Non-Traditional Stocking Pattern

I know it’s late for this year and extremely early for next year’s holiday season, but I completed the pattern for my non-traditional Christmas Stocking. Of course, you could make it more traditional by choosing different colors This is a bit more advanced than my other pattern. You need to know how to pick up stitches, yarn-over, purl, knit wrapped short rows, SSK, and K2tog. This stocking requires 5 balls of Berroco Softwist, 3 for MC and 2 for AC.

Click here to access the free pattern page.

Please reply here as well if you knit the stocking and have pics on your blog! I’d love to see everyone’s stockings!

The Stocking Made It!

Bernat Softwist in 9442 (Fig) and 9445 (Fern)
Sz US 8, 7, 5 and 2
16-inch Circumfrence, 14-inches top to center heel and 13 inches center heel to toe

I finished it just in time. It was about 11pm or so on the 23rd! All of DH’s family was impressed except SIL2, but SIL2 rarely has anything nice to say so that doesn’t really count.

I’m hoping to get a pattern written up for this soon, though I don’t suppose anyone will really be itching to knit it until next fall… LOL! My plan is to work on patterns here today and perhaps tomorrow.

I did rip and restart the Retro Rib socks from IK on Christmas Eve because I needed something to do while visiting with the in-laws. I’ll post more about them tomorrow.

Progress Returns!

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you - that is indeed a successful heel! Wheeeee! It is a garter stitch short row heel ala Lucy Neatby’s Cool Socks Warm Feet.

That only begs the question, for a well balanced looking stocking do I then also need to do the garter stitch common wedge toe or will the plain stockinette stitch toe look okay? I’m leaning towards the garter stitch. That way all of the purple is in garter - the lace, the heel and then the toe…

I’m really, really happy with this stocking. I’ll be even more so if I have it done by Christmas Eve! But the proportions seem just perfect so far. When DH saw the strings on the lace bit that I used to help me pick up stitches evenly he thought I was attaching jingle bells. That gave me an idea and I just might attach jingle bells to the points of the lace. Though I don’t think I have any on hand and am not sure if I want to brave any crowds or not… Plus there is the whole time crunch. I still have the entire instep to do. Though, thank goodness Christmas stockings are not in proportion to regular socks!

I’m going to buckle down and do cleaning this morning (while listening to The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore) in preparation for our last minute overnight house guests this weekend (long story short, FIL was hospitalized the end of last week so they aren’t bringing the RV and that means three house guests who were not going to be staying with us). Then, mid-afternoon I’m going to head over to Textiles-A-Mano and knit there until supper time. Then, it’s game night tonight and if my hands are up to it and they aren’t playing games that sounds too tempting I’ll knit there as well and hopefully be done. DH is taking off tomorrow to help me get ready so I don’t anticipate a lot of knitting time tomorrow. So, ideally I’ll complete the stocking yet today. But, I’m not sure if that is realistic or not.

I’ve gone backwards…

I now have NO heel on my stocking! Yikes!

Despite a two hour Stitch ‘n Bitch session and more knitting once I got home I now have no heel. I pulled back three or four times and still was running into troubles. Finally, I decided to pull it all back, thinking the part of the yarn that had been knit so many times was looking bad. So, I must start again.

I’m thinking since I’ve successfully completed wrapped short rows with no problems whatsoever that I shall use a wrapped short row heel. In the book I got from my SP3 there is a garter stitch short row heel. I’m thinking I might opt for that. It’ll tie in the garter stitch lace at the top and should go a bit faster with no purl rows.

Wish me luck - puhleeeeze. . .

Good Intentions and all that…

I should have known better than to hope to have a nearly completed instep on the Christmas stocking. I think I jinxed myself by putting that goal out into the world. I also should have known better than to try learn a new heel in the car in terrible traffic. I should have followed my natural instinct and waiting until Stitch ‘n Bitch tonight to get some guidance from Amanda who had turned me onto the no-wrap short row heel.

Instead, I have a big mess. A really pointy portion of heel - I obviously worked down to too few stitches and a holes at various points in the heel as well…

See it there? Kind of hard to miss, isn’t it?

I had no troubles with the first half of the heel - other than working it for far too long. However, when it came to closing the gaps I found the instructions a bit vague. “Pick up the yarn leading the next stitch and knit it, then pass slipped stitch over?” I understand the PSSO. What I’m a bit lost on is which bit of yarn do I pick up to knit? And, what I was picking up, it seemed like I should have knit through the back loop (I’m thinking if I had done that I wouldn’t have holes). But, I’m not sure. I was following the directions for the heel used in the Simple Sock Pattern from Oz Yarn (sometimes called an hourglass heel I understand). Can anyone shed any light on the directions for the second half of the heel? Also, I’m working the heel over 60% of my stitches, which happens to be 58 stitches - how many stitches would you leave in the center w/o gaps do you figure?

Here is view of the full stocking. Though I still haven’t removed the strings to help me in picking up stitches… LOL!

And the stocking groweth…

I’m sure you’re on pins and needles for another picture of much stockinette stitch, right?

Yeah, I thought so, LOL!

I’m at about 8 inches of green as of last night, but this weekend involves a bit of a road trip so I should have about 6 hours of knitting time between today’s departure and tomorrow’s return! So, I hope to have a no wrap short row heel in place and perhaps a good chunk of the instep done for your viewing pleasure on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

The Adventure of a Stocking… (A Story in Pictures)

I got a swatch completed the lace trimming I had decided to use and decided I wanted it to a bit deeper so I adjusted the stitch pattern and by the end of Stitch ‘n Bitch I had the bit of lace you see above completed.

Here, I’ve blocked the lace (to 16 X 3.5 inches) and marked every two inches off with some contrasting fiber. I did that to make sure I picked up the proper number of stitches.

Yesterday, I picked up the stitches just before heading out the door for DH to cut off his hair (yes, the pony tail is GONE - can you imagine? He has always had a pony tail since I first met him in 2000!) and then attend game night at Scimoria. By the time we went to bed late last night, I had that much done.

Now, I decided to give the magic loop a try again. But, I still dislike it. So, I’m headed to Loveland for lunch with DH and am hoping to pick up a 12 or 16-inch sz 7 addi turbo. Now, I do have my lovely bamboo interchangable needles, but those were what I used when knitting the lace and their point was hard for me to use with this yarn, which is quite splitty. The Addi Turbos, other than being long and loopy, are working quite nicely and the knitting does go significantly faster so I’d like to use those if at all possible. I was hoping to call and make sure she had the 7s in stock, but I forgot that she doesn’t open until noon on Thursday because she is open on Thursday evening. But, I know she had a decent selection of 12 and 16 inch turbos so I’m going to gamble that she has it. Plus, I get to enjoy a nice lunch with DH at a restaurant I don’t normally get to eat at!

On that note, I need to get headed out…