Amy Artisan

(…before January turns to February, it’s high time to blog about the holiday knits…)

As fall turning to winter and the holidays of 2009, my knitting needles picked up some speed so that I could have plenty of hand-knits under the Christmas tree.

For my uncle in California, I decided that a watch cap was in order. A quick search for a pattern yielded the Modern Rib Hat pattern. The simplicity of the knit 2, purl 1 pattern and the subtle change of the color stripe (Caron Simply Soft Shadows in Merino) quickly knit into a cozy hat for his neighborhood night watch work.

For my favorite little girls in Texas, simple hats with fun buttons. These hats were based on the Republic Hat (Toddler edition). I cast on more stitches for each one. I found the buttons on Etsy – a fun grab bag of “repurposed” buttons with lots of fun paintings on them – in fact, it was hard to pick which one to put on each hat.

For the Artisan family…wrist warmers. In March, when I was in California for Grandma’s funeral we found time to visit a local yarn shop along the Pacific Coast Highway. As is my “norm” when visiting a yarn shop, I asked what was a local or unique yarn that the shop carried. The answer was Capistrano Fiber Arts – beautiful hand dyed yarns from the area. I picked up four skeins of yarn and an accompanying pattern for simple wrist warmers. These were fast knits and are very cozy for all of us.

My blogiversary came & went on New Years 2010 – this is the start of the 5th year that I’ve hung out my shingle at AmyArtisan. As I seem to be saying more & more, I hope to be blogging more actively in the coming weeks and months. Going forward, I plan to make this more of a priority than it has been in recent months. Work has me on the road again so I’m figuring out my “new normal” of work and life. So far, the time on the road has yielded quite a bit of knitting in 2010 – stay tuned for those knit tales.

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

(Luke 2:1-20, NIV)

Merry Christmas to you & your family from Amy & the Artisan family!

It’s that time of year when many of us are frantically finishing up the hand crafted gifts that we plan to give. In a few days, I will reveal what Artisan Knits were under the Christmas tree this year. In the interim, I wanted to tell you about the latest installment in Kate Jacob’s Friday Night Knitting Club series…Knit the Season.

As the title suggests, the story is set in the end of year holiday hustle and bustle – starting just before Thanksgiving and going into a New Year. In the midst of “all” that the holidays bring, the women of the club are faced with many other events…celebrating Christmas with the family or pursuing an internship…continuing to run the yarn shop or signing on with a European designer to manufacture your products…planning a wedding in the midst of family discord…getting caught up in capturing children’s memories versus experiencing the memories…and more…

Once again, Kate draws you into a circle of friends. Grab a mug of coffee or tea and settle in to catch up with friends and enjoy the holidays with them in New York City and Scotland. As I was reading my advanced copy, I was brought to tears as Dakota and her grandmother were knitting – the memories of Grandma teaching me to knit and then me teaching Mom to knit last Christmas Eve at Grandma’s bedside made that a very poignant scene.

As with the other FNKC books, Kate includes some of the recipes and patterns from the story at the end of the book. In fact, I have a feeling that the knit garland in the book will be adorning my tree in the coming years…

Kate has been touring in support of this new book. She was in Chicago in November, in fact it was on my birthday – it made for a fun birthday celebration with good friends to have dinner at a favorite restaurant and then attend Kate’s reading.

Kate’s publishers have once again provided me 2 copies of her book. This hardcover edition is beautiful in it’s red metallic book jacket – like a holiday present. So, let’s have another contest. Take a moment to share a favorite holiday memory with your family or your “own FNKC friends” in the comments for this post. The contest will run through the New Year’s Day.

I look forward to hearing your memories!

The first year I lived in Chicago, we had an Artisan family Thanksgiving up here. In the years that followed, after Grandma moved in with Mom & Dad it was easiest for me to head home for the holidays. This year, the Artisan family once again celebrated Thanksgiving at my home here in Chicago. Since Rebecca had the whole week as a vacation from teaching, the family loaded up the car on Monday morning for a road trip and arrived mid afternoon on Tuesday. For the most part, we didn’t have plans for the time together – other than just having fun.

In September, Dad & I had conspired for an early family Christmas present while we were all together at Thanksgiving. South Pacific is an Artisan family favorite musical…when I saw that the revival tour production would be in Chicago over Thanksgiving I immediately snapped up tickets. So, on Wednesday evening as the interstates were clogged with people trying to get on the road to their Thanksgiving destinations we took side streets out to Rosemont for a wonderful evening at the theater. It was a wonderful production & throughout the rest of the weekend I’m sure each of us was humming from the soundtrack at least once or twice.

(The ancient Treo doesn’t take the best pictures these days…)

On Thanksgiving morning, the turkey breast went in the crock pot to start cooking as we watched the parade. Throughout the morning, we cycled through the kitchen prepping a lot of vegetables for our side dishes – I don’t think that my knives and cutting boards have had that much of a workout in a long time. As the afternoon progressed, delicious smells filled the house & before long it was time to sit down to our Thanksgiving table.

The menu was simple and delicious: Turkey with the Artisan family dressing; Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon & Toasted Hazelnuts (quickly becoming a Thanksgiving dinner staple!); Roasted Rainbow Carrots; Butternut Squash Apple Cranberry Bake; “the” NPR pink cranberry relish (first time making it – a great addition to the table!). We paired the meal with a delicious wine that we tasted on our family vacation to California in July. We had a pie recipe lined up for dessert but decided to just enjoy the boiled milk sponge cake that Mom had brought – the pie is now on the Christmas menu.

We did a bit of holiday shopping but managed to avoid the insanity of “Black Friday” when we were out and about on Friday. Each year we joke about getting up early but that is not an Artisan family ‘thing.’ Before we knew it, Saturday morning arrived and it was time for them to trek back home to Georgia. The car was repacked (all new acquisitions managed to fit) and I made them leftover turkey sandwiches for a midday lunch stop along the way.

As the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season begins, I’m thankful for an Artisan Family Thanksgiving here in Chicago!

The end of October meant that it was time for my annual Halloween trip to Texas to see my two favorite little girls. In addition to our “normal” fun of playtime, reading, crafts & more we also hosted a fun Halloween party for their little friends. Of course costumes were required for all. In mid-September when the girls were on their way to buy their Halloween costumes they called me and asked what I was going to dress up as. When I told them that I didn’t know yet and asked what they thought I should be, in unison they replied “A Fairy Godmother.” And just like that I knew what my costume would be…because how can you say no to these adorable little girls?!?