Day 1: Knitting a Stocking

We have an exchange student from Germany living with us this year. She has really integrated into our family and is a joy to have here with us. Many years ago I knit my own babies Christmas stockings and 2 years ago, knit some for my sister's kids. It would be weird for everyone to have a hand knitted stocking except for Hens. During my Thanksgiving break, I started.

She loves greens. When she got here, she and Sassy painted Little Big Man's room for her and it's a lovely green between Kiwi and pear - bright and airy. Every sweater she owns is green and she's bought 2 scarves since she's been here (both green). When I was dyeing in September I did a special colorway just for her and she's since learned to spin and is currently knitting another scarf of her very own handspun. It's lovely. (I'll post pictures when I can get the needles out of her hands.)

H stocking, version the first

It wasn't a stretch choosing a color. The problem was which greens to choose (green is one of my favorites as well). I got the yarn out, balled it up, and started knitting. One of my continual issues is the denial of how big knitted goods get away from the needle. I look at my cast on stitches and think, "Oh that needs to be a couple of inches bigger." It almost never does and I end up with this  -->.

Perhaps the ruler is obscured there, but the thing is ginormous - 9.5 inches (almost 24 cm). It's the scale that's the problem. If I keep knitting on this many stitches the stocking would be large enough for Jack's giant. Perhaps I should add sleeves and call it a toddler sweater! I know I must rip it out and start again, but I do hate losing all the work already done. {sad trombone}

Giving props to Kristen Nicholas here. The stocking is based on her No 3 - Yikes Stripes Stocking from her ebook Kristin's Creative Christmas Stockings. It's a fabulous collection of 6 stocking patterns that you can knit as is. But she's Kristen Nicholas, so there are tons of variations for you to experiment with. She has extra fair isle charts, a tutorial on duplicate stitch, embroidery stitches, and gorgeous full color pictures of the stockings - all for $10. You don't even need to leave your home - buy the ebook and it will download right to your computer or tablet. (I'm not affiliated with Kristen in any way except to say that she's a fabulous indie designer and I believe in supporting fabulous indie designers every chance I get.)