Week 24 of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Artistic - June 9, 2025

 

Artistic is an interesting topic this week.  It can cover so many talents.  In trying to think of the many in our families, I came up with Photography, Calligraphy, Singing, Musician, Quilting, Crochet, Knitting, Embroidery, Poetry, Drawing, Cross Stitching, Woodworking, Sewing, Dance, Flower Arranging. And some sports can be artistic, like the figure skating or gymnastics in our family. I'm sure I missed a few as well. Some of us do more than one of these.  Some do their art professionally.  Most are hobbies or a part time side hustle.  I think that most of us who practice any of these arts do it because they love doing it.  There is a feeling of accomplishment when you finish a project. A happiness when you give a handmade gift to someone, or receive one. An appreciation felt of the talent in viewing another's art. Some of the arts that I named used to be necessities in life. Now they are mostly hobbies that are being kept alive for the love of doing them.  

I am one in our family who has done several of these arts.  I do not design, but love to embroider.  In the past I have knit, crocheted, cross stitched and sewed.  I have found all of these crafts to be very relaxing, at least until a stubborn knot appears in my work.  But like anything else, I get past it.  I don't know exactly where my interest came from, except that I was aware of my grandmother knitting and sewing Barbie clothes for her granddaughters.  I first tried embroidery in the Girl Scouts and liked it alot.  I learned to knit at the YWCA and made our dog a sweater.  My mom learned to sew and I followed her and sewed a few of my clothes in high school.  I tried painting but that was not a talent that I had.  I branched out to crochet and cross stitch.  During COVID, I knit LOTS of christmas stockings. Now everyone in the family has one and it has become a tradition. 

When my husband got back into his childhood interest in photography, I joined in too.  He became a great amateur outdoor photographer. Me, not so much but I liked it.  My husband was also a singer, a baritone. He started out in his church choir and then on to his high school choir, where he was good enough to advance to district and regional school choirs.  In later years , he was part of a Men's Quartet in our church who visited other churches, social organizations and nursing homes sharing their wonderful singing voices with others. 

 I won't name all of you family who may see themselves in one of these arts because I will invariably miss a few. Just know that you are noticed and your talent appreciated.  

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2025. All rights reserved

 5 Jan 2022

I spent the last year taking up knitting again.  I learned at the YWCA in the town where I lived.  My best friend, Mary,  and I signed up for classes and the first thing I completed was a sweater for our dog.  It was bright blue.  From there on, I was hooked on crafts.  I learned embroidery in the Girl Scouts and completed a pillowcase or two which I still possess.  I also learned how to sew, making some of my clothing.  I tried an Art class, but that didn't work out too well.  I found out that I am not a creative artist.  In later years, after I was married, I taught myself to crochet and cross stitch.  Many, many gifts for others were the product of all of those skills.  Crafting, in whatever form, provided me with an escape into my own world and gave me a sense of accomplishment with my finished projects.  This has served me well in recent years, especially with returning to knitting again, in that I needed something to occupy my mind and hands in the hours when I wasn't being a caregiver.

Over the years, I had knitted or crocheted Christmas stockings for me, my husband, 2 kids, their spouses and now 6 grandchildren.  But as the grandchildren grew older, they have begun to add boyfriends and girlfriends, so I planned ahead and set a goal of knitting 6 new stockings, one for each of the grandkids future spouses.  My daughter also requested a few for her family.  Surprisingly, I accomplished this fairly quickly.  At the time, I had a few books and patterns for us to choose from.  One day, I wanted to find something specific and on to Google I went.  Well, this just opened up a universe of all things knitting!  I began collecting patterns of all kinds of stockings that I liked.  Then I started knitting them saying to myself - Well, I'll have great grandkids some day too!   So when I finally said, I think that I have enough, I had knitted over 35 full size stockings and many many mini stockings.  And in the course of searching for these patterns, of course, other types of projects appeared. So needless to say, I have tackled them as well. Mostly Christmas themed items, useful and sometimes humorous, such as the tangerine cosies that I made for the tangerines that the grandkids groan at and tease me about every year in their stockings.  No groans this year, just smiles.  

Between the stockings and the cosies, I have unintentionally created new traditions for our family.  The new stockings were brought out at Thanksgiving so everyone could choose a new one if they wanted to.  It will be done every Thanksgiving now. And the cosies may be back next year, although, I will have to make more because alot of them were taken home, which makes me smile.  

                                                     Just a few of the stockings and cosies.

I'm moving on to other holidays now......

Please give credit and post a link to my blog if you intend to use any of the information written here. My blog posts are © Ann M Sinton 2022. All rights reserved.