Stockings

Hi Everyone, I wanted to pop in and introduce myself, my name is Keri and I blog over here. I just joined last week and I love the idea of a stocking-along. I have always wanted to make handknitted christmas stockings. I have these visions of knitting one for each member of the family and hanging them from my (now inexistant =)) mantle, filling them with candy, fruit and little treats. I'd like them to last forever and have them bring special meaning to the holidays, each and every year. Last year I purchased some stocking patterns from here, holly for me and moose for the hubby. They've languished all year in my stash just waiting for me to gain the color knitting skills to give it a shot. I'm happy to say that time has finally come, after many practice items I was ready to give it a try and cast-on. It was very exciting after waiting for so long!

The yarn is plymouth galway in very christmassy colors, #16, #17, #8. I had debated using other yarn, the pattern calls for Bartletts. However after looking around at all the choices, I'm happy with it. It was like russian roulette, ordering off the internet in color cards, so I was desperately hoping the yarn looked as good in person as it did on the screen.

So far I'm happy the way they're turning out, I hope a few wonky spots will block out a bit nicer when I'm done. The scary part I'm dreading is the heel, they give you two options, short-row or afterthought. My short-rows are always holey and I've never given afterthought a try but I think for this I'll have to pick the lesser of two evils and go with short-row. They do have great instructions written up, so maybe it's time to give it another go. *Sigh* I can do it!!