Knitting Christmas stockings for someone else makes me want to create my own Christmas stockings. That idea might wait until 2012 to see any action, but I’m thinking argyle, colorwork, Norwegian snowflakes, cream and maroon or cream and navy. The stockings I just finished are very clear that they are Christmas stockings, but I think I’d like something that might reasonably be left out as a decoration until February (because I’m that lazy).
Sewing on embellishments was my least favorite part of these stockings, but those little extras really make these stockings into something special. The knitting is pretty basic – started at the cuff, knit flat with intarsia until the heel is reached, joined to work in the round and then finished off the foot of the stocking. Hey Presto! One stocking took me a full day of knitting – in that I didn’t make an elaborate dinner and took a relatively fast lunch. Probably, uhm, 10 hours?
The names I put on using duplicate stitch before seaming up the back of the leg. The embellishments on each stocking probably took 3 or 4 hours – mostly because I feel terribly inept with beads and needles and things. The second stocking’s embellishments went much quicker, having had the first stocking sink into my brain as practice.
I enjoyed knitting these stockings and I hope their new owners have a joyful stocking-stuffed Christmas.
