Moooooooooooooore Stockings.....

Willa's Stocking

During the past couple months, I have been a Christmas stocking machine.

Willa's stocking  - also known as #6 of 9 - is done and shipped.   I am happy with the way that the backwards knitting I used to do the black boots blocked out.  There are upcoming projects I can use that technique to accomplish. 

The exciting part of these projects is having a chance to practice color knitting.  The color knitting is something I like to do...and wish I was better at doing.    By the end of the run of nine stockings, I will have A LOT more practice.

Short rows, as the ones used to make the elf foot on Beaumont's stocking, make a lot of different types of shaping possible.   Having done the short rows on a couple of projects lately, I can say I have gotten better.  I really would like to do that well also.  Thank heaven's for the tutorials on Craftsy and You Tube.

Allison and Mike moved into their new house a couple of months ago.  When they married last fall, I

Allison's Stocking

was planning on making them stockings for their life together.  Now they are expecting Owen.   I wanted to try some different patterns.  Santa's Sock Central out of Dublin, Ireland has some patterns that are different......and very nice.  I will admit that I had to do some modifications to get the shaping to work.  And that between Allison's stocking and Owen's, I forgot what they were.  Sadly, that was only a week apart!  Hope I remember them for Mike's!

The yarn in the Annie's Woolen kits is wool and a bit rough until it softens up in the washing.   That yarn is fine but not great for a household that may be wool sensitive.   For the Schaal stockings I used Willow Burrow worsted.   This is a really nice yarn for knitting.   The content is the same as another favorite, Plymouth Encore   The colors available are really lovely.  Willow Burrow did not have a Christmas green so I chose something a little different.  I am very happy with the way the colors look together.

Owen's Stocking

Owen's stocking  needed a four color for the gingerbread men.  I had a brown but was just not happy with it.  That brown was too rusty orange and fought with the other colors.   What to do?

Somewhere in my stash, I had a skein of Encore in a dark brown with a little red to it.   As I did not want to go into the stash..the though of it made me shudder...I went over to Depth of Field.   There were several good choices there but I went out with the color I went in for in the first place.  I really like how this brown blends with the other colors.

Mike's stocking (#9 of 9) will have bears where the gingerbread people are on this stocking.   This brown will be ideal for that!

With a little luck, I am hoping to finish Owen tonight and segue smoothly into Mike's.