts are sitting around my grandmothers table working on their handwork and talking. Oh how I miss that. I don't want to lose those memories. I want my step kids to learn and hopefully pass on the craft to their kids. I want my grandkids to learn from me.